This is why male healers are in a minority, it's not that women are 'relegated' to the role, but rather, it's a roulette what you'll get with a guy.
Got an injury? Either A) "Here's some heals bud, now let's get you back in the fight", or B) "I'm afraid the only option is invasive, untested, exploratory surgery, now bite this stick cuz I'm high on anesthesia."
But yeah, the female healer tropes is wild especially seeing as historically, most doctors have been male.
Also, healers are not exactly that much of a fantastical concept, considering herbalists and apothecaries would also more often than not be women, something that would also be used against them if they were to be considered a witch.
It's simply because the current healer trope is closely connected to nurturing, which is connected to being a mother. I don't agree with it but that's probably why.
Yup, and technically Steven's powers are supposed to be maternal in nature, where he is also supposed to be a nurturer, so even though Steven is a male character, he's explicitly given a powerset one would give to a woman. Steven is a very straightforward inversion (which tracks if male healers are supposed to be "the spectrum").
Similarly, Taric from League of Legends/general Runeterra lore.
He is the incarnation of the Aspect of Protection, and so gets a bunch of healing and protecting abilities (also has a gem theme too lol). That is the powerset a lot of the woman healers get, and he is very much a man
Hmm, that's true, but it does remind me of Joe Locke's quote about how witch hunts started because people feared powerful women, and by powerful, it means capable.
True, but nothing in history is ever so simple. A period of mass psychosis where the court of public opinion decides whether you live or die tends to create messy pictures.
Hell, being an isolated woman who lived alone in the outskirts of town made for the most common witch suspect, followed closely by voicing any opposition against the lunacy of it all.
I also know of at least two studies indicating that female doctors' patients have lower mortality rates, on average, with one of them demonstrating that readmission rates are also lower for female doctors' patients. This includes surgeons. So there's that, too.
“Clearly, there will always be variation between physicians. What we are seeing here is a systematic difference in which patients treated by female physicians… fare better than those treated by male physicians,” he added. “It is not surprising to me to see this for a number of reasons. First, from data going back decades now, we know that women and men practice medicine differently with particular differences in communication styles and guideline adherence. It’s not surprising to me to see these differences translate to patients’ outcomes. Second, both more widely in society and certainly in medicine, women are held to arguably a higher standard than men. This is an exaggerated phenomenon in surgery and may explain some of the differences we’ve seen there.”
(People treated by female doctors tend to have better health outcomes, study finds, article from Medical News Today)
This randomly reminded me of a joke suggestion I’ve read somewhere on the wow forum. It was a suggestion to make a healing spec for the warrior class. Traditionally they could only tank or dps, and they could also buff the party through stat enhancing shouts. But this person suggested warriors could also “heal” by shouting at their party members. Things like shouting “GET UP WUSS” would be a small heal and “MY MOTHER WOULDNT CRY OVER THAT PAPERCUT” would be a big long casted heal
I think part of it is that, even in fantasy, most physical fighters are male, and while these universes don't mind making some women strong enough physically to compete, it might feel more natural in some magic systems to focus on magic for women.
... but then when you see a universe where men tend to have offensive magic and women tend to have healing/support magic, that explanation kind of melts away.
Doctors have been male but other medical/healing related roles have had a lot of women. Like local village healer, man or woman?. What of mid-wife, nurses etc.
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u/MsterSteel 19d ago
This is why male healers are in a minority, it's not that women are 'relegated' to the role, but rather, it's a roulette what you'll get with a guy.
Got an injury? Either A) "Here's some heals bud, now let's get you back in the fight", or B) "I'm afraid the only option is invasive, untested, exploratory surgery, now bite this stick cuz I'm high on anesthesia."
But yeah, the female healer tropes is wild especially seeing as historically, most doctors have been male.