tldr: sex murals
I’m trying to imagine how fast the sexual harassment suits would be filed in an American workplace. Really really fast is my guess.
Doctor House, I understand that you have ways of sublimating your addiction. But please stop painting murals in the resident’s quarters.
Vive la France.
What a strange practice. I wonder how it got started?
This is really amazing. And it’s a typical thing? How odd.
Very strange, but I bet the staff laughs every time they see the murals, which is good because in a hospital setting sometimes it’s hard to find anything to smile about. I would also assume the participation as a mural subject is optional, and waivers are signed all around to prevent any legal issues. Weird custom, but certainly amusing enough. The curious thing is that it seems to have spread as a custom throughout the countries hospitals. I’d love to have been present at the board meeting that was first proposed at!
Back in my 20s, I sought treatment in France for my enormous penis. I’d be surprised if I weren’t featured on a patient table in some of those murals. (All attempts failed, I’m afraid — it’s bigger than ever.)
Reading the comments below, came across this gem.
Can’t click any of the links right now, but based on this article and associated anecdata, it isn’t all orgy frescoes. (Warning: French)
A French doctor friend had sent me the above article when she learned that I had never heard of these rooms. One of the rituals in these salles de garde, is for women to expose their breasts to a room of men when the men chant, “des poumons.”
When I asked the sender if she ever felt ashamed about having to do that, she replied that it was just part of becoming a doctor in France. When I asked her what would have happened if she hadn’t wanted to participate, she told me that she just would have decided not to become a doctor.
Uh…wtf.
Apparently every day is Mardi Gras in France.
I know European culture, and especially French culture, is different in that attitudes towards sex and people’s bodies are more relaxed, but that’s just messed up.
Don’t worry, I’m sure that right this moment, some doctor in France is thinking that something that happens in America is messed up.
Yeah man, I understand that in America, you have to shoot someone to be a doctor, with your American guns, and your love of guns, and violence, and guns and stuff. Oh yeah, and then you have to be stupidly nationalistic and stuff.
In France, we just make women expose their breasts in a paternalistic hazing ritual.
This book explains it … if you can read french.
This french article that also explains it a bit and shows that not everyone agrees with it.
Are you sure? I was under the impression that to be a Doctor you don’t really need all those guns, you just need to have sex with all the members of the staff, or, if you have some sort of tragic past, be an asshole incapable of happiness.
No?
The whole Jerry Lewis thing is making more sense now. The French are insane.
I love France so much right now.
You missed the Vicodin habit.
From that article:
Certaines salles sont très actives, d’autres en sommeil ou désaffectées, mais elles existent dans la plupart des hôpitaux parisiens et dans quelques hôpitaux de province.
It seems that this is mostly a Paris thing then?
Indeed. :D
And from my very cursory reading of that French article, dudes expose their buttocks. So it’s apparently not just a “paternalistic hazing ritual”.