Sadly Gay Male Nurse Stereotype is Not Just Trolls

Most of us fear what we do not understand and identify with, and this fear prevents us from overcoming it. My son is a male nurse and is involved with an organization that focuses on recruiting more males to the profession. The agency that I work for provides clinical opportunities for a nursing school that is part of a large 4-year university. I am happy to see that the class that just finished working with us is full of male students. I believe a part of the stereotype is that fact that nurses are appreciated for their care and compassion, something that society still feels is alien to the male gender. We should think about the way we are raising our children.....

If you look at the history of nursing, all nurses were male until the 1500-1600's Only when women started to dominate nursing did thos hateful belief in male nurses being subhuman begin. Also, pink was a male color because it was the most flattering on the male and was close to red which was regal and masculine. Blue was a feminine color the represented virginity and purity. Notice that all of the paintings of the virgin Mary she is wearing blue. Not pink. The blue/male phenomenon began in the 20th century with most likely superman and his blue leotard as the inspiration. The desire from boys to wear blue changed the perception of masc and fem colors. and the dominant influence of women in nursing pushed men out of the field to the point that when men started seeing nursing as lucrative it had become taboo for men. It's insane that any prof ession would ever be considered masc or fem. gay or straight. It's stupid esecially concidering that nursing is no longer a profession that's only based on being an asst to a DR. or acting as a nurturer. It's highly technical requiring intellect and critical thinking. It's a science. Something that many prospective nurses don't realize until they are in a nursing program. There were several students in my class who failed out because they didn't take the reality of nursing being a scientific profession seriously. Even after all of the sci. prerq. They thought that once they got into the nursing program they didn't have to think scientificaly anymore.

Yes, we should think about the way we raise our kids, as noted in an above post. I used to be married to a religious fanatic. He demanded that the kids be homeschooled. So I did so, but he was unaware of what we studied. My kids studied all the usual, but also learned the history of prostitution, why people do it now, the history of homosexuality, why people react to it as they do, alcoholism, religions of the world, origin of names, effects of poverty, on and on. We had such fun. I ended up with a divorce and 6 very open minded, well rounded kids.

As for the colors noted above, we can add purple to the list of male colors. It was a symbol of royalty. People want to make fun of boys named Connie, Beverly, Kim, Francis, Shirley, Ashley, etc. But they were all once male names. My 8 yr old grandson is named Francis. Is still a common male name in Europe where he was born.

Society is just strange. Used to men wanted heavy women. It was assumed they could birth babies well and work hard. Now women are made to feel they aren't pretty unless they are a size 6. Little boys used to wear dresses b/c it was so much easier to change and toilet little guys that way. Put a dress on a little boy now and check the response! There have been times and cultures in which homosexuality was perfectly acceptable, as was being bisexual. The history of it all is interesting.

I think the first thing we need to accept is that there is nothing wrong with being gay. If you can understand that, there will be no problem with someone thinking you are gay and thus no problem with a "stereotype".

I completely agree!!! There is nothing wrong with being gay in any aspect, male or female!

answering the problem of male nurses being stereotyped as being gay with comments like there is nothing wrong with being gay does nothing to fix the stereotype! the homosexual act is a sin and I don't want coworkers bragging about lying, cheating, stealing, sex outside of marriage,or anything else morally objectionable. i am not judging anyone as i am a sinner myself. acceptance of people despite their behavior is required and good in a civil society but acceptance of their behavior is not a requirement or good in my opinion.

The "not that there is anything wrong with it" reply to homosexuality laughably typified on Seinfeld is a guilt based mechanism. people who otherwise might object to homosexual behavior feel guilty because they share the same base belief as those who commit hate crimes and murder or at least are very judgemental and hurtful in the way they express their disapproval. so in order to distance theirselves from those people they accept what otherwise would have been an unacceptable set of behaviors.

being gay is not a sin..

Personally through out my life I have been hospitalized at least five or six times, my kids have had visits to the ER etc and I can honestly tell you that some of the best nurses I had were male. I could not have cared less if they were gay, straight, old, young all I cared is that they knew what they were doing and had a great bedside manner. If a man is interested in the medical field, but does not want to be a physician then what is the big deal if he wants to be a nurse. Honestly, I would have to say that all the male nurses I had the pleasure of taking care of my were probably straight. If an anti-gay patient has a problem with a "gay" male nurse then maybe they'd like to wait a little bit longer for a straight female nurse to bring them their pain meds instead of the caring male nurse standing right beside them.

Jesus had more to say about the sinfulness of divorce than He did about homosexuality.