From Nurse Jones, I have a serious question for STella, Roo, Lothie, Amelia, and all interested parties, especially female.From Nurse Jones, I have a serious question for STella, Roo, Lothie, Amelia, and all interested parties, especially female. There is this other nurse on our floor that is a "type" of person. I know, I should talk, especially to this bunch of, shall we say, hard-line liberals, about labeling people, but this is a legiti- mate question. There IS a type of woman that is a man's woman. I'll call this one "Scarlett." She doesn't even notice other women; it's like we were furniture or something. If she's talking to you, you get the feeling she's looking over your shoulder in case something male, especially a doctor, comes out of the elevator. If it does she's gone like a shot. Scarlett is attractive, and they usually are. She treats me with a certain amount of respect, basically by acknowledging my presence, but that's ONLY because she perceives me as potential competition, not because she wants to communicate. There are women on the floor that are fantastic people, but not physically up to her standards, and she ignores them. There's a young candy-striper who uses her head only to keep her ears apart, and she's worthy of Scarlett's notice because she's attractive. This is behavior I see in men, even expect, but it's not common in a woman. I don't think she (Scarlett) is aware of it, even. I think she believes herself perfectly normal, but she's like a different species. I can't communicate with her any more than with a hyper- baptist. Do you know the kind I mean? Men seem to find her attractive, and I don't think they perceive her as odd because they never see the side of her that women do. She doesn't go out with other women, shopping, for lunch, anything. It's like she has two mental states, two modes: being around men, and waiting. It's like she has drifted off somewhere and her only contact is with men. She stopped being complete, somehow, and became just part of a person, magnified all out of proportion. My first week on the floor, I thought she was just desperate to marry a doctor. "There goes the good time that was had by all," I thought. But no, she doesn't really seem to sleep around, I don't think. I could be naive, but I don't think so. She is just drifted off into a totally man-oriented existence. |