Looks can and do often say alot about someone and prejudice only comes to life when action is taken. What I think is my business and what I observe about someone is my business. Having a friend that works in free clinics and a mother that works in the clinics I have first hand knowledge of what most people get treated for at free clinics in inner cities and there are similarities enough to draw a logical conclusion that I posted about. I do know some young adults that dress goth and are clean and do not smell but they are not what I would call the norm within the goth world.
Most but not all free inner city clinics treat infections from a host of causes which include piercings, STD's and poor hygiene related issues and they go there because they dress in a manner that is not acceptable for employment in most businesses that deal with the public and therefore have low or no income and in turn no medical insurance. Very patternable, predictable lifestyle conditions, but not prejudicial...again...(sigh...) only my observations.
Your nurse most likely got the piercings as an adolesent and is still young enough to think they mean something tangible, shaven heads is an alternative hair style for balding men ...usually.
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their hygene isn't something I could ignore - but it's entirely possible to dress goth and be clean you know!
they have to be clean or they cannot do the job if they are a surgeon. the implication that someone who doesn't dress "mainstream" will probably have bad hygene is just prejudice. The best nurse I had at the extremely expensive hospital I was in following my brain haemorrhage in 2005 had a shaven head and multiple piercings - and was brilliant at his job.
I have no idea what you are trying to say about people in free clinics.... bearing in mind I'm not in the USA, so it's probably lost somewhere in cultural differences...it reads to me as though you think people who can't afford medical insurance aren't clean... and why would a patient wear a suit and tie to the clinic?
So I'm guessing cultural differences there.
