Anyone old enough to have regularly watched MASH will remember how relentlessly sexist and vile the scriptwriters and the two 'hero' male doctors were towards this character.
It was particularly infuriating because the male doctors, Hawkeye and Trapper, were supposed to represent all the virtues of humanity. And yet they reacted with typical male hatred and cruelty to an older woman in a position of some power (who tried to protect the younger nurses from their relentless womanising).
So it was interesting to read in this article, https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/may/30/loretta-swit-actor-dead , how Swit fought to bring some realism and depth to her character, and to combat the sexism. I seem to remember that the portrayal of Hot Lips did improve, but not enough to let the series off the hook for its sexism.
Reminds me of the viciously sexist portrayal of another nurse, Nurse Ratched in the film One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Of course, the critique of mental health facilities that that film (and book) provides is valid, and the abuses of mental health patients were/are real. But it seemed to me that the author, the director and especially the actor Jack Nicholson just LOVED putting all the blame for this abuse on some uppity bitch of an older woman (despite the - naturally - male-dominated nature of mental health care in the period).
I haven't even been able to bring myself to watch the Netflix series Nurse Ratched for this reason. Does anyone know whether it tackles the sexism of the film?