If you’ve listened to the podcast for awhile you probably know that one of my other jobs/interests is photography. Specifically I’m a photographer of models. I teach model photography online and have a podcast about model photography. In the past I produced a swimsuit calendar, so I’ve been casually thinking about doing a Women of EMS Swimsuit calendar.

My first thought was that I’m way too busy right now to do that, it is a lot of work, etc…

My next thought was “would my models get in trouble, or lose their jobs?” Of course I would be shooting attractive medics in swimsuits, probably with some kind of EMS theme to the images.

Since I was at the Texas EMS conference and had a chance to run into people who hire and fire medics at a few agencies I asked them about it.

The answers were interesting and I’d like to get a wider perspective from others.

I asked three upper level supervisors from three different Houston area services. Two males and one female. Both of the males thought it was a bad idea, though they said if the medics weren’t in uniform and weren’t associated with the service there wasn’t anything they could do about it.

The female supervisor thought it was a great idea, especially if it benefited a charity. She didn’t even care if they were partially wearing a uniform shirt.

My and my friend’s immediate question was, “What about all those Fireman calendars?” Those are associated with their service and they are scantily clad men often in some level of uniform. Do we have double standard here?

What’s your opinion? I’d especially like to hear from those in leadership about how they’d react if one of their female medics was in a EMS swimsuit calendar.