Grey's Heterosexual Privilege

I have irrevocably been in love with Grey’s Anatomy for the longest time. It’s the plot, plus the characters, and perhaps the slight obsession with surgery … even though I will never be a doctor. And even though as time goes on the story gets more desperate, I still am an avid fan. My favorite season is Season 2. The characters (doctors) run the main story line and the minor characters (patients) help develop the story. During the episode number 19 (What Have I Done to Deserve This?), I focused more on the minor characters impact.

Many of the main characters in Grey’s Anatomy are … to say bluntly… sluts. They sleep with everyone. They never contemplate whether a boy or girl is gay. Dr Shepard is trying to focus on regaining their relationship with his wife who slept with his best friend. Meredith Grey inappropriately slept with George O’Malley the night before the episode. Christina is sleeping with Dr. Burke, which is seemingly the only working relationship in the show, yet they never talk or explain feelings to each other. Alex and Isobel are sleeping together, yet they aren’t together. Heterosexual privilege is obvious in Season 2 because none of the main characters are homosexual and everyone seems to sleep with everyone.

Although the main characters show heterosexual privilege in the way they act and carry themselves the minor characters in this episode show that Grey’s Anatomy is accepting of homosexuals. Through the homosexual couple, the Begleiter’s, there is an obvious more feminine character and a more masculine character even though both characters are male. The doctors take the homosexuality in stride never ever commenting on the fact that the parents are gay instead they just focus on saving their child. The gay couple was obviously able to adopt contrary to the belief that many have that a gay couple shouldn’t be able to have children. Although there is an obvious character distinction with the characteristics of the homosexual couple, they are able to adopt a child and are caring of that child enough to bring him to the hospital. In contrast with the heterosexual couple when faced with problems i.e. a tumor on the male’s heart, the couple ends up breaking up. That juxtaposition shows that both couples are equal in society and either can break up over differences. In this episode, the homosexual couple is stronger.

I think that the setting, a hospital, does play an important factor. In a hospital a person is more stressed than usual and that tests the validity of a relationship. Whether one’s significant other can handle a tumor doesn’t matter if one is a homosexual or heterosexual. What matters is the strength of the relationship. Grey’s Anatomy, though it consists of mostly straight characters, shows its lack of heterosexual privilege through its patients. Also, in the future, Grey’s will have a lesbian couple and even run a story line about one lesbian trying to find love with the help of her male friend trying to find love in a female also.