This proposed answer did not have the expected “humorous” effect. During a mock medical exam, the computerized national classifying tests “(ECNi), Friday April 8, 2016, the sixth-year students had to answer the following question:”A 35-year-old patient receives spankingat his place of work by his hierarchical superior in front of his colleagues. She consults in the emergency room“. This point makes it possible to approach the theme of sexual harassment at work. But among the answers proposed, the last mention, considered sexist, made more than one student jump. And for good reason, it stipulated: “you ask her to go around the corner because she was not good“A student from Paris Diderot University took a picture of this part of the exam and posted it on Twitter, under the nickname Pauline (tte) (@pziou) highlighting : “sexual harassment at work makes the doctors who write the mock exams for my college laugh a lot. Shameful. “The reactions then surged on the web. To date, Pauline (tte) ‘s tweet has more than 550” like “mentions and has been shared more than 1,700 times.
Health Minister Marisol Touraine also reacted on April 11 with the following tweet: “the question was meant to be humorous? It missed. And sexist. So unacceptable.“
Towards a rejection of “ordinary sexism”?
If many students, supported by the national association of medical students of France (ANEMF) condemned this dubious humor, question 37 of the ECNi has revived the debate that already exists on the “carbine” spirit of medicine . By tradition, this spirit gives pride of place to provocation, pornography and bawling. But the fact that students themselves denounce these mentalities could evolve into a rejection of this “ordinary sexism”. The author of the initial tweet, Pauline (tte), posted an article on the site on April 11. Most (NouvelObs) explaining that it was not, according to her, a simple “trifle”. “It is an additional symptom of a fatty and uninhibited sexism, still deeply rooted in certain medical circles.“She explains. This episode adds, according to this student, to a more general climate of”hyper-sexualization that sometimes reigns in the corridors of the hospital“. She backs up her point with shocking examples of the lack of respect for patients and their dignity, threats of rape and sexist thoughts against him. “We are afraid of our hierarchy, we are well held by the immense stress that we have to endure during these studies: ‘no time to challenge, I have to revise’. Know it now: we are going to talk. […] It is time that medicine and surgery, the ones I love and want to do my job, move forward towards more equality and respect.“she concludes.
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