[MountainMan]

Yes this gender thing is a bit of a stigma..."a Nurse...a male-nurse...??!!" my father said when I informed him at Christmas that I was going backto school to become a nurse.
anyone over the age of say 45 knows a very different world. One that reaked of inequality in gender, religon, and race. The fragmentation of society that occured when our brothers were being drafted to fight in a unwinnable war that had rubber production at it's roots more than the spred of communism, is a fragmentation that became a powerful force of change.
These draftees were denied the right to vote for the people who were making the policies that were sending them to war! Before the mid 70's the voting age was 21. At 18 you were old enough to kill for your country but somehow not old enough to be trusted with the responsibility of voting! Go figure! This is just an example of the primitive concepts that ruled our society that very recent quarter-century ago. I remenber the first Black Actor based TV series 'The Jeffersons" which televised the first mixed race couple (George Jefferson the play on the promiscuity of our Founding-Fathers).
The discord with-in society had everyone paying attention, then came Kent State! that and the identical incident that occurred in Mississippi, of which no-one remembers because they were black students, turned the tide from fragmentation to reconciliation. In this reconciliation the mature white male lost a bit of his dominance, role barriers were erroded, race barriers were erroded too. There is still a good deal of control maintained by us white guys but the barriers continueto erode. The changes were facilitated by gender-non-specific titles such as the Mailman becoming the Mail-carrier, etc.. But NURSE remains. Ending in that feminine vowel and all. Perhaps if we stuck a tough masculine consenant such as 'K' or 'R' or 'N', something like that, or a nutral consenant like 'T' or 'M' or 'B'. Just get rid of the sissy 'se'.
Sorry for my wandering diatribe, the reason I am here is I am writting a report for foundations 102 on Luther Christman and If anyone can refer me to any articles on the ManNurse I would greatly appreciate it.
By the way I will be proud to call myself a Nurse when I make it through school!
Thanks, Richard