IN DEFENSE OF “THAT” EPISODE OF “SCANDAL”

By Kristin Scheimer

On Thursday, March 5, ABC aired an episode of “Scandal” called “The Lawn Chair” about a young black man shot and killed by a white cop.   I, and every “Scandal” fan out there, tuned in to watch (or watched a few days later on Hulu).  Many viewers, myself included, ended the episode a weeping mess. 

However, since then there have been many mixed responses to this episode.   It’s been hailed as condescending, ballsy, inappropriate and powerful.  It’s predictable that an episode of this nature would inspire mixed feelings and opinions. 

So, I thought I’d add mine to the mix. 

One of the most powerful and exciting elements of entertainment is its ability to give an audience a visceral, emotional experience they might not have in their daily lives. 

The phrase #blacklivesmatter can be seen everywhere in reaction to the massive number of young black men being gunned down by white cops.  For anyone who has a black man or boy in their lives whom they care about, this phrase evokes images and feelings of that man or boy.  However, for people who don’t have this experience, #blacklivesmatter evokes a more generic response.  It’s an intellectual idea rather than an emotional one.

The writing of the incomparable Shonda Rhimes and the stellar, heart wrenching performance by Courtney B. Vance did exactly what they set out to do.   It gave everyone watching an emotional experience.  I’d be hard pressed to find anyone watching that episode who wasn’t rooting for and moved by Vance.   His emotionally raw declaration that “My son didn’t carry a knife” would move even the most stoic of viewers. 

Some say the ending was fantasy because in the real world Clarence is right, there are only two ways it would have ended:  with him in jail or dead.  But what purpose would it have served for this to end tragically?  We see that in real life.  We need to see the possibility of other outcomes.   

The next time a young black man is killed by a white cop (and oh, how I wish it would be true to say: IF this happens again), then people who have seen this episode will emotionally relate to this episode, whether it’s conscious or not. 

This episode gave its audience someone to care about.  It gave us the emotional experience of caring about this boy and his father.  That’s the power of the episode.  That’s the purpose of the episode.

There are a lot of tragic things in the world:  The extinction of Rhinoceroses.  The horrific treatment of women and girls by the Taliban.  The number of black men killed by cops.  But it is also all too easy for people to “not relate”, to “put it out of their minds” because it doesn’t affect them.

That’s the real tragedy in the world.  Apathy is the biggest killer of our humanity.  Every injustice, tragedy or horrifying situation in the world that was righted, conquered or cured happened because people WEREN’T apathetic.  They stood up and ended slavery, got women the right to vote and are on their way to eliminating the impact of the Taliban. 

But for most people, it’s simply too hard to get involved because they aren’t directly affected or don’t feel emotionally involved.  Pre 9/11, when I heard what the Taliban were doing to women and girls in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other parts of that region, I couldn’t sleep for several nights.  I finally got involved and started volunteering with organizations to bring attention to this tragedy and to motivate people and the government to get involved.   What I ran into quite often was a sense of people not being able to relate to these women.  They were foreign, lived on the other side of the world and had no impact on their lives.

But in 2012, a beautiful young girl named Malala Yousafzai was shot in the face by the Taliban for speaking out for the rights of girls to go to school.   Thankfully this lovely spirit survived this horrific attack and has become an outspoken and inspiring leader, even winning a Nobel Peace Prize for her work.  She is delightful and charming and has put a face to the faceless women being persecuted by the Taliban.  Now when the Taliban and their treatment of women are brought up, for anyone who knows of Malala, this heartwarming young lady is brought to mind.  If they can’t feel for a group of girls with whom they feel they have nothing in common, they can feel for Malala.

Rosa Parks is famous for her rebellion on the bus, but what most people don’t know is that the NAACP was actually planning such an action.  It had the impact it had and the NAACP had the idea to do something like this for exactly the same reason.   Saying black people had to ride in the back of the bus may not evoke an emotional response from some people, but this hard working woman’s story was personal and relatable. 

