During the talent competition of Miss America 2016, Miss Colorado broke the norm by performing a monologue. What she probably did not expect was to be criticized by a group of women on a talk show.
The talent competition ranged from violin playing to opera singing to baton twirling, but Kelley Johnson of Windsor, Colorado, decided to perform a monologue about her dealings with an Alzheimer’s patient as an ICU nurse.
“Every nurse has a patient that reminds them why they became a nurse in the first place. Mine was Joe,” Johnson said.
She furthered her monologue by discussing her experiences with Joe — from holding his hand after his night terrors to connecting on a personal level.
Johnson ended her monologue by explaining how she told Joe he was not just an Alzheimer’s patient and Joe responded by saying that Johnson is not just a nurse.
Going up on stage and revealing a personal experience takes courage. Johnson revealed her emotions and talent by performing the monologue, instead of doing a typical talent to try to win the title of Miss America.
On “The View,” during the segment of Hot Topics, two hosts made the mistake of criticizing Johnson for her choice.
According to the Tribune Media Wire, Michelle Collins compared Johnson’s performance to “reading her emails out loud — and shockingly did not win.”
Collins also stated how the audience should look for the monologue if they did not see it because, “I swear to God, it was hilarious.”
To join in on the criticism, Joy Behar questioned why Johnson had a “doctor’s stethoscope around her neck.”
Collins and Behar seemed not to have thought before they spoke. Instead of embracing something different and congratulating Miss Colorado on winning second-runner up, the duo decided to make fun of what Johnson had to reveal.
After such an occurrence, two advertisers for The View — Eggland’s Best and Johnson & Johnson — pulled their advertisements. Johnson & Johnson released a statement on its Facebook page, using the trending hashtag #NursesUnite.
According to its Facebook page, Johnson & Johnson appreciates nurses and disagrees with the comments made on the daytime television show, so it has paused advertising accordingly.
Many nurses also came out against the criticism by posting their stethoscopes on social media and showing pride in their profession.
The two companies that pulled their advertisements reacted in the correct way. Supporting “The View’s” opinion would cause an even bigger uproar for nurses across the nation, and those in support of nurses.
As a reaction to advertisers pulling their funding, Collins and Behar decided to make an apology on another episode of “The View.”
Behar admitted that she did not even know Johnson was a nurse.
Collins made the argument that she was not talking about nurses, but was talking about the talent competition as whole. In support of her, Raven Symone asked if people who were criticizing Johnson had even heard what she was saying at all.
My response to Behar, Collins and Symone is this: did they even listen to what Johnson had to say?
Johnson, in the first 10 seconds of her monologue, stated that she was a nurse. She was dressed in a modern-day uniform and had a stethoscope around her neck because it is needed to check patients’ vitals.
Even if Collins was simply discussing the talent portion of the competition, she was still humoring herself with someone’s personal experience and passion.
Johnson was brave enough to go against the norm, to show what she was truly passionate about and to reveal an experience that was so personal. Yet Collins still decided that this was something that was hilarious compared to the other competitors.
I believe that Johnson’s talent surpassed the others because of the personal touch that it had to it, and being awarded with second runner-up has to show that the judges agreed she was a great representation for a Miss America competitor.
Nurses around the nation took a stance against what the women on “The View” had to say, and I stand behind them fully. It was not simply that Collins and Behar had mocked Johnson’s talent, but also that they seemed to disregard the words that she was saying.
I praise Johnson for her bravery, not only in doing something different for the competition, but for her service as a nurse.
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