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I’m having one of those days. The type that can’t be improved by consuming ridiculous amounts of caffeine or chocolate. (I tried.) Lately, each time I turn on the news, my stomach begins to ache and I feel like I’m gonna hurl. It’s days like these when the slumping economy, plastic television pundits, and big bank bonuses really bum me out.

Are you like me? Mainstream media got you down? Sick of Edwards? Tired of Tiger? Need a break from the shallow, male dominated 24-hour-blab-fest? Do you crave provocative remarks from women who can lift you up and make you feel good (the kind of healthy escapism that won’t result in substance abuse or an std?) Well don’t despair, because I’ve got a few media feel-better-band-aids...

By now you've probably heard that Oprah has announced her daytime talk show, which has been on the air for a staggering 23 years, will end in September 2011, and already there's clamor over how the daytime talk show void could possibly be filled.

How do you keep female nurses working in low-playing jobs without improving their wages or conditions? Offer them breast implants, apparently. The New York Times reported on Sunday that hospitals in Prague lure nurses to renew their contracts by offering complimentary breast implants, liposuction and tummy tucks. “I feel better when I look in the mirror,” explains one nurse, Petra Kalivodova. “We were always taught that if a nurse is nice, intelligent, loves her work and looks attractive, then patients will recover faster.”
It’s gross that the global nursing shortage has led to this end in Prague. Hospitals have trouble recruiting nurses because the mostly-female occupation has a bad rap: nurses in the country earn less than bus drivers and movies and other media have built up this idea that nurses must be sexy – that being attractive is actually an essential part of patients’ healing.
Nursing is one of the few careers in science and healthcare that’s dominated by women. And now hospitals are reinforcing retro sexy-nurse stereotypes by offering breast implants instead of wage increases?
Bulllllshit!