Loretta Swit, who played ‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan on M*A*S*H, dies aged 87

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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?

The woman has sadly died & this is what you choose to post about? God give me strength.

Take a look at the name of the board lovey. Feminist analysis will happen here

RIP to her. Thank you, interesting post.

It's a quirk of Mumsnet that the first reply is often a gratuitous, shoehorned and unsuccessful attempt at being scathing. I wonder why.

Perhaps you should write to the guardian too, AnotherName, since they spent a few paragraphs on this issue.

Thank you for this. Looking back at this show - which we adored as kids - it's shocking to see the levels of misogyny, so it's interesting to see how she was affected by and sought to tackle this. That's a legacy right there.

Alan Alda also pointing out what she was up against. Her character faced appalling sexism

RIP Loretta

I've watched the series many times. I love hotlips. Particularly after she stopped seeing Frank. She became so much more her own woman. Ye si think they were sexist but there were real moments of admiration for her work in the series. It was also about a pretty sexist time written in a sexist time. Old episodes of The Bill are quite jarring for that too.
MASH was also showing the awfulness of war. I suspect the writers were not aware enough to be scripting the sexisim to show how awful that was too.

Farewell. Thanks for the laughs you had brilliant comic timing and such a screen presence.

I loved the scene where she burst in on the colonal and demanded her nurses stay during a particularly bad bombing campaign? (Not sure about that part but there was some reason they were sending the nurses away) I can take care of my nurses sir! Really resonated with me that she was so passionate about her role in the unit

Hated all the looking for love storylines apart from reinforcing what absolute cunts men were

I first watched the original film version of MASH around 1980, and left long before it had finished due to its grotesque sexism. It was shown at my Uni and all the lads were saying what a fantastic movie it was. I thought it was utter shite.

Loretta was great. I didn't know she did Shirley Valentine on stage for 20 years or so. I'll have to see if there's a recording anywhere.

It's a long time since I've seen MASH, but I do remember her character becoming a lot more rounded. I also have a vague memory of the sexism being a lot worse in the earlier episodes. Those two things are probably connected.

I've got the original Richard Hooker novel somewhere, but don't think I've ever read it. It's short, so I might have a go this weekend. I have a theory about it that I want to confirm.

I started watching MASH around the time BJ replaced Trapper.

It was years later that I started watching one of the early episodes & switched off after 10 minutes, it felt like a different programme.

I used to love watching MASH. I had no idea of the background to the change in Nurse Houlihan's character. It came at about the time when I matured enough to notice the misogyny in the series. I loved her fierceness.

If the series' misogyny bothers you, do not read the books. They are appalling. But I think you have to remember the attitude to doctors at that time: patients were cases, not people, and doctors were god's gift to mankind. The arrogance was considered rightfully theirs. And the author definitely did not consider women to be anything other than service humans in the form of maiden/mother/which.

I'm not sure what order BBC2 used to show repeats in back in the day, but it's really jarring to see the early episodes when you're used to the later show.

Thinking of how MASH really created Alan Alda's persona as one of Hollywood's liberal tribunes and a man who had moral authority without being macho... and then you see an early episode and think "wow, there really were lots of rape jokes". The movie is worse IIRC (poor Sally Kellerman - such a talented actress and look at the roles she got stuck with in her career).

I haven’t read the books, but I have read This is Going to Hurt, and the attitude you describe is very present there, 50 years later

I used to watch it, actually did my nursing training in 1972. My late DM died in the hospital where I was working because of a cock up by her GP. I left went back to secretarial work I had done previously. It was a garage, and the boss called me "hot lips" because of this.

I expect this to be horrible, and reflect the way many male doctors look at nurses, and the way many doctors look at everybody. But...

From the way Richard Hornberger (aka Richard Hooker) described things, his cohort were mostly young, freshly trained doctors (so probably arrogance and immaturity mixed together) who were then drafted into the army, sent to Korea and made to do surgery in extremely stressful war conditions.

Margaret's character is a bit older - you don't see this on the TV show where the main actors are mostly of a similar age, but Hornberger made her about 40 where most of the doctors are in their 20s. She's the head nurse, a regular army veteran from an army family, and trying to impose order on chaos. So personality clashes are inevitable.

Like I say, I expect it to be handled horribly, but it's an interesting premise.

I also know that Hornberger based most of the characters on people he knew in Korea. Which suggests there was a real Margaret, and seeing things from her POV might be more interesting though outwith Hornberger's experience.

but Hot Lips was very very good at her job, and when they were working they were all very good.

And she gave as good as she got, which for the period it was set, was very progressive (Korean war, 50s). You have to remember that a) the 50s were sexist and b) the military was sexist-with-knobs-on (still is)

Houlihan never let their gripes, snipes and behaviour get her down. She got even. And for one i always thought of her as a role model.

oh, you should have watched. It was a brilliant portrayal of the futility of war. Fancy being a student and not being able to place the sexism in the time-and-place the film was set!!

The sexism of the MASH film is even worse than the TV show. 'Lieutenant Dish' FFS

Why watch something that makes you angry?

Agree. The shower scene in particular is vile.

I grew up watching the show with my dad, who loved it. The sexism flew over my head, because compared to Benny Hill, which I also watched at the time, it wasn’t that easy to detect as a ten year old.

I remember picking up his copy of the novel, though, which explained how Trapper got his name. I put it down again very quickly.

Omg. The guardian wrote about this, when she’s just DIED. Has someone told them? Have they taken it down?
🤣🤣🤣

I was a child when I watched it so this all went over my head. I loved it, have considered putting it on for my kids (who watch very little tv and are under 10). Maybe not!

The film was only 10 years old when I saw it. If it looked hideously sexist in 1980, I can scarcely imagine how bad it would look now.

The show did indirectly teach me something about screenwriting. I noticed that in murder mysteries, if Alan Alda pops up and is extremely helpful to the detective, there's at least a 75% chance that he's the killer.

Alan Alda seems to be to Americans what Michael Palin is to Brits. Brits love Michael Palin so much that they'll reflexively root for his character, however awful his character is.

It’s depressing to remember that Hawkeye and Trapper WERE, by the standards of the time, quite progressive and sympathetic.🤣
There is some excellent MASH fanfic where post series Hawkeye and Margaret end up married….