Scrubs and Sexism

[LLKH]

I have a four and a half month old daughter and ever since she was born, I have been lurking on the feminism board. I've learned a lot and been very relieved to find that some of the things I thought weren't true at all; specifically, that you can't be a feminist and a SAHM.
Knowing that you can be both has made me think a lot more which brings me to this post.

I used to love the television show Scrubs (up to series 6, after that it got far too soapy and I have Holby and Casualty if I want that ), but I was thinking about various things that happen in different episodes(using the Jurassic Park glass shaking thing to describe the approach of a heavily pregnant woman) and I realised that it is actually incredibly sexist, almost bordering on misogynistic. This made me quite sad.

Has anyone else noticed this about any television shows, films, radio programs, books that they formerly loved? Would you tell me about them? And let me know if you agree with me about Scrubs.

Thanks for clearing up the bit about Carla.

WRT Elliot and Paul, they did ultimately finish because of something else, but the initial shock Elliot portrayed was in response to him being in a lower position, and that's something that stuck with me. She needed to work through her embarrassment at that. It did address it, yes, but the thing that always sticks in my mind when someone mentions Paul from Scrubs is "Oh yeah, that's the one Elliot felt uncomfortable dating because he was a nurse" not "Oh, that's the one Elliot broke up with because of her commitment issues"... Or whatever the reason was.

Doesn't elliot dump Paul for being controlling?

looking at the reference to the big bang theory (yes smurfette principle) the ditzy blonde is the only normal character in the show, all of the males have issues, even now when we have 4 female characters, they are all strong characters where as most of the male characters are still developing into mature people.

Also the male charcters need Penny, whereas Penny does not need the males.

The show is both misogynistic and misandric.

Yes, JD is mocked and given girls' names by Cox, but in a later series Denise is mocked for being masculine. Yes, if we chose to look at it as 'glass half empty', then we could say that both are misogynistic (because Denise is expected to conform to female norms and JD is perceived to be laughable for being effeminate), but we could, on the other hand, say that both are misandric (because JD is expected by Cox to conform to male norms and Denise is perceived to be laughable for being masculine).

I also agree with whoever said that women are portrayed as having the upper hand/being more sensible.

Stereotypical male traits such as refusing to admit fault or being aggressive/obsessed with sex are parodied, probably more than women being portrayed as image-obsessed or over invested in a relationship, for example.

Jordan may be portrayed as being angry and pregnant, but Cox is portrayed as getting drunk and shouting at the telly on a regular basis and Todd is portrayed as a sex-obsessed neanderthal.

If we wanted to, we could argue that the janitor portrays men (or even caretakers) as being devious and unkind. Similar arguments could be made for Paul the Nurse and being controlling. If we were to look at all male characters in the show as a portrayal of men in general, it would make men look TERRIBLE! The same could be said for women, but I'm not Elliot or Carla or Jordan. I'm DHS.

When Carla bosses Turk around, I feel that he is being equally ridiculed for 'doing as he is told' as she is for being bossy.

So yes, it is sexist on both sides (and medically rather inaccurate), but I rather enjoy it.

I think it's quite a good exercise to examine TV shows, books, films, etc for instances of casual sexism. I feel it's quite a good "feminism lite" exercise, it's an easy introduction, it highlights just how accepted most sexism is, it's unlikely to offend anyone (as they are fictional characters), it's not a massively serious issue with huge emotional impact, and generally you can find so many examples. There was a thread about sexism in Friends which nearly reached the post limit!

Hi, BertieBotts. Have you got a link to the Friends thread, by any chance?

Not as long as I remembered (but possibly getting confused with another similar thread?) www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/1209195-Ways-the-TV-series-Friends-was-anti-feminist

Watched the first episode yesterday. It struck me the fact it's told from a male POV. I know they do the His Story (where they have Turk and/Or Cox narrate) but I can't remember off the top of my head, did they ever have a Her Story?

Was quite interesting to see that Carla refused to let Elliot use her sexuality against her.

Also, noticed Elliot had to point out to at least one patient that she was a doctor, not a nurse (just because she was a women).

Darling old Perry also used Carla's "rack" to determine whether a patient was a GOMER or not...

Wasn't Jordan's position in the hospital higher than Cox and Kelso's? I was trying to work out if that counted.

Thanks, Bertie!

DCMFD, there was a Her Story, but I can't remember the content.

I still love Friends, though. Though some of the jokes are pretty now and not funny. The fat Monica thing particularly bugged me in one episode the other day.

Aha, thought there was. Must get round to watching it again some point soon. Would be interesting to see how male writers/producers portray the female mind.

Likewise, I like a lot of films and programmes which are arguably misogynistic, BUT justify this by saying it's a feminist work shop

I luuuuurve Scrubs.

OP here. Namechanged ages ago to reflect my geekiness which I am proud of. Anyway, DH had an interesting idea about Dr. Cox calling JD girls' names. He suggested that Dr. Cox does this because JD himself is quite sexist and uncomfortable with his own self so it is all a windup on Dr. Cox's part.

DontCallMeFrothyDragon, I agree with your entire post. What stands out to me in regards to the sexism is [for example] how Kelso would demean Elliott by stating that as a female doctor, she wouldn't be interested in internal medicine, but that once her internship was up she was most likely to go into Family Medicine, Pediatrics or OB/GYN.

She confronted Kelso by stating that she was offended and he was like, "Oh, are you going to cry?" She could have easily said, "That's sexist," but after she ran out on the pregnant patient in the clinic by stating "Babies aren't my thing," she could have easily stated, "I'll find you an expert." When I bring my son to the ER, there's one doctor who does all pediatrics, so they always say to me, "We need to find the pediatric doctor." There's adult medicine and pediatrics, but that never gets touched on.

I get that it's supposed to be a fun show, and I enjoy Braff and Faison's joyous portrayal of the characters, but it's difficult to ignore the sexism when it isn't called out.