Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Passive Agressive Manipulation

An experpt from the Centre for Nursing Advocacy's analysis of The Nurse by the White Stripes:


"It's true that nurses are professionally obligated to protect their patients. But nurses have had more than enough of their expert care being associated with romantic relationships, a cliche that continues to undermine efforts to have their vital clinical skills recognized. It's also not hard to see some of the male vulnerability that has fueled the battleaxe nurse stereotype here, as the narrator stresses how "helpless," "alone" and "most ill" he is. What man wants to be at the mercy of some "suspiciously dusting" woman at a time like that? ...

The second stanza packs a real anti-nurse wallop, as the "maid you've hired," who's supposed to "mother" you, instead smothers you while you're "most ill." Clearly these roles--nurse, maid, mother--all run together here. But contrary to decades of the kind of handmaiden and maternal stereotyping in "The Nurse," modern nurses are skilled professionals with years of college-level education. A man may need a maid, as Neil Young once suggested, but not for nursing."

The Centre for Nursing Advocacy sent Jack White the Golden Lamp Award for Worst Portrayal of Nursing in the Media 2005:




White responded:



Something tells me this is going to go very badly...

PS: The Nursing Advocacy people titled their article: "Boy you have no faith in Nursing"... personally I think my title was wittier as I didn't make a b-line for the obvious.

4 comments:

Phinneas Q Jacksmith said...

I hope Jack never gets lovesick in the cold, cold night and starts thinking "I just don't know what to do with myself." He'll have to pick up the phone in his little room, and say "Hello Operator, get me the St. James Infirmary." and the voice on the other end will say "Who's a big baby?" and hang up. When he rings again they'll say "Though I hear you calling I will not answer. There's no home for you here." And he'll be lucky if someone doesn't ring his doorbell with a death letter. Jack will think "I'm wasting my time, so after one more cup of coffee I'll stop breaking down and do what I always do when I hear my name misused in this way." Muttering to himself, "Why can't you be nicer to me?" Hopefully Jack doesn't say "I can't wait. Your southern can is mine" and get all Von Bondies on the medical professionals with his cannon, leaving their hospital a jumble jumble of broken bricks on the dirty ground. They'd be looking at a red death at 6:14, because all they do is take, take, take and sooner or later Jack's going to find it harder to be a gentleman. Hopefully he can see that this protector of the nurses is one of those little people who gets offended in every way; the kind of person who would lead a seven nation army against the Hotel Yorba, because they heard that someone was walking with a little ghost under a white moon and that just wasn't what they were expecting! Some people! I think I smell a rat. So with a little luck, the nurses and Jack will both say "I can learn. We're going to be friends. Let's shake hands." Who knows, maybe we'll even hear one day "It's true that we love one another." ("I fell in love with a girl!" Jack will proclaim, as Karen pouts.) And a little bird will sing over the union, forever. I'd go on, but the next section is rated x, so suffice it to say that as ugly as I seem, I hope that the White Stripes and The Centre for Nursing Advocacy can patch things up and be each other's top special.

Liz said...

Part II
Jack goes out with one of the nurses, Jolene, and orders a couple of drinks from a little room. They both get a Screwdriver and she becomes the Boy's Best Friend and he's got her in his pocket. But Jack, finding it harder to be a gentleman, finally says "You're pretty good looking for a nurse, but there's no home for you here". Offended the nurse replies: "I'm lonely but I ain't that lonely yet!" and storms off leaving Jack at the table in the little room with only an apple blossom and a cheese ball and biscuit. The sugar never tasted so good, and Jack realized that the Nurse was having a strange denial twist.
At this point, I'm bound to pack it up.

... probably re-used one by accident anyways...

Angelo Muredda said...

All of this seems very academic, so...

For proving that they can do completely unnecessary close readings well, The Centre for Nursing Advocacy gets a C+.

For making me "lol," Jack White gets an A+.

For his endurance and proficiency at quoting any title or line from the White Stripes' catalogue, Andrew gets Hoi Cheu's most coveted, impossible to achieve, always out of reach grade of grades: T16.

My word today was "sunqlxpe."

Phinneas Q Jacksmith said...

This post deserves more comments, so here's another!