Picture Cred: wtvr.com
“The View” is a popular morning television show aired on ABC every weekday. The show consists of an all women platform that come from various areas in Hollywood. The show revolves around controversies and hot topics and typically prides itself on being uplifting for women and an advocate for women’s rights.
Due to “The View’s” huge significance in women’s culture, one would think that they would always take into account what they say and if it would offend any of their audience. However, that was not the case for two of the show’s co-hosts, Joy Behar and Michelle Collins.
Collins and Behar mocked an oral monologue said by Kelley Johnson as Miss Colorado in the Miss America Pageant on September 13, 2015. The monologue brought to light the underappreciated profession of nursing, and also the fact that patients are people too and patients build a bond with their nurses over the course of their stay. “Patients are people with families and friends. You are not a room number or diagnosis in the hospital. You’re a person . . . And Joe reminded me that I am a lifesaver. I am never going to be ‘just a nurse,” said Miss Colorado during her moving monologue.
After several giggles came from the other co-hosts while watching Miss Colorado, Michelle Collins added in her own opinion, saying, “There was a girl who wrote her own monologue, and I was like, turn the volume up, this is going be amazing, let’s listen. She came out in a nurse’s uniform and basically read her e-mails out loud and shockingly did not win. I was like, that’s not a real talent.”
After Collins spoke her mind, Joy Behar also decided to question the nurse in a condescending tone asking, “Why is she wearing a doctor’s stethoscope?” This comment displayed Behar’s ignorance on the subject of doctors and nurses while also making her look foolish.
The words spoken by the two co-hosts have sparked a nationwide controversy of their own. There are many sources predicting termination of employment for Collins and Behar. While that has not yet happened, a number of high profile sponsors such as Johnson and Johnson, have pulled ads from the show due to the unnecessary comments.
The pair did not make themselves look any better over social media after the incident. Collins tweeted that nurses should “prescribe yourselves a Valium and let’s just all relax”, all the more proving ignorance because nurses do not prescribe medications. Behar decided to claim innocence by tweeting, “I did not know she was a nurse.”
Overall ratings for “The View” have dropped 50 percent a week after the comments were made and many suspect more repercussions to come.
Campus Crier Online 