Abortion on Screen Shonda Rhimes and the Television Portrayal of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States By E.M. van Hees June 20, 2017 MA Thesis History: American Studies Thesis Advisor: Professor M.S. Parry Second Reader: Professor R.V.A. Janssens Table of Contents CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 3 WHAT’S SHONDA RHIMES GOT TO DO WITH IT? 3 1.1 SHONDA RHIMES AND WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 3 1.2 THE IMPORTANCE OF STORYTELLING 6 1.3 PUBLIC ADVOCACY & PLANNED PARENTHOOD 7 1.4 HISTORY OF ABORTION RIGHTS IN THE UNITED STATES 8 1.5 CHAPTER OUTLINE 9 CHAPTER 2: NOBODY SAYS NO TO SHONDA RHIMES 11 PROGRESS IN THE OUTCOME OF ABORTION PLOTLINES 11 INTRODUCTION 11 2.1 ABORTION IN TELEVISION 12 2.1.1 ABORTION OUTCOMES IN THE 2000S 12 2.1.2 PROGRESS IN GREY’S ANATOMY ABORTION OUTCOMES 15 2.1.3 U.S. POLITICS AND THE CONTINUING FIGHT TO LIMIT ABORTION RIGHTS 19 2.2 THE HEALTH EDUCATING ROLE OF GREY’S ANATOMY 20 CHAPTER 3: TAKE A STANCE 24 HOW ABORTION POLITICS BECOME PERSONAL IN PRIVATE PRACTICE 25 INTRODUCTION 25 3.1 THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL 26 3.1.1 PERSONAL POLITICS AND THE ABORTION DEBATE 26 3.1.2 POLITICS AT OCEANSIDE WELLNESS 27 3.2 PORTRAYING LATE-TERM ABORTION 32 3.2.1 LATE-TERM ABORTION AND THE POLITICS OF REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 32 3.2.2 ATTACKING THE BAN ON LATE-TERM ABORTION 35 3.2.3 SPEAKING UP AGAINST VIOLENCE 37 3.3 WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A RESIDENT IN SHONDALAND 38 3.3.1 SPEAKING UP ABOUT WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS 38 CHAPTER 4: THE GLADIATRIX 41 HOW SCANDAL IS TRYING TO SHATTER THE STIGMA SURROUNDING ABORTION 41 INTRODUCTION 41 4.1 GLADIATORS IN SUITS 42 4.1.1 REDEFINING TRADITIONAL GENDER ROLES 42 4.1.2 HYPOCRISY & WHY WASHINGTON D.C. IS THE PLACE TO BE 43 4.2 REDEFINING THE ESTABLISHMENT 45 4.2.1 GOING UP AGAINST THE GRAND OLD PARTY 45 4.2.2 SEXUAL VIOLENCE IN THE U.S. MILITARY 47 4.3 THE POWER OF BEING EXPLICIT 48 4.3.1 VISUALIZING ABORTION LIKE NEVER BEFORE 48 4.3.2 NO PLACE FOR SHAME 50 1 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 53 BIBLIOGRAPHY 57 2 Chapter 1: Introduction What’s Shonda Rhimes Got to Do with It? I am attempting to reflect the world that I live in. Attempting to reflect the medical world that doctors exist in. Attempting to write women as they actually exist. – Shonda Rhimes1 1.1 Shonda Rhimes and Women’s Reproductive Rights At the 2015 Massachusetts Conference for Women in 2015, a conference providing motivation, networking, skill-building, and inspiration for women, Shonda Rhimes was introduced by television critic Emily Nussbaum as a ‘gladiator’ bringing a new ‘dark and twisty’ language to television. According to Nussbaum, “[c]rucially, she has put women, gay men and lesbians, and people of color at the center rather than the edges of her fictional worlds”.2 Nussbaum is a well-known journalist who writes for The New Yorker and won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 2016. The descriptions she uses for Rhimes as a writer producer, and influencer in television mirror the general descriptions and expectations that are held for her as a powerful woman of color. Rhimes has expressed her discontent with her success always being linked to her gender and race, as in August 2014, when she was described as “the most powerful black female in Hollywood” in a draft announcement for an event. She reacted by crossing out ‘female’ and ‘black’ before returning the draft.3 Rhimes argued that these modifiers were not relevant or necessary, as “[t]hey wouldn't say that someone is 'the most powerful white male showrunner in Hollywood.”4 With the success Rhimes has achieved, scholars have analyzed her work within the context of feminist representation and racial diversity. Sociologist Maryann Erigha, analyzed Rhimes’ and her unique success as a black woman in Hollywood, subsequently claiming that the success of Rhimes and a strong black lead character like Olivia Pope are due to the politics 1 Shonda Rhimes, Planned Parenthood Champion of Change Award Acceptance Speech (2017) Ramin Setoodeh, “Read Shonda Rhimes’ Full Speech at Planned Parenthood Gala: ‘Women Should Be Running Things’,” Variety, accessed June 2, 2017. http://variety.com/2017/scene/news/shonda-rhimes-planned-parenthood-read-full-speech-1202407894/ 2 Emily Nussbaum & Shonda Rhimes, “Shonda Rhimes at the 2015 Massachusetts Conference for Women,” Massachusetts Conference for Women, accessed January 29, 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_g-Js-Al4g 3 Lacey Rose, “Shonda Rhimes Opens Up About 'Angry Black Woman' Flap, Messy 'Grey's Anatomy' Chapter and the 'Scandal' Impact,” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 27, 2017. