The Veiled Chameleon: October 2006: The Self-Abasement of Political Correctness

January 5, 2005 -- Australian nurses have succeeded in ending advertising for a "naughty nurse" outfit sold by major retailer Bras 'n Things. However, the product remains for sale in the lingerie chain's 150+ stores in Australia and New Zealand, even though the Australian Nursing Federation (ANF) has reportedly called for a boycott of the stores unless the outfit is "dropped." The unsigned January 4 piece "Poster makes nurses ill" in the Herald Sun tells the basic story prior to the pulling of the ads, and gets the nurses' point across, though it also includes some condescending description of them. The Center salutes Australian nurses, especially the Australian Nursing Federation, for this campaign. We urge Bras 'n Things to retire the naughty nurse item. Read more below or click here to send our instant letter now.

Dear Ms. Cheryl Williams and Bras n' Things management:

I've rarely seen anything so ridiculous as the "Nurse Advocacy" grievance about the nurses uniform lingerie. I find it absolutely absurd that you would give in to Puritanical pressures and remove a perfectly acceptable garment from your website.

Perhaps it is none of my business, as I am an American, but it seems to me that the fallout from knee jerk applications of political correctness is a growing problem throughout what we refer to the "free world". With every voluntary capitulation we make to anyone who happens to be offended by who or what we are, what we like or dislike, we only succeed in substituting their values for our own, thus abasing ourselves. This tendency toward self-abasement is having unintended ramifications for western culture all over the globe, in which we take on feelings of embarrassment for being ourselves, while other cultures (who do not share this feeling of self-hatred) move into, grow and multiply among us, with their cultures erasing western culture. Western culture is much too valuable to be lost in this manner.

Please, take a moment to stand up for who you are by re-including the nurses uniform on your website. Giving up ourselves in the face of social pressures does not provide a good example to others, but standing up for ourselves most certainly does. (You would not have had the nurses uniform on your site if you, yourself, did not approve of it prior to the impermissive and prudish outcry from "Nurse Advocacy". Are they really more fit to guide your actions than your own conscience?)