SEXISM IN SURGICAL GLOVES

“What size glove, Madam?” Asked my surgical technician assistant. 

"A 7.5 and a 7," I replied.

He smirked and picked them up for me. He looked very eager to spit out something to me.

 

An operating theatre is always full of people at any given time. It's a large team that manages an operation theatre. There is the surgical team with the primary surgeon and the assistant surgeons; the nursing team, who assists the surgeons; the anaesthetist team; the technicians and the housekeeping team. And every now and then, medical and nursing students flood the OT and stand curiously to watch the surgery.

 

It's not like those shown in the daily soaps where you can enter the theatre and demand to treat your husband yourself. It's a highly sterile zone and is prohibited for anyone except the patient and the OT team.

 

"Mam, your gloves." The technician said, holding out the pair for me. The doubt in his eyes was still evident. We don't have a name for him yet. Let's call him Revi for now. Yes, not Ravi, it has to be Revi, and you know why. If you don't, you need to watch Love today, and I am not really advertising the movie here.

 

"What is it, brother Ji?" I asked, a little confused as to why he had to be so dramatic about a glove.

"Madam, I just thought it would be too big for you. I would rather suggest you try a 6.5 size." Uuuhhh! Here it comes again. People constantly questioned me about being the primary surgeon because of my stature and timid look. Any new team always mistook me for a student or questioned my experience. And now, this! I was not disappointed; since this had also happened a couple of times before, I was well prepared to give it back.

 

"But I have always worn them of this size. See, my fingers are stout. And the 6.5 is too tight that my fingers go numb in some time." I gave him my genuine reply first, all of this conservation happened when I was simultaneously putting them on.

 

"I understand. But we are short of gloves in the 7 and 7.5 sizes, and we rather keep them in store for the male surgeons. You know, they actually prefer and need those for real." He unnecessarily stressed the "for real" as if I was imaginary. 

 

"Don't you think I would prefer what's comfortable for me? And I would never give up my comfort of operating and struggle with what doesn't work for me." 

 

"But madam. If I were you, I would rather give them up for the men and choose the smaller ones for myself." Now that was the end of my patience level despite wanting to keep it all in control.

 

"You genuinely sound like someone affected by size preferences. And you know what, brother? If I were you, I would rather not discuss the sizes of anything that matters with oneself." I gave him a staring sideways look with a sneer. He could not take the hit on his masculine ego and never looked me in the eye ever again until my tenure was over, and neither did he suggest to me what he thought would fit me.

#penbooksandscalpel

#mysurgicalfables

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