Relationship of the Sexes in Greys Anatomy - Essay Example

?Relationship of the Sexes in Grey's Anatomy Grey's Anatomy is a medical serial drama that was created by Shonda Rhimes and began airing in 2004. It is a program that has a female cast majority and has been seen by many as a show that empowers women to be the best that they can be even when they are being told otherwise. The women of the show are the embodiment of the independent, self-assured, and modern day woman who will not allow anybody to undermine her in any given setting. This paper will show that the modern day female doctors have come long a long way since the profession first started allowing women to join the medical field. The discussion will show that as recent as the year 1982, the female doctors were still undermined and treated unequally in the medical workplace because of the male dominant mindset that existed at the time. The argument shall be based on an individualized character description for the characters from the show and then segue into a discussion of Season 6, episode 15 a.k.a Timewarp. This episode is the one that set the tone for the mother of Meredith Grey to become one of the most admired surgeons at Seattle Grace. The discussion shall conclude with a look at how sexism still exists in the modern medical workplace as evidenced by scenes from the show. There have been many instances on the show when women were portrayed in a sexist manner. Take for example the episode in the first season when Dr. Isobel Stevens (played by Katherine Heigl) was treated as a sex object and disrespected by the other male interns on the floor because she used to do sexy modeling assignments in order to help pay off her medical school expenses. She did not take the disrespect sitting down at the time. Instead, she chose to force the men to respect her by giving them more than they expected to see of herself in the locker room. Thus shaming them into thinking about how they were treating her and in the end, getting an apology from those who disrespected her the most. Then we have Cristina Yang (played by Sandra Oh), the over achieving cardio-thoracic surgeon who tends to get on everyone's nerves because of her by-the-book attitude. Since she always held herself in a manner higher than the other interns, and then residents in Seattle Grace, she was able to gain their respect and then the respect of her superiors such as Derek Shepherd who saw and treated her as an equal both in and out of the operating room. Dr. Yang gained their respect and high regard by proving herself where it mattered the most, in action in the operating room. Dr. Bailey, also known as The Nazi lead the team of then medical misfits as their resident advisers. Her job, was to whip them into shape in order to make them respectable and noteworthy additions to the field of medicine that they may have chosen to specialize in. She was not exactly respected by her peers in the sense of the word. In fact, the respect for her person and position was born mostly out of fear for these people because she has a tendency to be tactless and straightforward in order to get her way. That is perhaps, the only way she knows to gain the respect of her colleagues in a profession that is mostly dominated by men. Of all of the interns and now medical doctors on the show however, none of them carried the same kind of responsibility and unfair expectations of her peers than Dr. Meredith Grey whose mother, Ellis Grey, was considered to be one of the foremost surgeons at Seattle Grace during her tenure at the hospital. Meredith chose to follow in her mother's footsteps because of the influence that her strong willed mother had on her existence as a child. But that is perhaps also the reason why Meredith found herself lost during the first few seasons of the show. She was the most uncertain and self doubting doctor in the hospital because she felt that they all expected too much from her. Being Dr. Grey's daughter and all that is. But as she struggled to find her place on the medical floor of the fictional Seattle Grace hospital, she did so while gaining the respect of her peers and superiors as she continued to carve out a niche for herself far removed from the shadow of her noteworthy mother. Having brought this discussion full circle to the mother of Meredith, we can now begin to assess the role of sexism in the 1980's and how it was portrayed in the show. In the season 6 episode 15 airing of the show, we got the back story on Meredith's mother who, back in 1982, was struggling to be accepted as a serious doctor at the male dominated Seattle Grace hospital where she would eventually leave her mark as one of the foremost surgeons in the country. Ellis Grey, who worked with her husband at the same hospital at the time, was never taken seriously by her peers. While they saw her as simply playing doctor, Ellis was actually taking her job very seriously. To the extent that she dared question her husband's decision and the decision of other doctors pertaining to a certain AIDS case that had been admitted into the hospital that day. The men in the room loved nothing more than to reject her ideas for possible illnesses and treatment plans because they believed that she did not really have what it took to become a doctor of reputation at the time. It was this kind of sexism and office politics that often prevented her from achieving her patient treatment goals at the time. However, she proved that a good doctor will always shine regardless of the obstacles placed in her path. She always remained true to her vocation and helped her patients even when they did not want her help. It was this mindset that led her to become a groundbreaking surgeon at Seattle Grace and eventually, the respect and admiration of her peers and superiors followed. What we can actually take away from viewing Grey's Anatomy in terms of the female doctors on staff is that sexism will always exist in their workplace. More so because the female doctors on the show have proven to be highly competent, sometimes even more competent than their male counterparts. That is why there will always be times when the male doctors will try to break the spirit of their female co-doctors. Ellis Grey proved that even patients back in 1982 tended to not trust a female doctor due to their fear of misdiagnosis. Women in the workforce, at least on television medical shows like Grey's, will always have to fight for a chance to prove themselves either through breakthrough diagnosis or groundbreaking surgeries. The men on the show will always be portrayed as sexist whenever a woman succeeds where he fails. However, that does not mean that the playing field is still not level at Seattle Grace. On the contrary, the playing field at that hospital is now so even for both sexes that each doctor has to prove his worth, regardless of sex. In the modern Seattle Grace Medical Center, the female doctors now have the same amount of respect from their peers and patients as the male doctors do. Although the competition remains fierce among the doctors, interns, and residents on staff, they will always have an uneasy respect for one another because they now see themselves not as male and female doctors, but as doctors collectively. It is this new mindset as portrayed on the show that allows the female doctors to continue to shine in their chosen medical field. From season 6 episode 15, we gathered that Ellis Grey was always being edged out of her position as a doctor in charge, flash forward to her daughter and we see that although that sometimes still occurs, it based more on a doctor wanting to create a name for himself rather than because her co-worker does not have any belief in her abilities as a doctor. Read More