The Soapbox: Grey's Anatomy

This is a couple days old already, but when did Derek Shepherd stop specializing in neurosurgery and start specializing in jackassery? We are told over and over again that he is the best, OMG so amazing!, neurosurgeon in the country -- and really they do say it over and over, just in case you might have forgotten -- yet, a patient dies, he feels responsible (which he probably should have), and not only does he throw a temper tantrum, he does it in a hugely inappropriate & ridiculous way... by picking a fight to the bloody death with his supposed best friend, and in the workplace no less, after Sloan has confessed to seeing Lexie, which is really something that doesn't concern Derek in the first place. Great messages about masculinity here.

[A brief aside... Contrasted with that, we see Bailey getting chewed out by the Chief for requesting a simple letter of recommendation. Say what?]

Some might say this jackassery has often been the case with Derek... and although I was in love with the show early on (which is not really the case now), in all fairness it's hard to look at his original behavior towards Meredith (carrying on without divulging his marital status) and turn a blind eye to the idea that he's always been this way.

One thing that drives me the most crazy about soaps -- daytime or primetime -- is the willingness of many producers/writers to repeatedly put female characters in relationship positions that:

#1 Make them feel responsible for their guy's jackassery, such as when Meredith wasn't ready to settle down and Derek proceeded to take up with Rose rather than support his girlfriend through a difficult time. Yet, she had driven him to it, he had no choice!

#2 Allow them to rationalize this jackassery with a positive trait, such as Derek is a brain surgeon, so of course he's high maintenance.

Just, yuck. And I'm not saying all soap relationships are handled this way. Yet, despite Grey's great potential to circumvent gender expectations/norms in being created/run by an African American female director/producer/showrunner, Shonda Rimes (a scenario which is disappointingly rare in network television), as well as the pretty amazing diversity of female characters on the show (compared with most network shows)... despite all it has going for it, the gals almost always take a backseat to the guys. And that burns me up.

Sure, it's easy to argue that's because the group of interns we've been following (now residents) will of course end up secondary to the attendings. This doesn't really explain, however, why the show was set up this way in the first place, with an overwhelmingly female group of interns/residents and an overwhelmingly male group of attendings.

My view is that the two female attendings that ever showed any backbone and played on an equal field with the guys were Addison and Hahn... who were of course both ushered/removed from the show at different times (for different reasons... Hahn's exit was sudden and controversial... and Addison of course can still be seen on Private Practice where she must now deal with her brother Archer's jackassery, rather than Derek's). And Callie and Bailey, both high-ranking residents, have a lot of potential as characters, and always have, but I tend to end up frustrated with how their storylines are either nonexistent or marginalized. They seem to orbit around what is happening more than they participate.

Perhaps my view is skewed because on daytime soaps female characters play toe-to-toe with men at high levels of professionalism (mostly in business) all the freaking time. It's hard not to watch Y&R's Jill, Katherine, or Nikki (who ran against Jack for state senate last year) or ATWT's Lucinda or Margo (top cop in the police department) and feel like the Grey's Anatomy women deserve so much better.

Despite what I've said here, my overall view of Grey's is not entirely negative. I love its diversity, as well as its willingness to represent women of realistic body types. I'm also fond of its penchant for objectifying men (the McDreamy, McSteamy aspect), which, in a society based on white male privilege, comes off as subversive. But these explorations will have to be left for another post.