We're a really dumb fucking country.

I applaud nurses for taking official action. Anyone in a profession that is widely and publicly sexualized is susceptible to sexual harrasment and even assault (I mean, more so than the average woman,) and nurses have a right to say that's not okay.

I agree with Knicole. My mom's a nurse and you would be appalled at how often she gets propositioned by patients.

Oh, I definitely support the nurses' decision to publicly say "that's not okay," I just question the decision to attempt to take legal action. I guess I might feel differently about their taking official action, though, if the business in question was some sort of "fake" health care provider rather than a themed restaurant.

This idea isn't new by far. Take a look at Hooters for instance. Sure they're not dressed up as nurses but they're still dressing provocative. If you don't like the place I just suggest not going or working there.

The hypocracy that I see in the nurses going after one restaurant is the fact that they don't go after the companies that provide and create these costumes. Go into any halloween shop and guess what? There's a metric fuck ton of "sexy" nurse costumes. This isn't a new thing in the slightest.

If you're going to go after one company for giving your profession a "negative" image then you should go after ALL companies that do the same.

My god that video was awful. The only message I got from that is that this is a place not for women. Damn near every image (I didn't make it through the whole video) was of men either eating, oogling, or being "tended" to.

I know sex sells and women sell sex the best but jesus fucking christ, enough already. You can say what you will about women being able to make money off their own bodies but none of these girls is going to make the amount of money that the owner will, the same as no Playboy playmate has made as much off their bodies as Hugh Hefner/Playboy enterprises has.

Damn, you know norbizness is pissed when he doesn't even bother to come up with a witty line. He just told it like it is.

Does anyone have a problem when the nurse complaining said to "Move these sexual fantasies to other professions." Don't fantasize about us because it is disrespectful (I agree), go fantasize about teachers instead (Huh?!).

Peace.

Bear: My entire creative output is to thinly disguise that underlying core belief. In self-promoting news, a picture of a Dumbshit Burger being served is my practice caption picture of the week.

And don't say fantasize about teachers, I'm worried that Miss Trahan may show up in one of my disturbing dreams.

norbizness: I understand that. I just rarely see you come out and bluntly say it.

Ugh. I couldn't even make it halfway through that video. The music alone was enough to drive me batshit.

At its (no pun intended) heart, this place seems to be way more about power than sex, and any claims otherwise are bullshit. If I'm eating three pounds of beef smothered in cheese, the last thing I'm going to want to do is anything sexual, no matter how appealing the woman in the nurse costume may be.

This is all about lording it over the woman bringing you your meat, and taking pride in the fact that she's got to wear a humiliating, uncomfortable costume to do it. (Anyone who eats that much red meat and cheese probably can't get much of a boner anyway.)

In a way it's kind of a delicious irony that they're associating the objectification of women with something every single medical professional worth half his or her salt will tell you is bad for you and could end up killing you.

Hell, I hope the men at these restaurants indulge in just as much gluttony as they do lust. We should be HELPING this restaurant advertise. I mean, the sooner these dumb fucks die of a coronary, the sooner we can get on with the business of living our lives in peace.

I'm tempted to fund an extra order of extra greasy cheese-laden fries for every man who goes into the restaurant, with the caveat that he has to finish it or have his picture taken for the "pussy wall." Idiots like this only respond to stupid threats like that.

Oooo, I'm giddy with the anticipation! Let's help them kill themselves with their unhealthy lifestyles!

Among all of the other atrocities, it's sad that eating for a heart-attack is STILL equated with being masculine. It makes me want to take my little boy and hide out in a cave with him for the next 20 years. Shee-it.

It's funny that I'm currently reading a biography of Florence Nightengale who actually was very committed to her chastity and never married.

Did anyone else notice the weird anti-immigrant vibe? "Ask the white boy flipping burgers"? (from the song/video) "We speak ENGLISH ONLY"? (from the website) Wow. Nice job being racist there.

