When RN stands for Really Naughty: The problem with perpetuating the ‘sexy nurse’ costume on Halloween
If it’s not the plump cleavage, the fishnets, or the jaunty cardboard cap that convinces you, the smize and pursed lips ought to do it. “Come hither,” she seems to be saying. Complete with a cheap plastic stethoscope, slightly bent from being awkwardly crammed into a plastic display sleeve, the sexy nurse costume is easily the most prolific option on the “sexy costume “ shortlist. If the heart of Halloween is all about Good Fun, why ruffle our feathers about a silly costume, right? Well, the harm in that, is the harm in it.
“It” being the sexualized objectification of nurses, that is. In fact, any caricature of our female-dominated profession (think romance novels, for another example) goes beyond teasing to injurious. Perpetuating sexist tropes is degrading its own right, but downgrading nurses to subservients rather than the scientifically-minded health professionals we truly are is especially harmful now—a time when nurses need to be taken more seriously than ever.
How did we get here?
‘The sexy nurse’ works as a concept because people have no trouble equivocating ‘nurse’ with ‘low-skilled assistant.’ In an age where health has been dominating mainstream news, you'd think nurses would have risen a few rungs on the ladder of respect. We had people lining city streets and applauding us just last year. Nurse-led innovation is gobsmacking the medical community, and more nurses today are obtaining graduate degrees than ever before. So, why is our respect still lagging in some arenas?
The simple, historically-contextual answer, is (of course) misogyny. Yes, another thing we can blame on the patriarchy. The LA Times recently named the iconic Hollywood boutique, Classy Lingerie, as the originator of the ‘sexy costume’ trend (with nurses being one of their October best sellers for the past 50 years). But, the origin of the sexy+nurse link actually goes back 600 years, to the Protestant Reformation.
In 2015, Thrillist reported that this was a time when, “Women were generally expected to tend to their families, and thus only the lowest class of women entered the workplace. Due to the high risk of infection and dreadful working conditions, nursing was literally the most dead-end job around. The only job it was a step up from was prostitute, which led the ranks of nursing staffs to be populated by workers of nebulous sexual morals who would often hold down two jobs, one providing healthcare, the other providing... something else.”
In short, nurses were also frequently sex workers. Often the two roles were intertwined. In a Journal of Military and Veterans Health article detailing nursing work before the 1800s, “The average nurse…would sit watching over her patient and sipping her gin, and if her patient was well enough and had the money, extra services could be provided."
This nursing side gig was common for the next 300 years. Then, Florence Nightingale entered the nursing scene; as Dan Gentile writes, “…who, despite her adult film-ready name, was famously reported to be celibate.” Though Flo helped to elevate nursing as a more reputable profession, practices like an NYC ordinance which offered convicted sex workers the choice between going to jail or nursing work kept the sexy nurse dream alive.
The passing of another 100 years didn’t allow for the image of ‘sexy nurse’ to fade entirely from memory, however. The breathy and busty Betty Boop helped to solidify a strong presence for the Sexy Nurse in pop culture in the 30s. Though nurses no longer moonlighted as actual ladies of the night by the mid-1900s, nurses as pin-ups—popularized by the famous “sailor-kissing-nurse-in-Times-Square” photo from August, ’45—certainly kept service men company overseas.
Nurses as notable sex symbols kept coming. Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan provided the IRL sexy nurse object on M*A*S*H, and Carol Connor’s nursing uniform in 1972’s Deep Throat has inspired sexy nurse fetishism to present day levels. Even though the medical shows of the past few decades characterize nurses in somewhat more realistic roles, the social media accounts of many well-known nursefluencers showcase images of them wearing scrubs as often as wearing.…not much else.
Now, before you come at me for body-shaming, or not being sex-positive, let’s just all agree we can use our common sense to decipher between a shot that is set up with ‘sex sells/nurse-related sex sells” intention and one that is not. After all, blame is not to be assigned to nurses, but rather the horses that nursing as we know it today rode in on.
When taken in its entirety, the nurse image—channeled through the funnel of the patriarchy—is surely kept alive and well as a coping mechanism for male fragility. Nothing says “diminished masculinity” like bedpan dependance. Sickness and injury make us reliant. Men beholden to women in positions of power will do what they must to avoid squirming in that discomfort—and relegating nurses to the level of sexual subservient accomplishes that nicely.
