I was getting a routine check up at my dentist’s office. I’d been seeing him since I was a kid and I had never had any problems. My dentist is a Caucasian male of about 50 years old…the type who would have never experienced any sort of discrimination in his life. Immediately upon entering he commented on how my jeans were way too ripped up. And then later as he examined my teeth he commented on them again and again, I started to feel really uncomfortable about it. I’m a 16 year old, and while his hands were crammed in my mouth to examine me he asked what I was going to do for post secondary. I didn’t feel like talking about it so I told him that. And he said to me “Well, don’t become a stripper because your parents wouldn’t like that very much.” Two minutes later as he finished looking at my teeth I burst into tears, just gutted by what he had said to me. He asked me what was wrong and I told him “Telling someone not to become a stripper is sexist and degrading.” He assumed that I put my self worth into my body, and I was shocked that after seeing him all my life he hadn’t caught on to how educated and motivated of an individual I am. I guess seeing the tears made him realize that what he said was wrong, and he began to apologize. I took none of it and ended my appointment right there and walked out of his office. My mother called in a few weeks later stating that because of his behaviour I will not be returning to his practice ever again.