1) I would love to be described as "an old battle-ax!" That sounds excellent, and I'm not being sarcastic. I aspire to that when I am old enough. I mean, really, what that guy's really saying is "I can't imagine that a woman would want to be seen as intimidating and competent--then I wouldn't want to sexually harrass her, and isn't being harrassed by me every woman's dream?"

2) What is with this bizarre male fantasy that women don't eat meat? Who do they think is taking all these kids to fast-food places? I love Peter Luger's. I love the Corner Bistro. My mother gets newsletters about barbecue. Where's our theme restaurant? Oh, wait. It's the Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Greenwich Village.

Restaurant serving food known to be dangerous to health: check.

Location named after a major medical trauma often resulting in death: check.

Employees disguised in uniforms of medical professionals that provide care for said major medical trauma: check.

I can't wait for the other lawsuit in which an oaf keels over between bites of Penis Burger, his family seeks life-saving help from one of the nurse impersonators, the "nurses" can't do shit, and the family gets millions in punitive damages for false advertising.

[i]I know sex sells and women sell sex the best but jesus fucking christ, enough already. You can say what you will about women being able to make money off their own bodies but none of these girls is going to make the amount of money that the owner will, the same as no Playboy playmate has made as much off their bodies as Hugh Hefner/Playboy enterprises has.[/i]

That's kinda silly. Why should the model/waitress make as much as the entrepreneur or owner?
The requirements to work there are
a) the same as any other waitress
plus
b) be attractive and be willing to wear something provocative.

To say that this warrants an equal share with the owner is luncacy.

Costto:

What special skills does one need to be an owner?

And then there's this:
http://caltechgirlsworld.mu.nu/archives/208252.php

H/T -
http://littlemissattila.mu.nu/archives/208394.php

''Nurses are the most sexually fantasized-about profession,''

Yeah. How come we scientists don't get to be sexually fantasized about more often (looks in mirror ... sees why).

Seriously, though. What strikes me about this statement is that it ignores that, e.g. straight women, have fantasies too. And do, straight women, fantasize about nurses much? My women friends tend to fantasize about cops, firemen and doctors (see, still medical).

But then it hit me -- all these "professional" fantasies (I don't know where my thing for women tennis players and lady military grunts in cammo falls into this scheme) are very much based on sex-stereotyped roles of professions. What does one make of that?

Oh, I definitely think the fact that nursing is such a fantasized-about profession is directly related to the fact that it's traditionally gender-role conforming. Subordination certainly seems to be part of the appeal at the Heart Attack Grill, which offers Sponge-Bath Saturdays. Yeah.

Also, today Nerve linked to this Japanese eatery that employs women dressed as French maids.

Suddenly Hooters seems tasteful and understated.

DAS, I don't think it's so much a statement about people's private fantasies so much as it's a comment on the public fetishization of certain professsions. This typically happens with "female" professions. Sexy Nurse/Flight Attendant/Teacher/Maid, etc. Sure, it happens to other professions, too- cops, fire fighters... really, anyone who wears a uniform, I suppose- but it's interesting in that, say, cops and fire fighters seem to still get a lot of respect for what they do, and the sexualization of those fields tends to have more to do with the uniform or the position of authority, whereas the sexualization of "female" professions seems- to me- tied into service, and seem to detract from the capacity of the workers. Male fire-fighters are, presumably, sexy because they're in good shape, wear a uniform, and save lives. When I've heard fantasies from straight women about, say, a doctor, the fantasy doesn't revolve around the doctor being inept and unable to perform his given job- they revolve around him being attractive *and* talanted. Maybe it's my imagination, but it seems to me that it's more than coincidental that nurse/flight attendant/maid are all professions wherein one is servicing other people, and that the hyper-sexualized/fetishized versions of those careers focus on making the "uniform" as impractical as possible- garters, tiny skirts, high-heels, etc. The stereotypical fantasy, in these cases, can't possibly be that it's a woman who's both attractive *and* talanted at her job- the stereotyped versions are ridiculous mockeries of the real professionals.

