Grey's Anatomy Backlash: Fans Slam the Show's Portrayal of Women and Motherhood

Exploring the life of surgeon Meredith Grey from the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital, this female-centered medical drama has recently received a backlash from fans who are concerned about the show’s misrepresentation of women and motherhood.

“I’m just about done with this show, I just hate their portrayal of women. They’re either career-obsessed or portrayed as subservient to men. In some cases both,” Lulupeet20 expressed their anguish in a Reddit post.

Indeed, some of the characters seem more interested in their jobs rather than their families. For example, both April Kepner and Teddy Altman barely had any of the maternity leave they’d taken, rushing to the workplace as soon as they could and seemingly abandoning their children. Viewers argue this made these characters look like cold-blooded careerists, robbing them of their feminine sides.

But the opinion cited above is not universal. Many fans brought up Callie Torres’ case as an example, lauding the woman for taking a proper maternity leave after her daughter Sofia was born — though she was still willing to return to the hospital, thus showing her commitment to both her work and family.

A number of commenters pointed out that getting a medical degree requires many years of study and practice, so it’s only natural that women in Grey’s Anatomy are willing to get back to something they’ve worked so hard to obtain. Reddittor valgme3 summarized this view in a comment:

“I also feel like doctors in particular (and surgeons especially!!!) would be much more likely to push to return to their career that they’ve worked like animals towards for almost 10 years to become attendings.”

In addition, there are several explanations as to why the show doesn’t feature many motherhood scenes. For one, filming babies is a difficult task to handle since they need special care and can be easily distracted.

And most importantly, showing much of the characters’ family lives may not be suitable for such a dramatically intense adult series — after all, Grey’s Anatomy is about doctors and their work at the hospital, not about families and parenthood.

“Personally I think the show’s portrayal of motherhood is the best middle ground they could find, one where the focus is on career-oriented women and the main message is ‘loving your career doesn’t mean you love your children any less. It’s okay to have other interests. It’s normal to find motherhood overwhelming, both the joys and stress of it,’” Reddit user Friendly_Fun_7543 shared their opinion, and that’s the view many Grey’s Anatomy fans seem to support.