Hard to imagine forty years ago this riddle stumped almost an entire nation

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/10984075-452/the-riddle-of-the-missing-womens-voices-in-politics.html

The riddle of the missing women’s voices in politics

By NEIL STEINBERG [e-mail] March 1, 2012 6:10PM

A father and son are driving in a car, the riddle goes. The car crashes, the father is killed and the boy is badly injured. So they rush him to the hospital, into the operating room. The surgeon walks in, takes a look at the boy, and says, “I can’t operate on this boy — he’s my own son!”

How can that be?

When Gloria Stivic tells the riddle on an episode of “All the Family” in 1972, Archie Bunker at first misses the premise entirely.

“That’s easy,” he says, “a surgeon ain’t supposed to operate on his own family.” Her meathead husband, Mike, thinks the man who was killed is the stepfather. “The surgeon’s the real father!” he says. Wrong.

Forty years ago, the riddle could stump people because nobody thought of women as doctors — it was a big deal. But guess what? Women could be doctors, and police officers, and soldiers, and members of Congress, as slowly women established themselves as American citizens on equal par with men.

[barbtries]

1. i watched it.

and i'll admit it. i never thought the doctor was the kid's mother. it just did not cross my mind. a memorable consciousness raising moment for me.

[Zalatix]

14. On the other hand, reading the OP sequentially provided too many clues for me.

"The riddle of the missing women’s voices in politics" was to me a dead giveaway to the answer to the riddle.

[barbtries]

19. hopefully, all these years later,

just about anyone would immediately say, duh! the doctor is the kid's mother!

[mimitabby]

23. me too

now I feel old

[surfdog]

2. What a stupid riddle

"I can't operate on my own son"

That's the clue ?

The real riddle is why a surgeon can't work on a family member , how absurd

Riddles are supposed to make sense

[cynatnite]

13. Emotions can cloud medical judgments...

There is nothing that says they cannot. Many have provided medical care and even a small minority have performed surgeries on family members.

How well can a surgeon perform if it's his grandson in cardiac arrest on the operating table? What about an ER doctor who's family member was in a serious auto accident?

IMO, the last person I would want is my family member acting as my physician. I do not want emotions clouding their judgment or their objectivity out the window.

[pnwmom]

16. Cutting into people isn't an easy thing, even for a surgeon.

And if you were a surgeon, wouldn't you want the person cutting into your loved one to have calm, steady, non-shaking hands?

[eppur_se_muova]

3. As soon as I saw the title, I knew it was about this episode.

And no, no one in my family knew the answer (IIRC -- but I think maybe my Mom suspected).

[cbayer]

4. I used to tell this all of the time and was shocked how often

people could not get it, particularly since I was surrounded by female professionals.

Haven't tried it in a long time, but I think it might still stump some people.

[libinnyandia]

5. When my niece graduated from high school in 1978, the man addressing the graduates

spoke of the boys going on to be doctors, lawyers, soldiers and the girls going on to become teachers and nurses, I wanted to stand up and say the boys and girls could become whatever they wanted to be: boys could become teachers and nurses girls could become doctors and lawyers.

[spooky3]

6. Not hard to imagine at all - and it would stump MANY today.

We've made progress, but we have a long, long way to go.

[Poll_Blind]

7. I agree. nt

PB

[pnwmom]

8. The answer to this riddle isn't all THAT obvious.

The surgeon could be the boy's other father.



But, of course, that solution also wouldn't have occurred to many people 40 years ago.

[renate]

17. we have a winner!

Great point! The parallels between that joke then and that joke now are pretty clear, aren't they?

[gateley]

25. Good one! nt

[patricia92243]

9. Sad to say that I couldn't figure it out - and it was less than 20 years ago :(

[List left]

10. not as much has changed as one might think

I still use this riddle and almost everyone, usually to their chagrin, is still caught in the old stereotypes. We have come a long way but still have a long way to go.

[Blue_Tires]

11. They also did it on the Cosby show

I remember watching it as a kid and getting it instantly and thinking, 'what a nonsense riddle!'

[iverglas]

12. heard and told it when I was in school in the 60s

I think I didn't get it when it was first told to me.

Still tell it!

[the other one]

15. Those were the days!

Boy the way Glen Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade.
Guys like us we had it made,
Those were the days.

And you knew who you were then,
Girls were girls and men were men,
Mister we could use a man
Like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn't need no welfare state,
Everybody pulled his weight.
Gee our old LaSalle ran great.
Those were the days.

[Gruntled Old Man]

18. Got it the first time I read it (Omni)

Thought about it for 30 seconds, then checked the Answers page. I was right. And no, I'm neither Alan Alda nor Phil Donahue.

[bongbong]

20. Pick up a not-too-old newspaper for more

Up until the 1970s in most places, and early 1980s in the south, the help-wanted ads had two sections:

Male Help Wanted
Female Help Wanted

Naturally the former included all kinds of professions, and the latter was 99% made up of receptionists, teachers, and nurses.

[csziggy]

21. I got it the first time it was shown

But then I grew up with a very good friend of the family who was a doctor and one of the early proponents of women in athletics, Dr. Gertrude Moulton. She got her medical degree and license before 1920.

So from a very early age I was exposed to the idea that women could be doctors.

[joeybee12]

22. Hard to believe, Rick Santorum still can't get the right answer...nt

[pnwmom]

24. Why was this even a riddle?

Two fathers? Why would that confuse anyone forty years ago?