Friday, May 15, 2009

Portrayal of masculinity and femininity in tv show Scrubs

Scrub’s takes place in Scared Heart hospital, where it follows J.D an intern at the hospital and it shows his perception of the daily routine at Sacred Heart. Sacred Heart follows the standard hegemonic representations of masculinity and femininity. Culture has established this notion that doctors and surgeons are typically male. The sitcom Scrubs follows the hegemonic themes of having pretty much all male doctors and almost all female nurses. Where it strays and moves into counter cultural ideology is in the development of its characters.


J.D. and Carla are two characters that often times bend the gender norms in there actions and in personalities. J.D at times is shown having qualities that would be considered by society as feminine. He is a male that is unsure of himself, needs to feel appreciated and he is driven to feel emotionally accepted. One way he expresses this is that he loves to hug people. Carla on the other hand is a female who breaks the norms by being rather dominating, extremely vocal, and likes to get straight down to business. These two characters break social norms, but can fall under Newmans definition of gender. “Gender on the other hand designates the physicological, social and cultural aspects of masculinity and femininity.” (Newman 53)


In the episode My Big Bird, J.D. demonstrates a quality of emotional neediness that by societal standards can be perceived as feminine. J.D. is horribly distraught over the fact that he treated a patient and he did not receive a thank you from the patient. He is so upset by this he feels the need to go to the patient’s house for an explanation. The culture in American society perceives men as emotionally callous and insensitive. This episode especially shows J.D. as being part of American counter culture.


J.D. demonstrates the typical male quality demonstrated by the show as he is fooled by Carla and Elliot into thinking that they are talking about shoes. The show uses this hegemonic ideal that men are bored by any discussion involving shoes. In defining that all men are bored by show conversations the show is giving the male sex a definition of being bored by shoe conversations. This alters from Newmans view of male and female sex definitions. He defines “Sex is typically used to refer to the biological markers of maleness and femaleness.” (Newman 53) Once J.D. thinks that they are discussing shoes he stops paying any attention to their conversation. The ladies assume that J.D. and Turk will stop listening giving them freedom to talk Elliot’s involvement with a patient’s father right. They stand right in front of J.D. and Turk talking openly knowing that he will not listen. However, once the guys hear something that catches their attention, the ladies immediately say strappy sandals and the guys turns off again. The show clearly makes fun of this male ideal.


In conclusion, this episode of Scrubs shows the hegemonic relationship between men and women. It also effectively shows the changing relationships and how both men and women can have both masculine and feminine characteristics. While the show is extremely entertaining and exaggerates these points, it also makes some valid points about society today. The characters in Scrubs are entertaining because they strike a chord of reality.



Newman, David. M. “Identities and Inequalities: Exploring the Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality.” New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2005.