Letters to the Editor
-
@ The bitter firing squad appointed to take me out over the issue of male gynecologists
Well, my apologies to all of you. I can see that I obviously touched a raw nerve on this issue.
Of course anyone can choose or reject a medical professional for any reason. This is a free country.
My personal philosophy is that it's a good thing to move toward a society of true gender equality, and leave our sexist notions and gender stereotypes and sexual hang-ups behind us. We'll be a healthier and happier society all around if we collectively do these things. And no, that doesn't involve becoming a nation of nudists, but it does involve seriously questioning and challenging the sexual neuroses and body image issues that are prevalent in this society, because all of those things are going to retard our progress toward that ultimate goal. And, much as you all will simply insist that sexual hang-ups and gender stereotyping and body image issues don't ultimately lie behind your discomfort at the idea of seeing a male gynecologist, I don't believe it for a New York minute. The original post from Anonymous that started us on this tangent made an implicit correlation between male gynecologists and sexual creeps, a connection that she later validated in a subsequent post when she stated that she felt she'd been treated unprofessionally and inappropriately by two male gynecologists. So, my initial impression of the message in her first post was correct, although I was attacked for calling her on it.
Don't give me this crap about "I'm not saying a male gynecologist is going to molest me, I'm just not comfortable exposing myself to a male medical professional". Why? Why would you be uncomfortable at the thought of a male medical professional examining your "ladyparts", especially when he's been specially trained and educated to do so and it's being done in a clinical setting with, most likely, a female nurse or assistant by his side? Reasons of modesty and discomfort all boil down, eventually, to issues of sexual hang-ups and gender stereotypes and the lurking suspicion that male gynecologists can't be fully trusted, and that even if they don't act in an inappropriate manner, they might be looking at the exposed "ladyparts" with lustful thoughts.
I think you all need to really examine your thoughts and feelings in this regard and subject them to some rigorous scrutiny, because your fancy rhetoric isn't matching your reality.
Now, if a woman prefers a female gynecologist because she has an honest feeling that she'll be able to relate and empathize and understand the issues better, that's a different ball of wax. However, that was NOT the sentiment expressed in the first post that started us off on this tangent, and it was definitely a minority sentiment in all the subsequent posts that attacked me for mocking the idea of male gynecologists as wannabe sexual predators in disguise. The majority sentiment expressed in those replies was some version of the "modesty" or "discomfort" argument that I addressed above.
BTW, I've known personally two male OB/GYNs in my adult life, and both are gay men. Could there be anyone less interested in looking at vulvas and vaginas and clitorises on a regular basis for any reasons other than purely clinical ones?
Oh, and inappropriate behavior isn't limited to male medical professionals who are examining women in sensitive ways. In college, I went to a public health clinic for STD testing and on one occasion I had a female nurse collecting samples for testing. At one point she had to swab the inside of my urethra, and she had some nasty apparatus that looked like a pipe cleaner to do it. She didn't act gently or with any concern for my feelings, but just jammed that thing right up in there and swished it all around, while I yelped and squirmed in pain. She actually had a smile on her face while she was doing this. I was pissed off, to put it mildly.
But did that unsavory experience lead me to opt out of seeing female medical professionals after that, especially for "sensitive" examinations? No. I treated it as one bad apple medical professional with some issues and nothing more.
Whatever, I'm done debating this issue. You all can think I'm an asshole all you want for thinking it's silly and old-fashioned to blanche at the thought of having trained and credentialed medical professionals examine a part of your body simply due to their gender. I still say that such sentiments are doing NOTHING to help advance us toward a society of true gender equality--quite the opposite, in fact.
But perhaps you're all right. Perhaps the solution lies in moving to a system of gender segregation in medicine, where male professionals see and treat men and female professionals see and treat women, and ne'er the twain shall meet. Oh, and we should have only the female professionals see and treat the children too. I mean, the discomfort and suspicion over the idea of having an adult male medical professional looking at a child's body should go without saying!
As I said in a previous post, such sentiments will put us on the express train to gender equality--of that I have no doubt! LOL
-
@leftychris
Hey, Bud, everyone's swinging at you.
Not me. I'm too tuckered to join the fray, but not too tuckered to give you one of these:
*KISS!*
-
This has got to be more common than has been publicly acknowledged so far
Last week while I was attempting to enter a government building through an electronic security scanner, I beeped it. Even after taking off all my jewelry and placing it into the little container provided--I still beeped. At that point the guard said it was OK and I could go through, though it was a mystery to me what had beeped the second time. He said it was my "shoes" though now I think that was a euphemism. Shoes don't do that.
It must have been my underwire. The scanner was of a type that was able to gauge the height of the metal that set off the alarm. The guard had too much a sense of decorum to tell me the beep was made at the height of my bra.