Where is the line drawn when deciding what is appropriate to post on social media as a young healthcare professional and who should ultimately get to decide this? This blog post is different from the rest because I want to address something that’s been all over social media since this past Friday.
Some of you may have seen the #Medbikini hashtag being used in raging response to the question put up for debate recently: Is it appropriate for a healthcare professional to post a picture of themselves in a swimsuit to social media?
This hashtag is a viral backlash in response to an article posted by The Journal of Vascular Surgery, titled, "Prevalence of unprofessional social media content among young vascular surgeons." As you can assume from the title, the purpose of this conducted study was to sneak around the social media accounts of young vascular surgeons to see how many were posting unprofessional content to social media. Did I mention that the study sent 3 male volunteers to collect this information?
Now, it’d be wrong to discount the fact that perhaps the study was looking for HIPAA violations or unlawful behavior that put patients’ private information at jeopardy. Perhaps partially, the study was searching for a selfie of wearing scrubs that accidentally showed a patient being escorted to the OR in the background, or an aesthetically pleasing office desk photo with a patient’s confidential file in the corner. Perhaps to some regard, the study was looking for offensive, racist, and/or discriminatory comments left by surgeons.
But alas, the rage felt by the common public majority came from the fact that the paper deemed posts that showed surgeons wearing “inappropriate attire” or “holding alcohol” as “potentially unprofessional.” These posts were all pictures taken in a social setting, outside of anything associated with a hospital. Physicians were getting reprimanded for having a life outside of their MD degree.
Here’s what made people get really upset though: that “inappropriate attire” as determined by the study included “pictures in underwear, provocative Halloween costumes, and provocative posting in bikinis/swimwear." Targeted towards women, the paper revealed the sexist system of double standards that continues to haunt the medical field even today.
Over the past week, medical professionals have showed solidarity in response by
trading in their white coats for bathing suits in posts with the hashtag #Medbikini to clap back at the sexist study. In an effort to call out the study for the underlying gender bias, young healthcare professionals from all over have banded together to display the ridicule and sexist language of the paper.
I wanted to write this blog post today to draw attention to the female medical professional experience, more specifically, the judged, harassed, and underpaid reality of it. A 2019 report in the New England Journal of Medicine found that sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and verbal abuse have all been factors in the high rates of burnout among female doctors. Scrutiny in the medical field can’t be avoided, but the harsh reality is that gender and race bias are still prevalent.
The published study has now been retracted with a public Twitter apology, saying that "the review process failed to identify the errors in the design of the study with regards to conscious and unconscious bias," ending with a pledge to improve the diversity of their editorial boards. However, the empowering message and fight for equity is far from over. Women in medicine are told not to be too nice but also not too pushy; not be too fancy but not look like a slob either; not act like a complete know-it-all but also not admit uncertainty.
To the all-male editorial board which published this paper: If male doctors can and do post pictures shirtless and in their underwear or bathing suits, why does this high public standard of professionalism only pertain to the women? Why does the scope of capability of a good physician come down to showing skin at the beach outside of the profession?
For years, physicians have been held to a high degree of respect and often put on a pedestal. With that said, such respect is given because of the many years of schooling, testing, and personal hours spent leading up to a career devoted to helping others. However, having “Dr.” in front of one’s name shouldn’t hold one to a different social media standard and expectation of life outside of work.
Physicians aren’t perfect people and they’re certainly not some elitist group of people who doesn’t have a glass of wine or go to the beach from time to time. Physicians do so much more than just practice medicine and what they do in their free time should not become part of an investigation that is packaged as peer-reviewed research. Female doctors have completed the same rigorous training and exams as their male colleagues, yet their Saturday beach bodies were exposed as a sheer reflection of how their patient will be treated that following Monday.
So, whether a physician’s body has tattoos, rides motorcycles, or looks insanely good in a bikini, none of that should impact his/or her practice of medicine negatively. It’s past time we start holding accountable those who try to negate the accomplishments of healthcare professionals with an ill-perceived attitude of sexism and misogyny.
I’m signing off for now but let me know your thoughts below in the comments! Meanwhile, I know where I’ll be heading next: my pool.