#metoo in Medical Fields

Let me start by saying, if you don’t know already, in November of last year a famous hashtag started to go around called #metoo. What people meant by this is they were also sexually assaulted somehow, sometime and are sharing their stories to make it viral to show how many people have been sexually assaulted and are finally coming out about it. Of course there will always be people who don’t feel okay enough to share or scared too for whatever reason from being embarrassed or being threatened and will probably never have justice which is sad but true. This started because the allegations against Harvey Weinstein, a man in the Hollywood film realm, sexually assaulting both boys and girls of all ages in order for them  to ‘become a star’. This being, other victims of him or others started speaking out in all spectrum, which I will be covering a big one, the medical field.

It is more than likely you have watched medical TV shows like, Grey’s Anatomy, ER, house, and etc. They don’t cover the topic really ever which makes it so convincing to join like I feel like joining but to think about it, hospitals and doctors and anything medical is hard to escape going to and it’s a very popular place because you go get help. More people, more problems and you don’t the people well so they are so many unspoken possibilities. Just think the doctors are there for a great proportion of their stressful and nerve racking day. A study in 1995 found that 52% of all women in the academic medical field said they had been sexually harassed. We live in a world where most workplaces are male dominate and when power is established people get a little head crazy and over use it for bad things and acts. A colorectal surgeon spoke to say, “no one wanted to say anything, because nobody wanted to rock the boat. We were already stressed enough.” This I can’t stress enough is a hazard to any and everyone, if you don’t feel you have the time to speak up and change things for the better, chances are you really need to, not just for yourself but for others being affected too.

I’d like to say that sexual assault in the medical field does not just stand for the workers but the patients too. For example, think of the people who can’t stand up for themselves, cases of people in comatose are really at risk or patients missing a or some senses like hearing or seeing. Or the disabled whom can’t walk or are mentally handicapped. They are big targets, one reason being they can’t fight back and another for a gross subject of fetish. It breaks my heart that patients are just trying to get help to get better and have to worry about being harmed, even worse the workers try to do everything they can but are harassed themselves and have to deal with the emotional and/or physically pain of sexual assaults. This is not okay and we need to stand up for a better tomorrow starting with sharing our story to get justice. It is 2018, we can be the better in the world, helping ourselves and others.

-Samantha Mason