On stand-up comedy class days, we play a five minute headline game, wherein I bring in headlines, and we pretend we’re in a late night writers’ room, coming up with punchlines.
Here’s one I wrote today:
Today in 1849, the first woman graduated from medical school.
Also today in 1849 was the first day a male patient said, “Sure, sweetie. Now go get me a real doctor.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a world where folks had a hard time seeing why this joke is funny?
Please excuse me for a moment while I preach at the choir.
A particular MD used to work where I work. She’s really smart, talented, confident, and experienced. But also she has a small body, looks youthful, and generally doesn’t look like some folks think MDs look. This website shows her appearance and tells a little about her expertise: https://www.katiedeming.com/
So it was unfortunately predictable that some sizable segment of the population had trouble recognizing her for what she was. Too frequently we were able to see exactly how prevalent this “go get me a real doctor” thing still is.
It would be nice to live in that world!