Grey’s Anatomy is one of my favorite TV shows, if not my favorite TV show. I like the drama and the medical things that go on in the show. The medical field fascinates me and I plan on having a career in the medical field. I do not only watch the show for the drama and medical related things that go on. I mainly watch it because of its messages in the show. They have episodes that cover the topics of acceptance of sexuality and love, racial injustice, social class, and most importantly, women empowerment. On Season 14, Episodes 20 and 21 have a message about women empowerment. Women have been manipulated at work or even in other places with men that have a lot of money and the power to do what they please. Women were not allowed to have a voice and/or they were too afraid to speak up about what goes on behind closed doors. They would be paid a lot of money and sign an agreement for their silence. In the show specifically, there was a powerful man named Harper Avery who owned meany hospitals all over the world and worked with women for many years. It has recently came up that 13 women have filed sexual harassment complaints against him many years ago but he couldn’t let that go to public so him and his daughter-in-law Catherine Avery made these 13 women sign an agreement that they cannot speak about the situation or work in any Harper Avery owned hospital as long as the agreement stands. They payed them a lot of money for their silence.
Harper Avery died some time ago in the show but his grandson Jackson Avery was never aware of what Harper Avery because he swept it under the rug. He needed a very talented female neurosurgeon to come to Grey Sloan Hospital to come help Amelia Shepard with research on ultrasound waves to kill brain tumors. She would not come because she found out that Grey Sloan was owned by Harper Avery and turns out she was one of the 13 women who filed the complaint. He worked his magic and got the agreement lifted. He still did not know the whole story but lifted it anyways. Now, all 13 women are no longer going to be silent and by the time his mom told him the whole truth, it was already too late. The hospital that they work at is at risk. In the next episode, Catherine Avery is ashamed of what Harper Avery has done and wants to change the legacy of the Harper Avery Foundation. She publicly supported all of the women that were affected by the agreement, gave the women who were silenced, a voice and she changed the name of the foundation to the Catherine Fox Foundation. It cannot undo everything that happened but it is most definitely a start.
In this course, sometime in February, we discussed men’s definition of inequality. We talked about how some men do not see women as nothing more than sexual objects that they can use however they want. They believe that because they have money and power that it exempts them from having to deal with the consequences of their actions. Since women were viewed as less than, whenever they would want to come out and speak about what has been going on, no one would believe them. Up to this day, we still live in a society that has this mindset. It was not as bad as the 1900s but it is sad that it still exists. In a way, I believe that Harper Avery’s death happened as a result of his past actions. You may be able to avoid consequences with your gender, money, and power but not forever. How long until your past catches up with you? You cannot escape the inevitable.
