Asking For Sexual Harassment

Every Friday, some of the nurses are expected to wear a t-shirt that has a green hand on each breast. No, it is not punishment. It is considered some kind of an honor and a mandatory duty to wear one of these tops for nurses belonging to a certain committee. Thank goodness I am not in that committee. I just borrowed a shirt for a minute to pose for the picture. I wanted you to see how offensive it is.

I honestly don't know if whoever designed the shirt was naive or deliberately wanted something sexually provocative to get people's attention. What has happened is that every Friday, about thirty nurses are sexually harassed and teased. One doctor asked if he could put his hands on the nurse's hands, while staring at her breasts. A male coworker, who has always been a complete gentleman, commented that the shirt made him want to put his hands on our breasts. All day long, the nurse victims have to endure the comments and stares.

Sometimes, it is hard to say if something constitutes sexual harassment, but in my opinion, this is clearly over the line. If someone is forced to wear something that exposes them to unwanted sexual comments and stares, than it is sexual harassment. If we worked for Hooters, it would be different, but we are serious health care workers who should be shown respect for our hard work and compassion, not treated like bimbos. No, I'm not saying that Hooter's waitresses are bimbos, it's just that we have worked too hard to have men joking about wanting to touch our breasts.

It is hard for me to ignore this kind of thing, so I have been talking to every t-shirt wearing nurse I can find. They tell me their stories of abuse and I tell them other nurses' stories. I'm not giving legal advice, but I'm making sure they know that they don't have to put up with this.

With the managers who made this bonehead decision and also wear the shirts, I've been passive-aggressive. With a smile and a pleasant sing-song voice, I'll ask them how many people teased them today.

I don't know if it was my doing or if everyone suddenly came to their senses, but last Friday, I didn't see a single hands-on-breasts shirt. So, what do you think? Am I just an old fuddy duddy, or are these shirts offensive?