That’s the power of entertainment and the power of “that” episode of “Scandal.”  I would love for it to be required viewing for everyone in this country as this slaughtering of the young black male population isn’t a black problem, it’s an American problem, it’s a human problem and we ALL have to work together to find a solution.  Sure there are die hard racists who will be unmoved (at least consciously) by this episode and there will be people who have learned to harden themselves against caring about anyone outside of their world, but without a doubt, there will also be people moved by this episode in ways they’ve never been moved by the tragedies they see on the news.  The journey of the father in this episode is what will draw them in and make them feel in a way maybe they’ve never felt about this tragic situation.  And even if a handful of people are affected, the episode was worth it just for that. 

Yes, it had an unrealistic ending… now.  But hopefully, one day, it won’t be.  Seeing the possibility is a good step towards that.  Seeing that the death of Brandon should never even happened is another step.  No, people don’t want to talk about it.  Some people may think this divides the races more, but I disagree.  We do need to talk about it.  If it makes people uncomfortable, then we know we’re doing it right.

AGENT CARTER AND INTIMIDATING WOMEN

by Kristin Scheimer

Romantic relationships* are as complex, complicated and diverse as the 7 billion people on this planet.  I’m sure I could write several books on the subject, but today I will be focusing on one specific element that comes up for some women.

It’s the idea that they are “intimidating”, what that means, why this happens and what can be done about it.   There seem to be many answers to these questions, but I think for many women what it comes down to is perception. 

Society gives us many of our perceptions.  There are ideas of what roles women should play in relationships and what roles men should play.  Historically speaking, men have been the breadwinner, the protector, and the strength of the relationship.

In the times of hunters and gatherers, men left the community to hunt.    If danger approached, they were the protectors. 

Women stayed closer to home, gathering food, which required less physical strength than hunting. 

Now imagine there’s that one woman who wants to go out and hunt.  She fights and is just as physically strong as many of the men in the tribe.  How likely is it that she will be able to embrace this role and still find a mate who is ok with this?

But here’s where I believe perception can sometimes be skewed.   Just because she can hunt and fight doesn’t necessarily mean she doesn’t have the same yearning for a soft and vulnerable relationship with a man as a woman who takes on a more traditional role.

There are many elements to this idea of “intimidating” women.  Some people think men’s insecurities keep them from pursuing a smart, strong, independent woman.  Some men may have been burned by strong women, who weren’t able to be vulnerable and intimate.   Perhaps these women struggle so much with being smart, strong and independent in a world where this can still be difficult for women, that they feel they can never turn this off, even in their interactions with men. 

But I think in many cases - in my own experience and those of many of my friends - there’s a perception that if we are smart, strong and independent, we don’t want or need a man, making men feel that they have no place in a relationship with us.   The truth is, there are actually a fair number of “intimidating” women who want to be vulnerable and cared for by a man.   

In looking for examples in film and television of a smart, strong, independent woman who is also vulnerable and intimate in a relationship with a man, I was surprised to find few examples (and realized this is a vacuum this screenwriter can possibly fill!)

On “Bones”  Temperance Brennan struggles with being intimate and vulnerable, although she has come a long way in that area.  Again this does seem to be the case for some of these “intimidating” women.  They find it difficult  to balance the two.

On “Castle” Richard Castle isn’t afraid to let Kate Beckett be strong, but he also doesn’t take on a traditional male role.  He is more childlike.  He doesn’t seem to be intimidated by her strength, so much as he enjoys it.  

However, Beckett is a good example of a character who is smart, strong and independent, but also soft and vulnerable with her mate.

But the role model I’m choosing for this discussion is Agent Carter from Marvel’s “Agent Carter”.  There are several reasons for this.  First of all, the time period in which the show is set is post World War II, a time when the roles of men and women were very clearly defined.

Advertisements during World War II were all about tailored suits for women and products that could help women in the workplace.  This is because, with all the men at war, women were needed to go to work to fill the many empty jobs in offices and factories.

However, post World War II, men returned home and wanted their jobs back.  Women were encouraged, very strongly, to return to the home and their roles as demure females.  

Advertisements changed, touting the wonderful new home appliances, which made housework so much easier.  Fashion changed to a more flowing, girly dress style, and there was a definite message that women were there to run the household while their men went to work. 

 Whether this was a reflection of society or intended to shape society, it was made very clear what the relationship should be between a man and his wife. 

Into this environment appears Agent Peggy Carter. 

I loved “Agent Carter”.  I thought her character was kickass even by today’s standards.  Yet, whenever Captain America came up on the show and in the first Captain America film, you could see her softer, vulnerable side.

