While the television show
“Scandal” hasn’t been on a full two seasons it is poised to become ABC’s #1
drama. With 7.4 million viewers on December 6 for the mid season finale and ranking
#1 with adults 18-49, “Scandal” is just too deelish to miss. Great writing,
engaging characters, plots as thick as Urkel’s glasses and enough frienemies to
question one’s BFF rankings, “Scandal” has enough clout to garner an uninterrupted,
one hour standing appointment every Thursday at 10pm in my home.
Now that we’ve crunched the numbers and quantified the hype lets talk
about the real reason women (not all but 99%) are tuning in. Liv and Fitz!
Baaaay-bay! Mm Mm Mm. The love between those two is breath taking. This man
loves him some Liv and this woman loves her some Fitz. These two have enough on
screen chemistry to make you forget that she is Black and he is White and oh
yeah, almost forgot, he’s married. Fitzgerald Thomas Grant, III, President of
the United States
is married and having an affair with Olivia Pope, his former image consultant.
Such is life. This story line isn’t new but it contains some elements that
debunk and also reinforce the stark differences in men and women’s attitudes
when it comes to love; not marriage but love. That four letter word that
neither gender (as a whole) has been able to successfully define and live out.
Like clock work every Thursday night after “Scandal” airs my news feed
reads like a 2013 version of “War of the Roses”. “Team Liv!” “I heart Liv and
Fitz”. “They belong together!” Of course these are post created by women.
Shortly thereafter the men chime in. “She’s a Hoe”, “If she were sleeping with your husband you
wouldn’t be going “awww”. “Women are defending her actions and they know she’s
wrong, he’s a married man.”
The character Olivia Pope is pushing the envelope and challenging women
to be honest about how we really feel versus doing what is right. Because we
are emotionally driven we will do what we “feel” every time hands down. It’s
been a long standing tradition that women have embraced – tarring each other
down. We’ve been characterized as catty; hateful towards one another and even
been charged with keeping our ugly friends around to make us look better.
Well, the first two simply aren’t true based on the number of supporters
this fictional character Olivia Pope has, even as an adulteress. We have
indirectly admitted that all is fair in the name of love and war including
cheating. Women have a tendency to play the holier than thou role except when
it comes to love (which men don’t understand). Women across the board are
pulling for this television love because we wish in our hearts of hearts that
this type of love could happen for us and if it doesn’t well damnit Olivia
Pope’s fictional love is real enough. Make sense? Not if you’re a man. Maybe
this will help. Men we (women) don’t let things like ego and rules get in the
way of an objective. There you have it – we don’t give a damn that he’s
married. They are soul mates. Period. End of discussion.
Let’s not get it twisted though.
Fitz is a cheater and there is a difference between a “cheater” and “cheated”.
Cheated is past tense and implies it was a one time indiscretion. Could happen
to any one, true, but remember the pregnant intern. HEY! I get it – it’s
different he didn’t love her like he loves Liv. In the minds of men it’s all
the same though.
One other reason why we love Liv so much is because even without the
POTUS she is still an individual. She runs DC and she’s had Fitz’s back without
him even knowing. She’s the perfect example of balancing who you are without
overpowering your man. And yes I
remember he’s married but we don’t like Millie. Their marriage was basically a
business deal in the form of a marriage (shrug).
So there you have it. We love Olivia Pope and all of her short comings
including being an adulteress. She is smart, pretty, in-charge, educated,
resourceful, feminine, resilient and her love life is a mess. Olivia Pope
represents what is perfect about women but at the same time what can be
inherently wrong with us. We support her because she shields us from the
judgmental side eyes we would get if we were in her shoes.
No comments:
Post a Comment