Was reading some fire-service related news articles on Firehouse yesterday, and was struck by two articles that were on there.
The first I’d actually heard something about before I read the article. It revolves around the New York City firefighter who is on the cover of the 2008 Calendar of Heroes, a calender containing photos of topless male firefighters that’s sold by the FDNY Fire Foundation as a fund raiser and which generated $150,000 for FDNY last year. The issue’s not with the calendar, per se, but with the fact that the firefighter in question also appeared fully nude in the inaugural Guys Gone Wild video back in 2004, which the department found out about after the 12 firefighters appeared on the Today show.
Apparently, this was enough to cause the Fire Commissioner to permanently ban any FDNY personnel from ever posing for the calendar again. Thus, the 2008 edition will be the last.
Now, I’m not sure a topless calendar is the best fund raiser for a fire department anyway, but here’s the real issue.
The 2004 video was made before the firefighter in question was hired. FDNY has already stated that he won’t suffer any disciplinary consequences because of that fact. He didn’t tell them about the video, obviously, but then, he wasn’t asked.
Did being in this video reflect the department in a bad light? Only because the media made an issue of it. And because we, as a society, are a bunch of prudes who are OK with seeing a firefighter without a shirt, but apparently have an issue when he takes his pants off too.
The second article had a slightly different take: praise for a stripper who saved a life.
Apparently, an exotic dancer in Florida went to a 46 year old man’s home for a private performance. In the midst of said performance, she noticed that her customer was not paying attention. Or breathing, for that matter.
I’ll avoid the obvious jokes about dying happy or the more dangerous effects of strippers.
The dancer immediately began CPR on her customer, and then called 911. Not quite the right order per how the Red Cross teaches it, but hey, it worked. Her customer survived to walk out of the hospital and praise her for saving his life.
So there we have it: a man who’s paid to save lives being admonished for stripping and a women who’s paid to strip being praised for saving a life.
What a world.