Comments on: Attempting to Humanize Funeral Directors: “Men of Mortuaries” Calendar

By: mortuaries lakewood co

mortuaries lakewood co — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:42:01 +0000

Men of Mortuaries huh? This is the strangest calander i have ever seen. I mean if it helps to promote money to their businesses and everything else i guess it goes good for them cool beans. But i know that isnt something that I would want to do for my business. Just isnt the way that I would try and entice customers.

By: Gina

Gina — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:28:28 +0000

Being A Funeral Director, is not an easy job. not all are out for the money… This is a Fact, some people tend to assume that, they can’t wait to take in the next buck from the next sadden family.. In my profession ( Working with people who have lost their loved one, doing Funerals, meeting with family, even having meals with the families) I myself have the deepest of all love for one who has died, I have the most compassionate heart in the world in this business and you know I don’t even like calling it a business to this day, I never look at it that way mabe I am rare.. but truly I have met hundreds of Funeral Directors and allot are very human.. Doing such a calander I think is kind of neat, makes them different and not only that it raises money I would adore it even more so if they did something like that to raise money that goes to a special fund to aid in funerals of children and babies where the parent/parents do not have to come up with a single dime because there is nothing far worse than seeing a greiving mother or father or grandma or grandpa in tears and that hardship of not only losing a child but the cost, If I owned my own Funeral Home, my funerals would be free for a child or baby, all Funeral Directors know this can be done and I know this as well.. so good for the Calander and the cause, lets see another one for a cause as deep if not deeper than this one…

By: Candlepines - Funeral Directors Melbourne

Candlepines - Funeral Directors Melbourne — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:57:12 +0000

Well I’m actually a more stereotypical funeral director, so I couldn’t ever see myself doing something like this…
Good on them for trying to raise money and lift the stereotype.

By: Sexy Undertakers « Cakehead Loves Evil

Sexy Undertakers « Cakehead Loves Evil — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 17:25:44 +0000

[...] in an attempt to “humanize funeral directors with the men of mortuaries calendar”. Read the sociological report, or simply visit the Men of Mortuaries website here. Having studied the site (in aid of research), [...]

By: Men Of Mortuaries / Headspace

Men Of Mortuaries / Headspace — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:33:28 +0000

[...] of Mortuaries, which I found in a post of Sociological Images called Attempting to Humanise Funeral Directors, is a fund raising calendar showing 14 US funeral directors doing non-funeral director activities [...]

By: karinova

karinova — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:57:42 +0000

I don’t get the impression that they were trying to get more people to enter the field. I think they just wanted to relieve the stigma that people who are already in the field suffer under.

In other words (judging from how they chose to go about combating the stigma):
They wanted to get dates.

By: karinova

karinova — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:50:25 +0000

“If they wanted to humanise their image— maybe photos of what they do outside of the mortuary”

Yes, this!
I’m aware of the mortician stereotypes, and I’d say they basically add up to “grim.” Morticians are thought to be grim. So when I scrolled down from the post, I was really surprised that it was a beefcake calendar. Basically, it looks like this group decided the stereotypes add up to “unsexy” (or: “unbuff”? I don’t quite know how to put it). Which is odd. The way I see it, you don’t have to take your shirt off to refute “old, gray of complexion, gaunt and, well, creepy.”

They should’ve shown them gardening.
Morticians generating life instead of handling death.
I’m a PR genius!

By: Mortisha

Mortisha — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 01:53:42 +0000

If the aim was to humanise their image – it don’t work for me. Just looks like a line up for a porn movie.

If they wanted to humanise their image – maybe photos of what they do outside of the mortuary – playing with their kids, playing a sport, sailing, socialising with friends, working on their degree – you know whatever real people do !!??

By the way where do there get all the hours to work on their six packs? They got dumb bells in the wet lab?

and i ‘m kinda of sick of horses and other animals being used for porn props.

By: md

md — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:42:40 +0000

Hi Juilian,

It’s difficult to tell whether or not this calendar of “Naugty Nurses”(http://www.babesandboys.com/calendars/freegallery1603) attempted to show the “serious side” of these real women. The news coverage certainly didn’t! (see: http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/article47833.ece
and http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article630228.ece )

One nurse is quoted as wondering if the calendar will prompt “a nice bloke to notice” her, another is reported to giggle and claim that a “sexy [female?] nurse helps the healing process”!

Much different to the Fireman calendars that show “heros” that save lives and usually help a good cause.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:42:30 +0000

“Six Feet Under” humanized funeral directors plenty. It was a very funny show. I can think of no one who was moved to enter that field as a result.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:40:43 +0000

Great dead lifting, fellas!

(The United States is a very bizarre place.)

I have to say that, given all the things minorities might aspire to, being a “Mortuary Man” is not even on the radar.

We’ll sit this one out for now.

By: brian

brian — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:40:29 +0000

Julian (above) raises a good point. Funeral Directors require at bare minimum an associate’s degree in addition to acquiring State License, National Examm and completion of a one year apprenticeship (*That is via Wikipedia, take it with a grain of salt). There are higher level degrees in the field of “mortuary science” as well, even. Graduates with these degrees often are small business owners, more so than other fields (also Wiki entry on “Mortuary Science”, but that data is cited as via American Sociological review, so a bit more reliable). The combination of professional occupation plus owning one’s own business could make for a lucrative income. Then again, Mr. Dallas, TX may not own that horse, it’s just for the photo shoot.

A better question here might not be why did they pick all white funeral directors, but are funeral directors disproportionately white? Why? Are the costs of education and having to start a business harder barriers to overcome for different minorities?

Another question: I don’t go thumbing through the websites of scantily clad men or women with any regularity, but I noticed the website for this one had two things I found odd: A biography of the man, his full name, and an email address for contacting him that appears to be his own considering they are all different domain names. This seems to stress he is a person, not just something pretty to look and/or a mortician. Do websites for similar calendars involving women do this? Or are they just pretty faces/bodies with a name? I’d argue that the name, bio (however short and quite possibly superficial), and the possibility of communication look like attempts to ground these guys as not being objects but people. This begs the question: do calendars with women ever make the same attempts?

By: Sara

Sara — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:25:20 +0000

Uhm, pretty white women being sexualized in media doesn’t hold the same meaning than pretty white men sexualized in media. and often, men portrayed as attractive and sexual beings aren’t received in the same way that sexually portrayed women.

You see, in this case we have a calendar with pretty white men and we sure as hell are made know who these men are and why they want to do this. (I’m not going to talk about the hypothetical situation of conventional attractive women Directors doing this very same calendar because it didn’t happen, but I can easily imagine how it will be marketed differently.)

Do you see men posing sexily labeled as “skanks” or “sluts” in a way that is more insulting than humorous?

By: gwen

gwen — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:00:07 +0000

Apparently they’re hoping to come out with a calendar of women soon.

By: gwen

gwen — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:59:31 +0000

In the article it says that they were disappointed that no minority individuals applied for the most recent calendar. There may be various reasons for that (assuming it’s true)–lack of advertising in appropriate media outlets or something of the sort. It’s also important to note that applicants have to send in $250 (hopefully a good chunk of that goes to the charity), so that may play a role in why some people wouldn’t want to apply–I know I wouldn’t.