Cute Photo of Kids in Nurse and Doctor's Robes Sparks Backlash – Called Sexist

Medical Shots, a medical page account on Twitter, shared a photo of two adorable kids dressed in scrubs labeled “Nurse in training” for the girl, and “Doctor in training” for the boy, which offended many of its followers.

The post sparked an online debate between Twitter users with some asking why they assigned the Doctor scrubs to the boy and not the girl.

“Sorry, I live in a world where women can be doctors too,” said one.

Most users argued that the gender roles were too traditional calling it sexism. With one joking,

“How did you tweet this from the year 1950?”

Advocates of gender-neutral parenting, where a child is raised without the usual gender norms and biases, avoiding gender stereotyping at all costs, believe that it allows kids to grow free and give every child the full spectrum of options. It grants children room for creativity and more freedom to express themselves and make independent choices.

The photo posted by Medical Shots understandably stirred things up by violating most of the rules of the gender-neutral trend. It used color stereotypes, like the pink scrubs for the little girl. And it went further by dictating which specific medical profession went to each child.

Here is an edited photo depicting a more politically correct scenario.

Not everyone was upset by the post seeing that it received more than 20,000 likes. With one supporter saying,

“Yes, it’s cute. Also, it captures one of the many possible outcomes for these little dreamers.”

And this one showing how irrational the argument can be about a seemingly harmless photo.

“So, just to be clear, we all agree that women and men can both be either doctors or nurses. But we can NEVER portray a male doctor and female nurse. Even though we all acknowledge that the scenario is accurate 50% of the time. We can only portray the other 50%. Ever. Makes sense.”

Many argue that sexism is really the underlying issue and that things haven’t really changed much through the years. It seems to merely have found new ways to exist in our modern world with new casual language or terms, loaded with similar expectations. The best way to battle it is by taking a clear position through vigilance and dialogue.