"You Must Speak Up Against This Disturbing Study"
The backlash against this highly provocative, judgmental (and in the end, worthless) study has been decisive, with men and women alike calling out the paper and its authors for sexism. Fellow-doctors on Twitter pointed out that wearing a swimsuit and posting a picture of it bears no relevance to someone's ability to do their job, in many cases retaliating by posting revealing pictures of their own.
Other posters have also shared pictures of themselves drinking alcoholic beverages and pointing out that doctors and healthcare professionals are human beings outside of work and shouldn't be shamed for it.
"A scientific publication just announced that holding alcoholic drinks and wearing bikinis are unprofessional behaviors for a doctor," said one respondent. "Wait till they hear that med schools started letting women wear pants!" he remarked.
"We, healthcare professionals, have lives, Hell yeah, we have. We have fun the few free times we have. And guess what? We don't wear scrubs in the pool. We even eat and drink, and post pics like ordinary people. We are ordinary people. And excellent professionals," wrote a woman MD.2
The callouts go beyond swimwear and beverages, however. Several physicians and medical trainees also pointed out that "professionalism" in medicine is a term that can be used by those in power, who are often white and male, to police the actions of women, people of color, and people who identify as LGBT (I hope you know this term for gays, transvestites, etc.) Many physicians also noted that avoiding controversial political and social statements isn't always best and could mean staying neutral on key political issues that affect their patients.
Given all of these concerns and objections, physicians (male and female alike) called for the paper to be retracted, and questioned how it was published in the first place.
"As a former editor in chief of a medical journal I'm appalled that this study was published." wrote Dr Monifa Seawall, MD. "Who in the world is vetting articles over there at that journal? The whole study is flawed. How did that editor allow this to be published? Trash trash and more trasssssshhhhh."
Other than that, it was OK, I suppose! Ha ha!
It turns out that the authors had not received permission to use the database of vascular surgery trainees for their social media analysis. They simply setup a fake account for themselves and started snooping.
Not cricket, as the English would say!
"You must speak up against this disturbing study," wrote Mudit Chowdhary, MD.
"3 men created fake social media accounts to purposefully spy on applicants… Worse, they are shaming our women physician colleagues for wearing bikinis," said another.
I hope you laughed at some of it. Most of it is beyond a joke, actually. Quite disturbing in fact.
To your good health,
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
The Official Alternative Doctor
in the city of Angers, northern France