TLF:

I'm tempted to fund an extra order of extra greasy cheese-laden fries for every man who goes into the restaurant, with the caveat that he has to finish it or have his picture taken for the "pussy wall." Idiots like this only respond to stupid threats like that.

Not just a run-of-the-mill stupid threat, though. It's a direct threat to his manhood, having his picture put up on the "pussy wall." Nothing gets a troglodytic misogynist geared up for gleefully self-destructive binge-eating/drinking like someone telling him that he'll be socially censured by his fellow troglodytic misogynists if he doesn't. And yes, every last one of them is exactly that shallow and self-centered.

I can't even imagine what it's like to be so hateful as to support a place like that (or Hooters, for that matter). Not that there's anything wrong with hiring an attractive woman to wait tables, but if she's just supposed to be a walking food-tray with boobs, that's a problem. And as tink said, it stuns me that there is supposed to be something unutterably manly about eating until your aorta dissects in two places.

Look, I like a good double cheeseburger as much as any other meat-eater, but to treat it as something more than a tasty meal is asinine. To attach any part of one's self-image to it is beyond sociopathic. Of course, my cholesterol is low enough that I don't have to worry about death too much, but still. Everything in moderation.

This makes me think of the Denis Leary bit from No Cure For Cancer: John Wayne had cancer twice, second time they took out one of his lungs, he said, "Take 'em both, cuz I don't fucking need 'em! I'll grow gills and breathe like a fish!"

These men are so manly, they don't even need their bodies to survive. Bodies = weakness. Heart attack? What's that! I'm strong! Gimme that burger!

Women, in contrast, are all body and no strength... interesting.

Now I'm even more skeeved out by the phrase "beat the meat."

I don't think "battle ax" is the problematic part. Well, it is, but the real problem is "who changes bedpans for a living." How would any of us like to be highly trained in a medical field and have it reduced to "changing bedpans?" This is a pet peeve for every nurse I know.

Oversexualizing nursing diminishes their real duties. It denigrates their profession, reducing them to a sexual fantasy. It prevents many males from even considering nursing. It's become a stereotypically female profession that many women avoid because they dont want that kind of baggage. Nurses are overworked, underpaid, and they don't even deserve respect?

I would be pissed too.

It's so messed up how people see nurses. My dad is a doctor, and some of his nurses (the ones who've been with him a long time) are like my extended family. I'm just as likely to ask one of them a medical question, as I am to ask him (and, frankly, there are certain medical questions I'd RATHER ask them).

This kind of disrespect is appalling. Some of the most capable and intelligent people I know are nurses.

Coast,

I was pointing out how women's bodies are used to sell everything and the only people making money off of them (unless they own their own website or something) are the people who are using them to sell their products. It works this way for a lot of things, like professional atheletes, however I doubt that anyone would say a male athlete is being exploited in the same fashion these women can be considered. I know it goes along with the territory but hell, if they're making the same as a girl working for Applebee's or TGIF then why do they have to wear such deliberately provactive outfits? Yeah I get it, THEY took the job, etc. etc.

And much like Hooters I bet this place doesn't hire men so it really is aimed at making women sex objects who, if they're trying to make money from their good looks, aren't really getting the best deal like the guy who came up with it.

One of the reasons the BON went after the restaurant is that it is illegal to say you are a nurse if you are not, in fact, licensed.

This is a real problem. There are techs and aides who refer to themselves as nurses (or don't correct patients who assume they are nurses) and who come to think of themselves as nurses, even though they are not. Trust me when I say this does not lead to optimum patient care and in fact gets people killed.

Sexual harassment is very real in nursing, and far, far more likely to come from the patients then the staff. Since I was an older student when I went to nursing school, there were several occasions in which I played the "old battle ax" for the creeps who wouldn't stop feeling up or otherwise harassing the younger students.

