Hospital refusing demeaning fancy dress donation

His comment about stopping people dressing up for the London Marathon is idiotic. The difference is the costumes there are imaginative and genuinely funny.

It isn't a pantomime horse but here is a pantomime camel

And here are blokes in female costumes who just look very silly.

TOP BANTZ for charrideee....
Sigh.

The guy in the article says he hasn't come across anyone that has a problem with it.

Apart from the Chief Executive of that particular Health Trust who has been quite clear that she has a problem with it.

So, yet again, we're back to men knowingly violating boundaries set by women, while declaring they're the good guys here/it's just a joke/don't be so uptight.* Select some or all which apply.

Apparently one of the organisers is insisting they'll do it again next year despite being asked not to.

Men 'to repeat nurse uniform fundraiser' after Ludlow Hospital cash rejection
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-shropshire-41066828

I'm trying to debate this on a male-dominated forum and it's like trying to put out a forest fire by pissing on it.

Apparently stating "They accepted it in past years and asked them not to do it this year - and were ignored. How many times do they have to say "no" before the group realised that they meant "no"?" Is comparing it to rape (yes I know it was adopted as a slogan by anti-rape campaigners) and it's "amazing that in the 21st century some woman think that some men believe that women say one thing and mean another", men suffer minimisation too, and the debate is only fuelling my agenda.

I hope none of them have daughters.

"not be accepted"

I wonder if, having been told by the trust not to do this, if the money has been obtained fraudulently? If they knew the money would be accepted by the trust they have misled the donors.

Is it up to them to decide which other charity will benefit? Or should they make an effort to hand it back ( ok not terribly practical) but they should not assume if one donated for one cause one is happy to give to another?

It's disrespectful to nurses. Why did they all run round dressed as 'slutty nurses'. Nurses work bloody hard and don't get the respect they deserve. It's patronising and sexist.

^This.

It's not really fun. There's nothing amusing about men wearing dresses. In fact 9 times out of 10 they look ridiculous and not in the funny way

Or maybe that 'joke' just goes completely over my head.

What about tarts and vicars parties ? Do you see Vicars protesting that they should be banned?

1. I shouldn't imagine too many actual vicars get invited to them.

2. They are misogynistic and elevate men's position in society while lowering women's, so while it would be odd to 'ban' them, I would hope that people nowadays would recognise the theme as dated and inappropriate, as they do with Carry On films, etc.

3. I should imagine if a church were offered money raised by way of a tarts and vicars party, they would probably think twice before accepting the money too.

It's a bit of fun For whom? What makes it fun?

Who cares what they're dressed as If you read some of the previous posts, you'll get an idea who cares, and why.

To a struggling NHS trust they should be grateful for any donations Really? No matter how it was raised or where it came from?

These men had been asked not to dress up - but they went ahead because their desire to dress like something out of a Carry On film was more important than the wishes of the NHS trust they claim to support. Utter arrogance.

So, despite asking these people not to do this, for good solid reasons, fuck em, eh nowaynoway? Fuck nurses as well.

I have several friends who are Nurses / HCP and the amount of sexual harrasment and assault they have to face daily is truly sickening. This "sexy nurse" shit perpetuates that Nurses are "up for it" and fair game.

I noticed one of the name tags said "Midwife Mark". I don't think that was a random choice based on alliteration

As pp said, I think the fact the Trust asked them not to dress as Nurses prior to the event is the main issue here. Agree that the men thought they knew best and decided to do it anyway.

Brian dear, no one here is "affronted" and given that you don't post on here, I wonder why you think you're the expert on how we feel?

If they wanted to dress up as members of a graduate profession, then they should have dressed up as male nurses. They didn't. They wanted to continue the boring old trope of "slutty nurses" from the 70's. I wonder how many times the belief that nurses are slutty bodies in awful uniforms has given a certain type of man the idea that they're ok to target? I know it happened when I trained 1,000 years ago.

