gotbottle: (hold up)
Rachel Conway ([personal profile] gotbottle) wrote in [community profile] askandanswer2014-09-30 10:47 pm
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Okay, so like-- the whole "clean underwear" thing.

[She leans in a bit, forearms braced on the podium, fingers dangling off the edge.]

I mean, like, "clean underwear in case you get hit by a truck", like my mom's always saying. Is it for real? Or is it just my mom? I mean, I'm sure I've heard jokes about it on TV so maybe it's not just my mom that says it.

But seriously, if you're on a gurney in the ER and they've got to cut your clothes off or whatever, is some doctor really gonna stop and be like, "Wow, clean underwear. Good job"? Beeeeecause that's kind of not a comforting thought. I'm not okay with that.

I'm totally not advocating that we abandon clean underwear, I'm just... wondering if whatever underwear business you have going on at the time of an emergency really matters. Does it? If no: why the concern? If yes: is "clean" sufficient or like, are there other guidelines?
peratic: (ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴜɴᴛᴇʀ ɪs ғᴀsᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴀᴅʏ)

[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-01 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
[ Gisela actually laughs for maybe the first time since she's started visiting here, good job Rachel. ]

Not really, no. If someone's bleeding out and we have to cut their clothes off, nobody notices the sartorial quality of what's underneath unless their underwear looks two years old and we need to bear hygiene in mind for further treatment.

But, like, an A&E night shift staple is men who put foreign objects into their anal cavities and then pretend they fell on said shampoo bottle in the shower. Faded-out panties are pretty low-grade, comparatively.
peratic: (ɪɴ ᴄᴏᴍᴘᴀɴʏ sʜᴇ ʀɪᴅᴇs)

[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-01 07:37 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Shampoo objects are some of the less weird ones, sadly. ]

It's not anything I've heard from my mother, but it's probably a common maternal thing to contemplate. I'm not familiar with any superstition attached, but it could be an American thing, and I am not, so...possibly?
Edited 2014-10-01 19:37 (UTC)
peratic: (sᴏ sᴜʀᴇʟʏ ɪᴛ's ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ʜᴀʀᴅᴇʀ ᴛʜɪɴɢ)

[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-04 05:48 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Okay that one would be new. ]

That is the stereotype, isn't it? Maybe California just has particularly judgmental doctors.
peratic: (Default)

[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-05 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
From what I know, LA is really two different cities: one for the image-conscious, and one for the rest of us peons. Presuming that's the city you mean. [ Gisela decides she will move back home and lock Lelia in a closet if her sister decides to move to LA.

Also, she's not a snob, so she doesn't take this to heart, but pretty much all neurosurgeons think cosmetic surgeons are pathetic. Hard not to think of that, even if she won't let herself judge too much. ]
Edited 2014-10-05 03:50 (UTC)
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[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-06 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
Most places are. I lived in London for a few years when I was in my teens, and it was not dissimilar; tourists and the very rich live in one world, but the rest had an entirely different perception.
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[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-06 04:52 am (UTC)(link)
I should add that I lived in Croyden, which is barely London. [ Everyone makes fun of Croyden. It's very sad. ]

I think you're right about that. We've got scientologists in Edinburgh! They are not well-loved and not really one of life's riches, though.
peratic: (ᴛᴇɴ ᴋɪɴɢs ᴀɴᴅ ǫᴜᴇᴇɴs)

[personal profile] peratic 2014-10-07 12:26 am (UTC)(link)
Creepy. Scientologists are really the new ghost story, aren't they.
meanwhileback: (my cowardice and your bad timing)

[personal profile] meanwhileback 2014-10-06 03:37 am (UTC)(link)
Uh, it's more like, what happens when you're not wearing clean underwear. Like do you want EMTs looking at your gross period-stained cheesy stinky week-old panties while they're trying to staple your severed limbs back on, or whatever.

I think bras are exempt from this rule. Everybody knows you don't wash bras unless Jupiter is in the seventh house and Virgo is rising or whatever, so there's no law in effect there.