I think the difference between the eatery using the nurse costumes and the halloween costumes is the difference between everyday and knowing mockery. On halloween, almost nothing is sacred. Everything is made fun of or sexualized, and at this point it is to be expected. Everyone knows (politically correct or not) that halloween is not representative of real life. But if you take it out of that singular context and put it in an everyday thing, then yah, I do think there is a major problem with it.

Can we just leave it at this restaurant is the one of the worst fucking ideas in the world?

When I start working at the clinic, I want to be the ol battle axe. It's sad that they reduce nurses to merely changing bed pans. RNs, CNAs, NP do a lot of the work and there is a lot of contact with the patients. I can't imagine the passes that get made towards them every day. There's a thing called self control, and men need to learn to exercise it and realise they are not God's gift to the world and not every woman wants them.

Never posted to this site before, but I've read it for a while now. Just want to thank prairielily for her comment, as she got it perfect about what is so insulting to nurses about all of this. I can't tell you how many disgusting comments i got when I was in nursing school and had to wear whites, which clearly designated me as a "nurse" (Hey, baby, come give me some mouth to mouth!)Now, I don't get that so much from my patients, cause I work in women's health. I don't think that alot of peoplerealize that nurses are highly educated, and that nursing is a seperate discipline from medicine. We are not doctors' assistant (those are called physicians assistants, btw). The problem with these waitresses is that they propetuate these sterotypes and misconceptions with the public. 'Don't listen to the silly little nurse, all she knows about is giving spongebaths, but the strong maly doctor knows everything.'
p.s. sorry if this was too much off topic or if it didn't make sense. i just got off of my 3rd 12hr shift in a row, and i'm a little fried.

Carol Adams is truly amazing - I brought her to my campus last year for a talk, and both her talk and just having conversations with her were so enlightening. I encourage everyone to at least read her!

yeah about that japanese eatery (i maid cafe) that Nerve linked to ... i live like barely two minutes away from it ... and it sickens me everytime i pass by it.

Law Fairy nailed it - this is Darwinism at its best. Even if the guys don't die of coronaries, they'll be too fat and too busy ogling waitresses to get laid and pass their genetic material along to the next generation.

Hail the free market! ;)

Disturbing to note that women aren't just underlings in this project; they occupy more than half of management positions.
http://www.heartattackgrill.com/about_us.htm

It's ironic that he mentions Florence Nightingale. She's a perfect example of how damaging the sexy-nurturing-nurse image is.

Nightingale was an accomplished statistician and political campaigner (she invented the pie chart to present her data), but all anyone knows about her is this brow-mopping ministering angel shit.

Maz: why is it hypocrisy to only attack part of a problem? Some problems are just too big to attack all of at once, and one part must be focused on.

(It also annoys me when people object to some activism work someone does with "why aren't you doing X? It's so much more important that Y." It might be, but I may not be interested in that, or have the aptitude, or ..., and Y is still worth doing.)

Secondly, as Taisa-Marie pointed out, there are some relevant differences with such things as dressing up on Halloween.

Actually, I always thought of Florence Nightingale as a bit of a mad scientist. She carried an owl in her pocket, for chrissake!

BTW, the first line of the Wikipedia entry on her reads "Florence Nightingale, OM (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910), who came to be known as The Lady with the Lamp, was a pioneer of modern nursing, and a noted statistician."

Mirm
Are yyou suggesting that the skills required to wait tables are on par with the skills required to be a successfull entrepreneur? To run a business?

Hell, the skillset required doesn't even need to come into play, the owner should make the lions share simply because they assumed all risk associated with starting/purchasing a business. The waitress can walk if the place goes belly up, the owner could lose his/her house.

There's a piano bar near me that I have issues with. All the servers are hot (men & women alike), which makes me wonder if that's a prerequisite, and they all wear revealing clothing (tight shirts & jeans for the men, short skirts and long necklines for the women). They also serve a jello-shot-in-a-syringe which, when you buy it, is administered by one of the servers (guess which gender), dr