Why we need to pass on the sexy nurse now
If we needed a perfect time to finally get rid of the sexy nurse trope, there’s no time like post-pandemic. In just the past COVID-years nurses have vacillated somewhere on the spectrum of ‘healthcare heroes’ to ‘BigMedicine’ co-conspirators. But the vast majority of people seem to appreciate and honor the sacrifices so many nurses made in early 2020. The front-iest of frontline workers, working with piss poor PPE, and putting their lives at risk to save the lives of our loved ones. We took selflessness to a whole new level.
Retailers have trended away from cringey costumes in the past few years (think Native American appropriations, or those suggesting blackface as an accessory), largely due to cancel culture and a bow to consumer choice. Sexy Nurse ought to join the list of retired costumes as well. While some Halloween costume suppliers have elected to list nurse costumes in the superhero category, shifting sexual objectification towards hero worship doesn’t exactly elicit the kind of respect nurses deserve.
Hierarchy among healthcare workers is a silent yet universally acknowledged phenomenon. If physicians are placed at the top, mid-level providers like NPs and PAs come in behind them. Nurses, it seems, are on another tier of this unequal power structure altogether. Not only must we endure sexual harassment from patients, but we also may encounter it from anyone deemed “above us.”
In a 2006 literature review, Pacific Union College found that 60%-87% of nurses experience sexual harassment from colleagues, and a 2018 survey through Medscape found that 71% of nurses reported being harassed by a patient, compared to 47% of physicians. Accepting the image of the sexy nurse—even passively—perpetuates demeaning attitudes and normalizes problematic and dangerous behavior.
As if we didn’t have enough to do.
Burnout has given way to legit PTSD-symptomatology, and many nurses are struggling to make it through each and every shift. We are constantly asked to work short or take on overtime hours, and even when we are able to clock out, the lousy quality of the work we were able to get accomplished under awful conditions haunts us. Adding another layer of stress in the form of harassment goes beyond being completely unnecessary—it’s dangerous. Even before the pandemic began, the suicide rate for nurses was on the rise.
Nursing is entering a time of reckoning. So many have left the bedside, many more are leaving the field entirely. We’ve made great strides in breaking down the culture of “nurses eat their young,” and we need this kind of focused attention turned towards the sexy nurse trope if we are to attract the kind of science-minded students considering nursing that we so desperately need. And it’s not just bedside nursing roles we need to fill.
Nurse-led research is an exciting place to be. Yet, nurse researchers continually struggle to not only get a seat at the table, but even when they do, funding does not readily come to those who don’t garner immediate respect. In 2019, the National Institute of Nursing appointed two heads of this well-known nursing research institution—and neither was a nurse! Nurses, understandably, were incredulous at this slight, saying it damages the public understanding of what nurses are capable of.
How some nurses are fighting back
If we can all agree that the sexy nurse has got to go, we needn’t look any further on the “how” of it all than what nurses in Quebec have been up to this fall. A social media campaign initiated by Quebec’s Professional Order of Nurses (who go by OIIQ, their French acronym) first released a video detailing the concept. “Nurses take care of everyone, so let’s take care of their image.”
Speaking directly to marketers rather than revelers, OIIQ President, Luc Mathieu, makes the point that discussing the problematic sexy nurse costume is merely one opportunity to raise awareness for nursing professionalism. He goes on to note that the real danger of sexualizing nursing uniforms is how that perpetuates deeply ingrained sexist and derogatory ideas about the role nurses play in healthcare. And how that needs to change.
Whether it be teachers, nannies, or secretaries, the trope of female-dominated professions as inherently subservient (in service to an authoritative male) needs to change. Look around. As Bob Dylan famously sang, “The times, they are a’changin’” And rightly so. Maybe it will be by brute force, aka, “taking it back.” In essence, a reclaiming of the Sexy Nurse’s fate to be decided upon in the halls of sex-positive and body-positive forces. In that case, we’re all for it. Grab up those scanty vinyl uniforms and go forth unto defiant feminist waters.
But, until then?
Perhaps just keep it simple. A pointed comment, a gentle counter-view, or perhaps, straight-up condemnation when you see your own six-degrees of separation community sporting such a “look.” The more people we can reach, the more that respond to us, is the arena where we will wield the most influence. Kinda like in…nursing. We all have the power to start ripples of change, but most significantly, within our own communities first.
So, this Halloween, ask yourself this: what does nursing mean to you? And what does that look like?
Now…spread the word.