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shonda-rhimes-opens-up-angry-738715 4 Ibid. 3 of crossing over.5 Erigha argues that success in Hollywood can only be achieved by not being “too black”.6 Related to this, communications scholar, Ralina Joseph stated that Rhimes’ onscreen black female characters are elite, professional powerhouses who show great success in their work and complex personal relationships. Furthermore, Joseph argues that the black female leads embrace interracial relationships and friendships, seldom seen in the company of other black women.7 As stated by Nussbaum, Rhimes has put women at the center of her stories. A 2016 thesis analyzed feminist and patriarchal themes in Shonda Rhimes’ series Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. The analysis of feminist and patriarchal themes in these shows illustrated that feminist themes were present in Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal, yet, How to Get Away With Murder also illustrated “rampant patriarchal themes.”8 Even though previous research analyzed Rhimes’ portrayal of feminist values, these analyses have not yet placed this in the scope of women’s reproductive rights. In 2016, Shonda Rhimes received the Producers Guild of America’s Norman Lear Achievement Award in Television.9 The award was named after writer and producer Norman Lear, because he was a pioneer in film and television writing on social issues.10 In 1972, two months before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion in the United States, Lear introduced an abortion narrative to his CBS sitcom Maude. Lear developed two episodes in which the title character decides to terminate her pregnancy and persuades her husband to have a vasectomy. According to Parry, the show’s popularity paved the way for other television shows to address difficult issues.11 Parry argues that Lear had an unusual level of autonomy that may have helped him successfully produce programs illustrating the theme of abortion.12 Rhimes has created a similar situation for herself at ABC Network. In several interviews, she has discussed her privileged position at the network and the fact that she has the freedom to make decisions about 5 Maryann Erigha, “Shonda Rhimes, Scandal, and the Politics of Crossing Over,” The Black Scholar 45(1) (2015): 10. 6 Ibid. 7 Ralina L. Joseph, “Strategically Ambiguous Shonda Rhimes: Respectability Politics of a Black Woman Showrunner,” Souls 18(2-4) (2016): 303. 8 Katelyn C. Roshetko, “A Rhetorical Analyisis of Feminist and Patriarchal Themes within Shonda Rhimes’ Television Shows Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away With Murder,” Liberty University (2016): 85-86. 9 Kate Stanhope, “Shonda Rhimes to Receive PGA’s 2016 Norman Lear Award,” the Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 30, 2017. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/shonda-rhimes-receive-norman-lear- 837417?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%20Awards%20Alerts_now_2015- 11-05%2010:22:17_kstanhope&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_therace 10 “About,” the Norman Lear Center, accessed January 30, 2017. https://learcenter.org/about/ 11 Manon S. Parry, Broadcasting Birth Control: Mass Media and Family Planning (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2013), 67. 12 Ibid. 4 her shows. She did have some discussions with the network when it came to abortion plotlines on Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal but in other cases she did not even ask: “Part of the luxury of my job is that I don’t necessarily have to ask anybody anymore. I didn’t ask, we just did it.”13 Rhimes is not the only one discussing abortion through her television narratives. Sociologists, Gretchen Sisson and Katrina Kimport studied abortion outcomes in film and television between 1916 and 2013 and they found that the number of abortion plotlines have increased by at least 31% each decade over the decade before.14 In their research into abortion plotlines on American television, Sisson and Kimport concluded that a clear majority of fictional characters retrieving an abortion between 2005 and 2014 were white.15 The percentages of abortion distribution for U.S. women in 2008 show that 36.1% of the abortions were obtained by white women and 29.6% were obtained by black women. Between 2005 and 2014, 87.5% of the abortions in American television were obtained by white women and only 5% were obtained by black women.16 Sisson and Kimport do not provide possible causes for the discrepancy in percentages, however, they do suggest that the underrepresentation of certain populations of women considering abortion on television could contribute to feelings of isolation or internalized stigma and shame.17 Some of the reasons behind having an abortion were also underrepresented in abortion plotlines on television. Financial unpreparedness and prioritizing the needs of existing children were portrayed less frequently and could suggest that abortion is a self-focused decision and that the procedure is wanted instead of needed.18 This thesis will not focus on Rhimes and her portrayal of powerful women or race as a factor in abortion plotlines.