Stop bashing men, please

explorer · Jul 20, 2005

We see posts that discuss the problems men face with garnering respect in nursing, and then we occassionally see posts that bash men in general. Men use the allnurses.com board, too. People come here not just for friendly chat, but also because it's a professional resource & offers support.
How would you feel if someone posted jokes or stereotypes that bashed women? It may be seen as humorous to a few or even many, but that doesn't make it appropriate or compassionate. I don't think the argument that nurses are "mostly women" makes it correct. These kinds of jokes hurt people.
And I didn't mean to stir controversy or make anyone feel bad -- I just think we need to realize that we have a greater impact on other people than we realize, even though we're all anonymous & the board has a huge social component.

I agree with you.

:balloons:

Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN · Jul 20, 2005

These kinds of jokes hurt people.

That's strange. When i've said these thing in another thread, i was told i needed to lighten up and get a sense of humor.

Nurse Ratched, RN · Jul 20, 2005

If you're referring to the "men are like laxatives" post, that was posted by a man :).

I appreciate your coming to the defense of our brother nurses, but I truly don't think anyone means offense.

suzy253, RN · Jul 20, 2005

I don't notice any men bashing. Just jokes....and they're jokes, that's all.

lady_jezebel · Jul 20, 2005

If you're referring to the "men are like laxatives" post, that was posted by a man :).
I appreciate your coming to the defense of our brother nurses, but I truly don't think anyone means offense.

I don't think anyone means offense either, but that's the problem with these "jokes". What if it was about white, black, gay, crippled, fill-in-the-blank people? And it's not that I don't have a sense of humor -- it's just that sexism, racism, etc... is not going to stop when stereotypes are perpetuated.

As for it being posted by a man, well, what can I say? However, another man who is considering nursing may read it & be turned off from this group or even nursing as a whole.

But this is not my main issue in life, so I'll stop posting on the topic. I just wanted to point it out. I'll let it go now.

Tweety, BSN, RN · Jul 20, 2005

If you're offended by my male jokes, you have a right to your feelings.

I apologize for any offense.

Gender jokes are sexist and wrong. I'm usually more aware and don't post or respond to such things. Someone posted on the message board in my nursing research class, and it was a female and I laughed and enjoyed it.

For the record I'm a man. Tweety is my pet name my spouse calls me.

I don't worry to much about jokes. But I'm the first to shoot down anyone who says nurses are catty because it's a female-dominated profession. Or the problems in nurses are because there are so many females. Or the first to point out someone's stereotyping. So I certainly don't mind someone pointing out my own.

Frankly, I see a whole lot more female bashing (most of them by females themselves) than male bashing.

That said. I pity the person that reads one offensive joke on the bulletin board and judges the entire BB because one person, or judges the nursing profession. Sounds a bit far fetched, but anything is possible. . I'd be more worried about the nursing profession reading the recent thread about the weeding out instructors, or any other number of threads. But to each his/her own I guess.

Thanks!

live4today, RN · Jul 20, 2005

Knowing Tweety as we all do.........he didn't mean anything "evil" by posting the "Men are like laxatives" thread. I actually cut and pasted it into an email that I shared with my own group of friends - men and women. The humor in it is harmless. Women and men tease each other all the time in "real life" social settings, so there's no harm in doing so on this "cyber" life social setting. We may be in cyberland, but each person who post and reads Allnurses are respected as human beings related to one another for we are all "peas from the same genetic creation". The comparisons of this harmless thread is nothing like making jokes of a person or group of persons race, ethnic background, choice of religious preference, etc. It's men and women having fun on a joke thread together. :)

suzy253, RN · Jul 21, 2005

tweets & renee:

well said!!! :yeah: :yeah:

fergus51 · Jul 21, 2005

How would you feel if someone posted jokes or stereotypes that bashed women? .

What do you mean "if"? There are probably a thousand posts on this bb talking about how women are catty and that's why nursing is in the bad state it is. We're catty, gossippy, unassertive, passive aggressive man haters....blah blah blah... There is also a lot that could be seen as anti-religious, anti-conservative, anti-liberal, anti-homosexual, anti-foreigner etc. I disagree with many postings, but I'm certainly not going to try to stop anyone from expressing an opinion. There is enough censorship in the world and on this bb IMO. And yes, I think a sense of humour is a good thing sometimes.

z's playa · Jul 21, 2005

If the guys wanna bash themselves.....let 'em.

Saves me the job. :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Z

RN4NICU, LPN, LVN · Jul 21, 2005

What do you mean "if"? There are probably a thousand posts on this bb talking about how women are catty and that's why nursing is in the bad state it is. We're catty, gossippy, unassertive, passive aggressive man haters....blah blah blah... There is also a lot that could be seen as anti-religious, anti-conservative, anti-liberal, anti-homosexual, anti-foreigner etc. I disagree with many postings, but I'm certainly not going to try to stop anyone from expressing an opinion. There is enough censorship in the world and on this bb IMO. And yes, I think a sense of humour is a good thing sometimes.

I was going to post the same thing, fergus. You beat me to it!