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rainwaterspark[Content note: mention of rape, unhealthy/abusive relationships. Also, spoilers.]
I want to like Scandal. Earlier on, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I want to support a TV show that has a dynamic black female lead, artistic cinematography, taut suspenseful plots, gay characters, and a variety of strong female characters.
But unfortunately, Scandal also wanders into problematic territory more often than not.
I originally dropped the series during the second half of Season 2 because the "romance" between Olivia and Fitz was driving me nuts. I hate love triangles, and I hate the concept of "forbidden romance," but perhaps most of all I hated how misogynistic and unhealthy it came off at times. Jezebel already has an article about how Olivia and Fitz's relationship is emotionally abusive, which I won't rehash, but I'll say that Fitz ordering his staff to follow Olivia, watch her, and take pictures of her—even when she's sleeping with another man—after HE was the one who ended their relationship—without her knowledge or consent whatsoever—is really stalkerish, controlling, and not okay. Also, there was a scene where after their relationship was "over" they met at some occasion, had sex in a room, and then he blames her for HIS sex urges.
I jumped back on the Scandal bandwagon when I heard about the Josie Marcus running for president plot, and episode 3x06 "Icarus" had one of the best denunciations of societal sexism that I've ever seen on TV. Which pleased me greatly! But then, of course, they just had to write a situation to kick Josie out of the presidential race for the worst reasons, because it was clear that they weren't willing to pit Olivia against Fitz in a presidential election. And so they dropped the entire plot about supporting the potential first female president of the US. If it wasn't for the fact that I was curious enough about "the big reveal" to stay on, I would've dropped the season then and there.
This compounded my disgust when watching episode 3x07, when it's revealed that Mellie was raped by her father-in-law and so her oldest child might actually be Fitz's father's child. Which...just, why? The more rape is depicted in popular media, the more normalized it is and the more people come to expect rape (of women, never of men) as inevitable. The only way I could see this being used for dramatic payoff is if Fitz one day discovers that his oldest child isn't his—but so what? Is he going to blame Mellie? Because it would be disgustingly misogynistic of him to blame a rape victim. But if he doesn't blame Mellie, there's no dramatic payoff. Was this written to give more gravitas to Mellie's assertion that she's sacrificed a lot for Fitz? Because what, giving up her thriving law career for his political one wasn't enough? Sticking with a dead marriage wasn't enough? Was it just written for shock value?! Whatever the reason, it was a terrible, terrible move.
And there are lots of little things that make me feel as though Scandal isn't as great with feminism as most people seem to think. Characters, especially Mellie, keep throwing around the terms like "whore" and "slut" to degrade other women (and even gay men). Aside from Josie Marcus's epic speech, there's a lot of "we're living in a patriarchal society and you have to play along" without a lot of openly calling out how unfair sexism and misogyny are. And let's not even get started on how Olivia and Mellie, arguably the two most powerful women on the show, are mortal enemies because of the whole affair between Olivia and Fitz.
Apart from gender issues, Scandal is also very allosexual-normative, as most TV series are, but it's incredibly grating to me when the characters always assume that if a character isn't dating/in a relationship (read: having sex) with someone, that character must be gay. Uh, no, how about asexual or aromantic?
Finally, I just want to take a moment to talk about the plots of Scandal so far. One recurring theme seems to be: you can cheat/do terrible things, and as long as you own up to it (kinda) and cover your tracks well enough, you won't suffer any real consequences. See the lack of political fallout from people learning about Defiance. See the revelation and the backtracking of "Olivia Pope is the President's mistress." And, sure, you can argue that this is a realistic message, because in real life, anyone with enough power and money can get away with anything. But this is not a positive message, in fact, I'd say it's a very toxic message, and it disappoints me that Scandal seems to be portraying this as a positive thing.
I want to like Scandal. Earlier on, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I want to support a TV show that has a dynamic black female lead, artistic cinematography, taut suspenseful plots, gay characters, and a variety of strong female characters.
But unfortunately, Scandal also wanders into problematic territory more often than not.
I originally dropped the series during the second half of Season 2 because the "romance" between Olivia and Fitz was driving me nuts. I hate love triangles, and I hate the concept of "forbidden romance," but perhaps most of all I hated how misogynistic and unhealthy it came off at times. Jezebel already has an article about how Olivia and Fitz's relationship is emotionally abusive, which I won't rehash, but I'll say that Fitz ordering his staff to follow Olivia, watch her, and take pictures of her—even when she's sleeping with another man—after HE was the one who ended their relationship—without her knowledge or consent whatsoever—is really stalkerish, controlling, and not okay. Also, there was a scene where after their relationship was "over" they met at some occasion, had sex in a room, and then he blames her for HIS sex urges.
I jumped back on the Scandal bandwagon when I heard about the Josie Marcus running for president plot, and episode 3x06 "Icarus" had one of the best denunciations of societal sexism that I've ever seen on TV. Which pleased me greatly! But then, of course, they just had to write a situation to kick Josie out of the presidential race for the worst reasons, because it was clear that they weren't willing to pit Olivia against Fitz in a presidential election. And so they dropped the entire plot about supporting the potential first female president of the US. If it wasn't for the fact that I was curious enough about "the big reveal" to stay on, I would've dropped the season then and there.
This compounded my disgust when watching episode 3x07, when it's revealed that Mellie was raped by her father-in-law and so her oldest child might actually be Fitz's father's child. Which...just, why? The more rape is depicted in popular media, the more normalized it is and the more people come to expect rape (of women, never of men) as inevitable. The only way I could see this being used for dramatic payoff is if Fitz one day discovers that his oldest child isn't his—but so what? Is he going to blame Mellie? Because it would be disgustingly misogynistic of him to blame a rape victim. But if he doesn't blame Mellie, there's no dramatic payoff. Was this written to give more gravitas to Mellie's assertion that she's sacrificed a lot for Fitz? Because what, giving up her thriving law career for his political one wasn't enough? Sticking with a dead marriage wasn't enough? Was it just written for shock value?! Whatever the reason, it was a terrible, terrible move.
And there are lots of little things that make me feel as though Scandal isn't as great with feminism as most people seem to think. Characters, especially Mellie, keep throwing around the terms like "whore" and "slut" to degrade other women (and even gay men). Aside from Josie Marcus's epic speech, there's a lot of "we're living in a patriarchal society and you have to play along" without a lot of openly calling out how unfair sexism and misogyny are. And let's not even get started on how Olivia and Mellie, arguably the two most powerful women on the show, are mortal enemies because of the whole affair between Olivia and Fitz.
Apart from gender issues, Scandal is also very allosexual-normative, as most TV series are, but it's incredibly grating to me when the characters always assume that if a character isn't dating/in a relationship (read: having sex) with someone, that character must be gay. Uh, no, how about asexual or aromantic?
Finally, I just want to take a moment to talk about the plots of Scandal so far. One recurring theme seems to be: you can cheat/do terrible things, and as long as you own up to it (kinda) and cover your tracks well enough, you won't suffer any real consequences. See the lack of political fallout from people learning about Defiance. See the revelation and the backtracking of "Olivia Pope is the President's mistress." And, sure, you can argue that this is a realistic message, because in real life, anyone with enough power and money can get away with anything. But this is not a positive message, in fact, I'd say it's a very toxic message, and it disappoints me that Scandal seems to be portraying this as a positive thing.
