In case you don’t already know this, having Shonda Rhimes be a part of the TV landscape has upped the feminist quotient exponentially. Next season she adds a third show to her roster Off the Map created by Jenna Bans. She is now officially a mogul.
This morning while reading the weekly Ask Ausiello column on Entertainment Weekly I came across this quote when a reader asked if Meredith and Derek were going to have a real wedding on Grey’s Anatomy and had to share.
From Shonda:
I deeply appreciate the fans and how much they care about Meredith and Derek, but as a woman and a human being and the mother of a girl, I just feel like this idea that somebody in a big, white dress is the be-all and end-all of human existent is a terrible message to send out.
I felt like Meredith and Derek’s choice to be together becomes a marriage of equals as opposed to some faux fairy tale. And while I love a good wedding, I felt like for Meredith, it was so counter to who she is as a human being. And I love the fact that Derek doesn’t need her to do it. I get why the fans want it; I’d probably want it too if I was just watching. But I literally feel sick every time think about Meredith in a big white poufy dress.
God I love her.
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I’m so glad that there are sensible people like Shonda Rhimes making TV. She’s right, staying true to the characters is much more important than fulfilling audiences’ (mistaken and strange) fantasies.
I’d probably appreciate the comments more if she didn’t get all into teen weddings on Private Practice.
Glad to see Shonda get some love for once, since she gets so much hate from the Grey’s fanbase (who are really obsessing over the lack of a stupid wedding). I love Grey’s Anatomy, it’s my guilty pleasure show. It’s done a lot of good with it’s rdiverse cast, where more than half are women, and lately lesbian visibility.
I’ve never liked Private Practice, but I’ll definitely give Off the Map a look!
And for that, I love Shonda Rhimes. So refreshing to not see the pandering!
I love this quote (because I don’t like chastity-based wedding rituals) but I’m confused by the timing. Didn’t they get married in Season 5? Or did they just say they did? I know Izzie ended up having the white wedding. I don’t watch the show regularly, as you can see, so maybe someone can enlighten me.
@Therese: they wrote post-it note vows to each other & then said they were married. That’s it.
And a note to Shonda: the wedding doesn’t have to be a big to-do with the white poufy dress. In my 2nd marriage, we got married next to the water with friends & family gathered around. And I wore a deep purple dress (it was lovely – I absolutely adored that dress & the color). It was deeply meaningful to us and there wasn’t an inch of tulle in sight.
The wedding would be nice, but we don’t all wish for the fairytale.
Thanks, Becky. I totally agree with you re Weddings. I was married in lime green and black in my sis’s back yard. It was lovely (we did have some tulle on the dog, though. She wore my sister’s recycled wedding hairpiece as a collar.)
I love the response she gave! Brava, Shonda Rhines!
That said, she is a trail blazer and I love Grey’s.
I’m a straight women who never had the “wedding fantasy” we are all supposedly obsessed with. I also don’t care as much about shopping and shoes as most mainstream media suggests “all women” do.
That is partly why I thoroughly enjoy Grey’s Anatomy.
In it are well developed male and female cast members who have rich personal lives, but, are also career obsessed and have interesting careers. The story lines are rich.
My favorite scene ever was when Christine tears off her wedding dress and borrowed choker as if it is suffocating her.
Private Practice leaves me bewildered nearly every episode I’ve seen.
After more than one I thought, “Does Shonda have an issue with choice?”
The show is not nearly as solid as Grey’s. I figure she must not be as involved.
So with any new shows on the horizon, I hope she’ll be involved to the point where the quality wont suffer and it is as enthralling as Grey’s is.
Bring back Dr. Burke!!
In this day and age of Michelle Obama and her beautiful daughters, who needs a Shonda Rhimes?
Producer Shonda Rhimes and her evil minions (producers Jenna Banns, Betsy Beers) at ABC either refuse to portray Black women on their shows in the TV lineup – consistently eliminating them from roles, as in “Off the Map” – or continue to stereotype Black women as (arguably) successful, but dysfunctional with sterile roles, as in Grey’s Anatomy and, to a degree, Private Practice.
And although, yes, Ms. Rhimes is a Black woman, the typical pattern for her shows is to
1. systematically and completely exclude Black women, or
2. In the rare cases where Black women are portrayed, cast them as less-desirable than their non-Black counterparts (i.e. out-of-shape, harsh, mean, emotionally barren – feel free to pick your stereotype as Shonda Rhimes and her crew uses them all), unable to be involved in healthy relationships with any man, and definitely not a Black man.
At best, Ms. Rhimes and her crew may cast a Black woman as the “best friend” to a white or non-black cast member, as if that is some special compliment. At her worst, Black women are portrayed as “the b*tches” she wants America to believe them to be, stark and humorless.
Let’s hope that her upcoming movie based on “B*tch is the New Black” gets canned before production.
Black women of all shades look great, and are romantic, and sexy. And with so many struggling Black actresses looking for parts, I know she can find some beauties that fit the bill of smart, beautiful, friendly, and can play the “hot” roles, all rolled into one.
Who needs to support a Black woman who routinely eliminates us from the shows she produces, and thinks that the only time we’re worthy of portrayal is as b*tches? Who thinks that Black women, and Black women alone, are not worthy of portrayal in romantic relationships? Who thinks that an equally attractive Black woman should not be cast among equally attractive co-stars? Who is OK with producing a movie casting Black women with the gumption, discipline, and standards to become highly educated professionals, as b*tches? Obviously, in her self-hating mind, Black women are not of “the beautiful people”, thus we deserve to be marginalized, eliminated or maligned and scorned.
Do we want our daughters and the next generation of Black girls growing up believing that they are not as beautiful as anyone else? That the best they are is a b*tch? That they are less kind, intelligent, and sexy than other women on this planet? That they cannot be human and have days like everyone else when they are angry or frustrated or even feeling mean without being cast as a “B*tch”? That they have to trade in their standards and success for fear of being denigrated?
I think NOT.
So who needs a Shonda Rhimes? If this is the best she can do to portray Black women, then we certainly do not.
Wathcing the begining oof scsndal love it allready. I love the power of her charactors, now if she can Mr Washington back on staff of Grey’s atomy, I’d be happy.
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