Saturday, May 16, 2015

Shonda Rhimes


A female director and/or screenwriter that passes the Bechdel test and whose work I consider feminist would be Shonda Rhimes. As a male who dismissed the Scandal and How to Get Away With Murder assuming that her work would be marketed towards a female audience only, I was pleasantly surprised when I got a chance to watch an episode of Scandal. What intrigues me about Scandal the most is that Shonda took the time to fully develop a female lead role, and to add more dynamics to the script, made the character a woman of color. This totally changed the variety of racial representation on primetime television, and proves that not every story or script needs to be male dominated. Olivia’s character, although highly assisted with sexual innuendos, is not solely dependent on sexual objectification. Olivia is showcased being in charge of her own business, delegating tasks, and even shows authority to highly respected male figures in the community. She is an example of a relatable, regular human with difficult tasks to overcome, and validates that there is more to a woman on screen than being a male sidekick. With the works of Shonda Rhimes, ratings continue to prove that our male dominating roles, and female exploiting characters may very well be a thing of the past.



Sources:
http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/15/tv-ratings-thursday-scandal-the-blacklist-the-vampire-diaries-greys-anatomy-reign-finales-up-soft-start-for-wayward-pines/404244/


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