Gladiators in Suits

Consider it handled! These words spoken by the powerful Olivia Pope from ABC's television show Scandal echo throughout the series seven seasons. The protagonist, Olivia Pope, who runs her own crisis-management firm in Washington D.C., shatters the stereotypical gender roles that are placed upon women. Not only does the show revolve around a female main character but Olivia Pope also has an established career within politics, which is predominately dominated by men, she is fiercely independent, strong, and intelligent. Though the show does focus on her complicated relationship with a married man, she remains her own person and not just an ornamental character whose sole purpose revolves around propping up the man. Olivia Pope even goes as far as to call out female stereotypes stating, "I am not a toy that you can play with when you're bored or lonely or horny. I am not the girl the guy gets at the end of the movie. I am not a fantasy. I don't need protecting. I am not the girl you save. If you want me, earn me!" The show further defies female gender roles when the character Mellie Grant is elected into office within the last season, making her the first female president of the United States.

While Scandal flips the purpose of women on its head, it however still buys into the stereotypically gender roles of men. Being set in Washington D.C. the show illustrates several men in powerful positions of employment. For example, up until the last season Fitzgerald Grant III is president of the United States, a powerful white middle aged man. Throughout the show, he is portrayed as capable, decisive, influential, and dominant. While the television series at times shows Grant being emotional, it manages to quickly move past it and continue with the toxic view of "be a man" that was discussed in The Mask You Live In. 

Through the creator of Scandal, Shonda Rhimes is focused on making the series comment of the social and political injustices that are happening in the world, the show still manages to cast light on certain tropes. For example, the trope that all abusers are male is perpetrated when Mellie Grant is raped by her husband's father, Big Jerry, and when another female character Abby Whelan is physically beaten by her ex-husband to the point where she is hospitalized. Another trope Scandal possess is I'm a man, I can't help it, in which men have limited self-control when it comes to sexual arousal. This is illustrated after Olivia Pope and President Grant break up, but when Fitz sees Olivia in the White House, they end up having sex in a closet, "I may not be able to control my erections around you, but that does not mean I want you. We are done." The last trope that is shown is the settled for gay in which a woman settles for marrying a gay man. In the first season, it is shown the Cyrus Bean, the Presidents's Chief of Staff is married to a woman even though he is gay. It is shown in the episode where they eventually divorce that she knew he was gay the whole time but wanted to help out his political career because being an outwardly gay republican would not have worked.