Sexism, Confirmation Bias, and You... also Vampires

First off, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say... sexism is bad.

A bold stance, but I stand by it

Now that we've got that out of the way, I've been thinking a lot about how the so-called battles of the sexes is played out in pop-culture. What prompted this particular blog was an episode of Scrubs called "My Tormented Mentor." A new surgeon shows up at the hospital and hilarity ensues-- but there's a twist! This surgeon is... a woman.  Scrubs

If you'd rather not watch the clip (you should though, Scrubs is awesome) then let me summarize it for you. Dr. Miller walks in and the menfolk objectify her but are then shocked that she is actually the mythical creature known as a strong female character. 

A strong female character photographed
in the wild

Initially I thought, "hmm, while she is abrasive... at least she is confident." This character was basically the female equivalent of Dr. Cox-- smart, strong, annoying and lacking a certain social etiquette. However, if you watch until the end of the clip I posted, and the beginning of part 2 you'll see that Dr. Miller has an issue with Turk. Because he says "he's got her back" she jumps down his throat for being the "worst kind of sexist," one who tries to protect women because he views them as weak.

A black and sexist Superman if you will

Dr. Miller then goes on to mock Turk asking if the widdle boy is going to cry. Now, it is entirely debatable whether or not Turk is actually sexist but there are a couple of issues I have with Dr. Miller. First off is that she has a massive chip on her shoulder-- she sees sexism everywhere and holds a grudge against seemingly everyone (she later gets mad at Elliot for something about being a woman). Now, I won't deny that sexism exists-- I'm sure it does. But I do think that by being so hyper-sensitive to it, Dr. Miller has in turn become sexist; she just happens to be sexist against men. I have nothing against feminism-- provided it is simply the notion that women should be treated the same as men; note that I said "same" not "privileged." Just because Dr. Miller may have been discriminated against does mean that she has license to belittle men. Therein lies the rub; I think feminism is an inherently flawed term. Once more, I have nothing against women, but I think the term feminist can be alienating. Furthermore, given the history of women's rights I think the term has done a lot of good but if we ever hope to get past this obsession with gender then we should adopt a new term-- although I will admit that "personism" doesn't have the same ring.

I'm sure if anyone read my blog
this would be an argument thrown my way

This all brings me to my last point-- Dr. Miller seems to be more about talking the talk than walking the walk. She spouts off whenever men piss her off, and she's very aggressive about it. However, another show that I just started watching got me thinking about an alternative. The protagonist from True Blood embodies what I think is the best form of "personism." 

Although I'm sure many people are
angry that she's "just a waitress"

From the first episode of the series, Sookie proves that she can fend for herself-- she meets Vampire Bill (he's a vampire named Bill)  and discovers that some people plan to attack him. Sookie then rushes outside and saves Vampire Bill. Within the first ten minutes of the series, Sookie has done more for feminism (or personism) than Dr. Miller did in Scrubs. Rather than run around yelling at people that they should respect her because she's a woman, she shows that she is a capable human being. Throughout the series Sookie takes charge without having to speechify about how womanhood-- she initiates the first kiss with Bill, she saves him multiple times, and she doesn't let people piss in her wheaties. I suppose my point is, that being a woman does not mean you automatically deserve respect-- being a person does.