Join our Facebook group
  Truth About Nursing logo  
For immediate release
September 12, 2011
Contact:
Sandy Summers
410-323-1100 or 443-253-3738
ssummers@truthaboutnursing.org
 

Nurse 3D Horrifies 3D Nurses

September 12, 2011 -- Hundreds of nurses from across North America have written to protest Nurse 3D, a new horror film about a "sexy but vengeful" nurse who targets men. Filming starts this month in Toronto with actress Paz De La Huerta of Boardwalk Empire in the leading role.

Production company Lionsgate has described the movie's theme as novel, but the Truth About Nursing, a Baltimore-based nonprofit group, says it is just a common variation on the tired "naughty nurse" stereotype that is well-established in past media products like horror films and ads.

"It's pretty clearly another 'naughty-axe,'" said Sandy Summers, executive director of the Truth About Nursing, using the group's term for images that unite the profession's "naughty" and "battle-axe" stereotypes. "Of course we're just going on Lionsgate's own publicity materials, but it's hard to see how a film with Nurse 3D's basic outline could avoid harming nursing."

Summers pointed to prior "naughty-axe" images in products ranging from sexually-oriented horror films like Candy Stripers (2006) to the album art for rock band blink-182's Enema of the State (1999). "This kind of imagery suggests that nursing is all about mindless feminine extremes, rather than a modern science profession for college-educated persons of both genders," she said. "These stereotypes undermine real nurses' claims to adequate respect and resources."
 
Lionsgate publicity materials make clear that the film creators are aiming to exploit the 3D format to bring viewers violence and sexuality. Apparently, the film is based on some "fine art" photos that Lionsgate head of marketing Tim Palen took and used to promote a blood drive to mark the Halloween 2006 premiere of an entry in the company's popular Saw horror film series.

In a press release for Nurse 3D, Palen himself explained that "we learned from the success of My Bloody Valentine 3D that there is a real interest in what 3D filmmaking can add to risqué scenes in R rated films, and this film will deliver those scenes to audiences in a really sophisticated, artful way."

"I'm sure Oscar voters will understand the artistic mission here," said Summers, "but our concern is that the film will be pushing more tired anti-nurse imagery into people's faces--literally--at a time when the profession remains in crisis worldwide. We realize that there's a joking element in movies like this, but jokes are a common way that stereotypes are reinforced."

The Truth About Nursing has asked those making Nurse 3D to remove the nurse element from the film, or at least minimize the damage the film will likely cause, perhaps by showing that the main character has the skills to save lives, not just take them. The filmmakers might also make amends by creating a film showing nurses as professionals with three genuine dimensions.

"The violence in Nurse 3D might be fake," said Summers, "but the harm to nursing is real."

For more information about Nurse 3D, please follow this link: www.truthaboutnursing.org/news/2011/aug/nurse_3d.html

The Truth About Nursing, pursuing a mission established in 2001, is a 501(c)(3) international non-profit organization based in Baltimore that seeks to increase public understanding of the central, front-line role nurses play in modern health care. The focus of the Truth is to promote more accurate, balanced and frequent media portrayals of nurses and increase the media's use of nurses as expert sources.

See the Truth's about us pages.

For more information, please contact:

Sandy Summers, MSN, MPH, RN
Founder and Executive Director
The Truth About Nursing
203 Churchwardens Rd.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA 21212-2937
office 1-410-323-1100
fax 1-410-510-1790
cell 1-443-253-3738
ssummers@truthaboutnursing.org

Go to The Truth About Nursing's main page


Truth About Nursing Blog logo



book cover, Saving lives


A Few Successes —
We Can Change the Media!

Educate the world that nurses save lives!


Save Lives. Be a Nurse. bumper sticker