Let’s Talk About It : Figs Ad
What I hope that we as the medical community, and Figs as a company, can learn from the past 48 hours is that impact is so much more important than intent.
“Impact is so much more important than intent.”
As a PA, I empathize with my DO and RN colleagues. I know how frustrating it can be when the general public isn’t informed about your profession, your skills, and your qualifications. As a woman in medicine, I felt the sting of being represented as “silly” or “ditzy” or “a dummy” while dancing around in pink scrubs. I can’t imagine how hurt our DO & RN family felt when they saw the ads, with their title, created by a brand that is supposed to serve them.
The hurt and outrage that this has sparked are reflective of the current culture in American healthcare, where it’s discouraged to express femininity at work (ex: wearing pink scrubs, wearing makeup, painted nails) because you won’t be taken seriously. Where female providers are routinely paid less than their male counterparts (looking at you PA profession). Where people who don’t even know what the letters behind our names stand for are somehow experts on our qualifications and competency (hello CNN). Where there is a vicious hierarchical ranking system and equally qualified professionals are pitted against one another (DO vs MD, PA vs NP). This is the culture I hope my content can change, regardless of which brand I’m wearing in the posts. At the end of the day, I’m a primary care provider first, not a PR person for Figs. Nor are any of the other ambassadors, please remember that.
Even female-founded companies aren’t immune to unintentional misogyny, bias, or outdated beauty standards. I do believe this was not meant to attack DOs or belittle women. For lack of a better term, it was not properly peer-reviewed. Somebody should’ve asked for the citations supporting the conclusion that this was a good idea! There is no excuse for the complete lack of insight and I don’t intend to try and make any. The founders/CEOs of Figs and their marketing team have made commitments based on feedback from over 130 healthcare folks. Personally, I tried to be as candid as possible in my suggestions to them and we brought up so many of the concerns that people all over social media have expressed. We discussed issues with representation, sizing options, gender-neutral terminology, elitism. Female DOs were able to tell them directly how best to support them through this blunder and in the future. Just like all of you, I am awaiting these implementations. As an ambassador to the brands I work with, I am able to relay these issues and my personal concerns to people who have the power and platforms to spread awareness, to allocate funds, to shift the culture, to spread knowledge. That’s honestly all I ever intended to do here on social media.
(Also…. What @mamadoctorjones said here but like… with way less followers & no kids.) :)
If you’re not in healthcare and have no idea what is going on, all you need to know is this: DOs and MDs are equally qualified, board-certified physicians who can work in any specialty of medicine. Links above will give you a quick crash course.