It's Handled

Scandal

ABC’s new hit series called Scandal is about a character named Olivia Pope, a cunning, intelligent, and powerful African American woman, who was a former White House Communications Director but started her own crisis management firm. Shonda Rhimes, who is also an African American woman and creator of the show, stepped out of the social norms of media where black women were subjected to the “invisible roles” of society.

Teresa Graves

Diahann Carroll

Scandal may actually be the first show to have a black woman as the lead role on a primetime network drama series since Diahann Carroll in “Julia” (1968) and Teresa Graves in “Get Christie Love!” in the early 70s. Times have definitely changed since this show came out in 2012. However, a majority of shows in Hollywood portray the protagonist as both male and white whereas, black women were featured as the most demeaning and stereotypical way possible through shows like Basketball Wives, Bad Girls, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta. These shows focused on ex-wives, ex-girlfriends of NBA players, and “baby mamas” with endless scenes of trash-talking followed by hair-pulling, and man-stealing showdowns. These women are hindered from showing the other aspects of themselves that features them as business owners, entrepreneurs, and simply a successful black woman.

Throughout the whole show, Olivia Pope is seen as powerful, fearless, and a political asset because she can fix anything and get rid of any evidence possible. However, the major issue that one might not realize is that no matter how intelligent, fearless, or powerful she may be, in reality, she suddenly becomes weak and powerless when the President seduces her. She is also labeled as the President’s mistress because she is aware of the fact that he is married with children and yet she cannot resist him. The President has promised her many times that they will soon go away from all of the problems and obstacles that are being thrown at them but nothing has happened. She is still just his mistress and  Bottom line is, sexual attraction is not equivalent to love. In addition, Rhimes may have hinted race and gender concerns through that episode because a black woman’s flesh is simply an object to be desired sexually whereas, a white woman’s flesh (The President’s wife) is desirable and acceptable in every other aspect.

Furthermore, Olivia Pope is seen as the ultimate “fixer” of problems and she knows this because everyone seeks for her help since she is very good at what she does. However, throughout the whole series, we do not know much about Olivia Pope’s characteristics as much as The President’s or anyone else. We have very little information about her personal life, passions, education history, and so on. It is also possible that she may be just an embellishment for someone else (The President and the American Political System). The answer to that may require deeper thinking or more episodes to analyze.   

The idea of creating Scandal was brilliant and definitely one for the books. Rhimes did an excellent job of including hidden messages that require deep thinking. It is great to see something different from the social norms of Hollywood media especially if a positive message and representation is being spread. The fact that it took almost 50 years for a black woman to become a leading role in a television show is just surprising. Scandal somewhat also reveals a positive aspect of black women in the media.