The Importance Of Bullying In Grey's Anatomy

In today’s society, the term “bullying” has become ubiquitous. Even though bullying is commonly addressed in an adolescent setting, it can be found in the most intimate and deep relationships of one’s life. On September 24, 2015, the medical based drama Grey’s Anatomy, aired their season twelve premiere, Sledgehammer. Executive producer, Shonda Rhymes, took this opportunity to tackle head-on the severity of damage from bullying within a domestic environment. Rhymes ingeniously utilizes her award winning series and nationally adored cast to inflict a positive message to millions of viewers in under sixty minutes. She uses the credibility and professionalism of the main cast members to assist in dragging parents into the spotlight on how controlling and oppressive behavior towards their children can be the darkest and most damaging form of bullying. By examining a specific medical case brought into the ER, Sledgehammer highlights how a case domestic bullying can wind up as a case of life or death. The TV hit series Grey’s Anatomy is a medical based drama about the elite
surgical team of Seattle Grace Hospital. The show follows the team as they address life-or-death consequences on a daily basis as well as their personal lives. Grey’s Anatomy combines the intensity of the medical field with the most difficult realities in society to uncover that neither medicine nor relationship can be defined in black or white. Real life only comes in shades of grey. Nothing makes an episode more powerful than an epic patient storyline. The episode of focus, Sledgehammer, uses the guest characters’ devastating crises to give its viewers a front row seat into bullying and oppressive parenting from the inside looking out. The episode is about two fifteen-year old girls, Jessica and Allyiah, who were rushed into the Seattle Grace emergency room after being hit by a train. Prior to being admitted, Jessica’s parents recently discovered that the two girls were in love and were forcing Jessica to attend a long-term camp to be ‘cured’. After the girls believed there was no way they would be accepted and together, they decided stepping in front of the train was the only way they would ever be together and happy. The scene of the episode that really was a sucker punch to the gut was when the girl’s surgeon, Dr. Callie Torres, confronts and chastises the parents for the detriment their “parenting” has led to. This turn of events led to the revelation of the parent’s perspectives as well as the girl’s lives. After Callie’s profoundly eye-opening monologue, the parents, and viewers, were left blown away. Opening the scene, Callie sets the stage by describing the horrifying and emotionally destructive effects that those types of camps can do to a young girl, and then outlines what it is like to grow up in a strict catholic home as a gay child. She continues by reliving the milestones in her life that she was privileged to but was never truly happy because she never had the support of her parents through them. The beauty in the writing is that Callie does not label herself, and although she has previously alluded to being gay, the label itself is not important. The intent of her exposing revelation to Jessica’s parents was that parents should not care whether their child is gay or not if it gets in the way of making sure they are loved. She asks the parents to think hard on what decisions they’ve inflicted on their daughter thus far because of her sexuality and tells them that they should be worried about whether or not their child is loved, not whether or not she is gay. Initially, Jessica’s parents were baffled at the sight of an outsider attempting to intrude on the personal matters of their family’s relationships. In reality, doctors have no standing to instruct parents on any subject either then the medical status of their child. However, Callie, a commonly known bisexual woman to her colleagues, turns their attention to the expressions of her fellow doctors standing with her in support. After the parents stand their dumbfounded for some time, Callie simplifies her argument to that: it would better to have a gay daughter then a dead one. This moment in television perfectly highlights the vitality of what oppressive bullies, like Jessica’s parents, can create from their egotistical ways. The genius part in using such an idolized character like Callie Torres is that viewers of the show have already grown over time to respect and follow her story through out Greys Anatomy, so the argument coming from such a dark place in the life of such a respected woman allowed the message to really hit home for viewers. Along with the strong appeal to the viewer’s emotions, Callie is not only a character of relatability, but also credibility.
It is so common to approach fragile topics like this and argue from a state of volatile anger and personal agenda. When approaching this argument in that manner, the significance of the point gets tangled in all the drama. Callie Torres’s character presented throughout this episode in a professional and rational demeanor, as well as maintained a solid standpoint by supplying evidence from her experiences, not imagination. Also, Sledgehammer aired in September of 2015, which was just three months after same-sex marriage had become legalized in the US in June. Combining the recent emergence of national recognition of a linking topic with Callie’s intense address to the cause, she flawlessly discredits the ignorance parents commonly have on the backlash of oppressing
children. Callie perfectly executes a female heroine in Sledgehammer as she takes a mother to task over her proposed plan for her gay daughter. Dr. Callie Torres has the marvelous warm and generous hearted way of fighting for the underdog. And in this case a fifteen year old girl, does an exceptional job at utilizing a professional and respected doctor as an advocate for connecting the effects of domestic bullying to where that backlash may lead it’s victims. Thanks to the flawless scripting by Shonda Rhymes, television sensation Dr. Callie Torres was able to successfully unfold the danger and destruction of bullying’s effect on children with in the home and leave it to the public to learn from time and time again.