That's a point, there are many male nurses these days. Why didn't these men just dress in a male nurse uniform? Instead of cheap nasty, nurse uniform knock offs from LoveHoney.

I guess it just wouldn't have the same 'comedic' value. Wonder why that is.

I don't want to labour this point too much, because it'll get dull and a dozen people will roll in and tell me I'm overthinking it, but if my interpretation is wrong, it'd be great if someone could explain why, without saying "oh, it just is"

I agree with deydo. They look ridiculous because there is no thinking required , no effort made.

One can argue this is wrong because:-

1. The trust asked them not to but they went ahead anyway.
2. The humour is founded on an outdated, sexist and pornified idea of "sexy nurses" 3. In any case many nusres are male.

Depends on whether you want to be right in your feminist analysis or to persuade as many people as you can this is no longer acceptable.

I think the fact that they have been asked not to do it is the clincher here. It stinks of men knowing better and money equalling power. They'd been asked by the hospital not to do it. They decided they knew better and over rode that request and did it anyway, surmising that the fact they were giving money meant they had more power and control than the hospital trust.

It is right, therefore that the hospital trust retain the authority in this situation and refuse the money. I don't think this is just about men dressed as women, or men being nurses (though that is what I find the most offensive, that men dressed as nurses is 'hilarious' - like there aren't any actual male nurses out there) but also about arrogance and the notion that Money Wins.

I think the whole thing is distasteful and offensive, there are many other ways to raise money.

A shame that such a big sum can't be used but accepting it would have put the hospital on the back foot and admitting they have no authority ( or intention, maybe) to stop demeaning and offensive practise as long as there is money involved. It's a slippery slope IMO...

I agree deydo

A woman dressing as a man in the way say of Keeley Hawes in Tipping the Velvet- not ridiculous. French and Saunders' old men characters - ridiculous

I think what you are saying does happen, but that's not why people find humour in this.
(I'm musing here). A woman dressing as a man. Why isn't this ridiculous? Because surely if a low status woman is pretending to be a high status man, that's laughable, yes? But people don't find it to be so.
Is it because men's clothes are kind of unisex anyway? Men's clothes don't show off their anatomical features that women don't have e.g. boobs/cleavage. Maybe a woman in a posing pouch would be ridiculous, but they're not in fashion for men at the moment.
So a clean shaven female shape in men's clothing is something we see all the time, nothing incongruous.
Whereas a stubbly, broad shouldered hairy legged male shape in women's clothing is unusual. The bigger and hairier they are the more ridiculous it looks.

I don't like it because it's "sexy" male fantasy clothing, though.

Right, it's because they look ridiculous, I agree.

But...Why do we think they look ridiculous? What signifiers are they messing with? Why is the combo of boobs & beard supposed to be comical?

Woman with long hair and makeup in a man's suit: not funny. Possibly sexy?

Man with a beard in a woman's dress: comical.

Why? Because women aren't funny? Because she's claiming status by dressing as a man and he's sacrificing it by dressing as a woman?

If not that, then what do you think is happening when we laugh at men in womanface? I don't want to labour this point too much, because it'll get dull and a dozen people will roll in and tell me I'm overthinking it, but if my interpretation is wrong, it'd be great if someone could explain why, without saying "oh, it just is".

Because whether you understand it consciously or not, men dressing as women is funny because it's them lowering themselves to the status of silly, frivolous, slutty women.

That's often said on here, but I don't think that's the reason.
It's because they look ridiculous, not because they look like women, but because they don't look like women! One even has a full beard.
That said, I don't find it funny, or acceptable.

Who's "affronted", Brian? I'm not. Is it you?

Some people on here really do like to get affronted at fuck all.

pantomime horse

This one has my vote. Pantomime horses are brilliant.

Or, to be modern, one of those inflatable T-Rex costumes that seem to be in half the youtube videos at the moment.

Actually funny, rather than in poor taste.