Soft-core doctor porn at the New York Times

This illustration by Jorge Colombo was created to illustrate a dire warning by a middle-aged internist that her younger female colleagues seem to be dressing like whores nowadays.

It's always newsworthy when someone claims that an unexpected group of women is dressing wantonly: six-year-olds, pro bowlers, physicians.... It's the sort of thing the public needs to know about right away. You don't necessarily have time to establish whether one person's anecdotes are representative, or even plausible.

Unfortunately, the NYT couldn't find any of these scantily-clad doctors in time, so the editors had to make do with a more impressionistic illustration.

Comments

[superdude]

Speaking of dubious NY Times "trends":

In Web World, Rich Now Envy the Superrich

The newspeg: A dotcom millionaire bought a Prius instead of a Porsche. Although he could easily afford a Porsche, he wanted to get off that luxury car hamster wheel.

Newspeg, check. Now add supporting quotes from university professors, authors, and assorted experts, and you've met your wordcount for the day. It's Miller time.

[janet]

Hey, it's a two-fer: it's a bogus trend story and it's an excuse to publish cheesecake pix. You gotta hand it to the Times: with this story they demonstrate with perfect clarity the state of their commitment to journalistic standards and good taste.

[jami]

well, if my doctor has five sets of visible ribs where the bosom of a properly-nourished person might be, i'd be grateful to her for letting me know she's got issues with a plunging neckline.

also, if my doctor is actually a malnourished model masquerading as a doctor to make me as an attractive young professional woman feel ashamed, i'd like a heads-up there, too.

[John Lucid]

The woman in those pictures looks like she's in need of a physician - one who specializes in eating disorders. I don't think being able to count all the ribs articulating with the sternum correlates strongly with a healthy BMI. Even Mary Kate Olson would tell her to eat a sandwich or eight.

Every time I've been in the hospital I know I have felt like a whore when forced to wear the standard issue peek-a-boo hospital gown. I think it's only fair that the rest of the staff should dress like whores too, just to make the patients feel a little more comfortable in their degrading inpatient attire.

[Lawrence Krubner]

"It's the sort of thing the public needs to know about right away. You don't necessarily have time to establish whether one person's anecdotes representative, or even plausible."

If the newspapers are forced to wait till they have solid evidence that younger women are dressing in sexy ways and thus doing untold damage to our society it'll be as if the terrorists have already won.

[cfrost]

Wanton doctor babes. Great. I'm going through my HMO benefits brochure right now to see how I sign up. I guess we look under “preferred providers”.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

Avert your eyes, anyone who likes saying "too much information!"

>Wanton doctor babes.

The first doctor--and the last one--who gave me the "turn your head and cough" test was a woman, a beautiful, gorgeous, smiling, friendly woman doctor, very much like the one in the pictures above, though not with the ribs. Oh my God. I've never spent 30 seconds so perfectly frozen and unmoving.

I guess I'm happy with my life, all in all.

[1984 Was Not a Shopping List]

What was the topic again?

[Bitch]

ugh. they are scream stock photo. and stock photos are pretty bad, showing women in 'professional' outfits that I never see real life professional women wearing, unless you are at some off the wall funky graphics design firm in a meetting with the creatives. in which case exposure of a navel isn't where the action is.

[J.C. Wilmore]

Yes, will HMO's begin listing "wanton" as a specialty? Just asking in case I need to switch primary care physicians.

[aeroman]

"You don't necessarily have time to establish whether one person's anecdotes [are] representative, or even plausible."

This is, in fact, the first sentence in the NYT's "So You Want to Write Essays!" orientation pamphlet.

[epistemology]

This is the print journalism equivalent of Fox's docudrama about 9/11. Staged photos, invented 'facts.'

[Bruce/Crablaw]

I am getting tired of re-writing offering memoranda and need some amusement; any photo spreads about scantily clad attorneys?

Didn't think so. Oh well.

[zuzu]

The woman in those pictures looks like she's in need of a physician - one who specializes in eating disorders. I don't think being able to count all the ribs articulating with the sternum correlates strongly with a healthy BMI.

Not necessarily -- at my thinnest, I was a size 12, but I had a bony chest with visible ribs. Which surprised me, but there you have it.

[aeroman]

Bruce: Try 30% of shows on television.

[Thomas]

I am _so_ sick of the phony NYT trend stories. They recently ran one on city dwellers moving to Westchester for the schools, but then sending their kids to private school. One guy's story was taken horribly out on context: he chose private schools for their better ability to handle his children's learning disability, so they didn't even accurately recount the anecdotes. As to the "trend," the rise in private school enrollment just barely topped the rise in Westchester population; and the remainder is easily explained by rising financial services salaries allowing more of the upper middle class to choose private school. In short, there is not one shred of evidence of any change in the proportion of migrants from the city to Westchester that prefer private over public schools.

The "NYT bogus trend story" is such a byword for bullshit journalism that smart people on the center-left are becoming sick of the paper. I would change if I had a good alternative. The WSJ has great reporting, but the editorial stance really does impact the news pages (I often read both, and I can see the bias even though I never read WSJ op-eds), and WAPO is a house-organ for the inside-the-beltway establishment and has shitty business coverage. I'm seriously thinking about switching to FT for business coverage and dropping the broadsheets for non-biz altogether. I don't trust any of their analysis for political stories and I tend to prefer the transparent biases of the blogosphere anyway.

[Barbara]

Honestly, I doubt if any actual female doctor would agree to be photographed for such an article, even if it is a trend. What professional wants to be known mostly for their inappropriate choice of clothing? That said, it probably is a bit of a trend for younger doctors to be a little more daring in their clothing choices. My female obstetrician, for instance, isn't afraid of showing cleavage. Some of her outfits surprised me a little, but I never considered them to be inappropriate, maybe a little on the border, but not out of bounds. Considering how much time she spends at work, I could hardly blame her for wanting to wear work clothes that she actually liked.

[Njorl]

Soon NYT stories will start with, "You'll never believe this, but it really happened...". They can call it "NYT Forums"

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Dear New England Journal of Medicine, I never thought this would happen to me...

[perianwyr]

Tell me who is responsible for the "visible ribs are beautiful" school of female aesthetics. Tell me so that, when the time machine is invented, I may go back and kill them. Uarrgh.

[Thomas]

Dear New England Journal of Medicine, I never thought this would happen to me...

Lindsay, this is in the wrong discussion. I believe you're looking for the discussion of medical fetishes here:

http://pandagon.net/2006/11/21/we-need-more-disapproving-lip-pursing-someone-fetch-ann-althouse/

The question is, is the NEJM story a "medical professional as comfort-giver" story or a BDSM edgeplay story involving needles, sharp objects, cold metal and embarrassment?

[Xboy]

A medical convention was held here a few weeks ago, and I was taken aback by all the young MDs wearing black suits. Very stylish, I'm sure, but they looked like a group of undertakers -- or the Johnny Cash fan club.

[Rose]

As a hetrosexual woman I just wish more male doctors came to work scantily clad!

[Gritsforbreakfast]

If it really were a trend, I'd certainly be in favor of it, but I'm afraid Janet's right - it's just another crappy, bogus story and an excuse to publish racy photos. The Star does the same thing and nobody blinks, it's just sad to see it so frequently in the NYT.

The last female doc I saw was downright frumpy, FWIW.

[buma]

Magicthighs.