Who the heck laughs at someone being a nurse?

Well that is a bit of an overestimation for a typical nurse's salary, but yes, it is in general a very decent living and a profession with a lot of perks, not to mention job security. But you'd be surprised how many people don't see that when they see a MALE nurse. It's been a longstanding societal thought that nursing is a traditionally "pink collar" profession mostly held by women. It's kind of like when a man works as a florist, a designer, a nanny, etc. Some people tend to assume that he must be either gay or a major wuss, because they're not thought of as "manly" jobs.

A good nurse works hard and smart, and deserves every bit of money they get (and then some). I definitely respect them.

Nurses in general do not tend to get a lot of respect from doctors whether male or female, despite the job difficulty and level of professionalism necessary. This is because doctors have a reputation for being notoriously egotistical! Obviously this doesn't apply to all doctors but the generalization holds true when held up to the norm.

Newsflash: Not everyone wants to be a nurse.

"...one of the most sought-after, highly respected, grueling professions in modern society."

I'm gonna stop you there. There's a reason "male nurse" was a joke that occurred in this film, a film written, produced, directed, tested, consumed and enjoyed by people in modern society, and it's not because nursing is one of the most highly respected professions around. Not that it shouldn't be.

If a person were to analyze a bunch of jokes, many times it involves a twist on an expectation, or a widely contrasting juxtaposition. If I'm at a fancy tea party and I expel flatulence, I have just made comedy. If I, a male, say I'm a nurse, when 99% of modern society, even sixteen years after this movie's release, continues to picture a woman 100% of all the times they hear the word "nurse", I have just made comedy. (Just now, here in the year 2016, I did an image search for "nurse" on the still popular "Google" website and counted 30 pictures before a man appeared, then counted to 49 before there was another.)

Now, in the prior examples I'm presuming that comedy is still comedy if no one laughs, but often laughter depends on the audience's familiarity with the comedy technique, or the subject of the comedy. I guessed above that 99% of society thinks males and nursing is an odd juxtaposition--likewise, my guess for the percentage of society that's complaining/agreeing that the male nurse joke wasn't funny or is embarrassingly out of date is whatever percentage of the population is a nurse, knows a male nurse, or works in the medical field (but isn't a doctor, because apparently plenty of them too find male nurses funny). 1 percent? Sure. Sounds good.

Since it is likely true, as established in this and many other threads, that males nursing is becoming more accepted--probably at about the same rate gays are increasingly accepted,** I might guess, with no implication intended--we can maybe assume that 10 or 20 years ago, if a person had Googled "nurse", he would've had to look through 100 pictures before he found one of a man. Is there possibly a modern counterpart? How about "woman plumber"? Google "plumber", there are no women in sight. If you said, to a group, "My wife is a plumber," you might get a few raised eyebrows and a surprised chuckle. Put it in a comedy film, where the audience is encouraged to laugh, and of course they're going to. Well...99.99999 of them will. The female plumbers' husbands will to turn to their wives and say, "What is this, 2008? Fire up imdb!"

[**Note too that just because gays re widely accepted doesn't mean we don't still joke about them like crazy.]

Well, I hope my response has been helpful, because it took all noon. PS: OP, I hope your name isn't a crack at the way the Japanese say their L's, because I find that sort of humor antiquated and immature.


www.selfnegatingface.blogspot.com

[deleted]

$100K in 2000?

I think you're a little off base there. It didn't imply he worked for a major hospital, but even then the high end nurses (ER/Triage) only make like $70K a year. Yes their benefits are great, but they're not making the 6 figure salaries the doctors are.

because not many man become a nurse, at that time maybe.

THRILLER IS MY FOOD!