And that’s the quandary that many smart, strong, independent women face.  We have been told on numerous occasions that we intimidate men.  To us, this is ludicrous, because as kickass as we may be in a lot of ways, we get weak in the knees and just want to be intimate and vulnerable with the man of our dreams. 

Is this an oxymoron?  The number of times I’ve received the message from people, from the media, from… the ether – that strong women shouldn’t need a man – has led me to be ashamed of the idea that while I am the most determined person you will meet when it comes to my career, I also, quite simply, want a man in my life.

Did Agent Carter, who jumps onto moving cars, beats up a room full of men, uses her clever wits to outsmart the bad guys, seem any less of herself when we saw her vulnerability that came from her love of Captain America? 

I think the makers of this fun romp did an excellent job of balancing the two sides of Peggy Carter.  She’s strong - stronger than a lot of the men she encounters - but she has a vulnerable side as well.

Are there men who would be intimidated by her?  Does it take a superhero like Captain America to be with a smart, strong, independent woman like Peggy Carter?  I suppose it depends on your definition of superhero.  For many of these women a superhero isn’t a guy with super powers who goes around saving the world.  He’s a guy who shows up.  He has his goals and his life together, but he also has time to be there for the woman he loves, and he is perfectly content with her intelligence, strength and – in some areas of her life – her independence.  That’s superhero power right there.  And she will do the same for him because that’s what all of these super heroines are looking for.

So where does that leave us?  I think ultimately what it comes down to is that the roles of men and women in all areas of society are changing and we all have to adapt and adjust to these changes. 

Ironically, it was the push for women to go into the workforce and the coercion to get them to return to the home that was the impetus for the emerging feminist movement. 

No longer were women ok with their traditional roles.  They’d been sent on the hunt and told they had to return to gathering.  Some of them were fine with that, but others liked hunting side by side with their men.  The cat was out of the bag and couldn’t be returned.   Women learned they were capable of so much more than they’d ever been allowed to be before and no one was going to put them in a box again.

Mixed metaphors aside, what does this mean for relationships between men and women?  That might be a bigger psychological question than I have time to answer in this short blog, but I think the important thing in any interaction of a romantic nature is one common thread:  As humans, we are relational beings.  We all want love and affection.   People may go about it in different ways.  They put up walls because of past hurts or fears.  They hide the vulnerability of wanting intimacy with bravado or tricks.  Some may go overboard demanding affection out of fear of losing it, but regardless of all the masks, if we can all recognize the same need to connect, we just might be able to get past some of these hurdles. 

Despite our demand for equality in the workplace and in all other areas of society, we should never forget that there are still fundamental differences between the sexes, particularly when it comes to romantic interactions.

My therapist once pointed out to me – yes, I see a therapist – that in the physical act of love between a man and a woman, women are quite literally open, vulnerable and receiving to men… giving… to them.   So perhaps there’s something in our nature that tells us, at least in romantic relationships, women will always be soft and open to their men.   That’s not a weakness.  It’s nature.  It doesn’t mean that same woman can’t go out into the workforce and kick some ass.  Just as men can go out and be mighty successes, but still come home and be loving and caring to their wives.  The truth is, no one has the answer, because in the history of the human race, these changing roles of men and women are relatively new.

But this is again where I feel the entertainment industry can come into play.  One often hears actresses complaining that there aren’t enough good, strong roles for women.  Perhaps what we need to explore are these changing ideas of what a woman is and how that affects their interaction with men.  Perhaps we need more characters like Peggy Carter, who can thwart a band of baddies, but still long to return to the strong comforting arms of Captain America.

*For the purposes of this article only – as it deals with gender roles – when I refer to romantic relationships, I am referring to relationships between a man and a woman.

WHAT IS THIS THING CALLED “DIVERSITY”?

By Kristin Scheimer

Diversity is the hottest word in Hollywood right now.  Everyone, particularly TV Networks, wants to be proudly hailed as being appropriately “diverse”.   Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not disparaging this effort.  In fact, I applaud it, but the reality is, we’re not really making TV more diverse; we’re making it more… true to life.

I’m a writer, and I’m also a script reader.    One thing I’ve seen over and over, in badly written scripts, is that – quite simply – all the characters are alike.  Now I don’t mean, they are all straight white men and women in their 20s and 30s, although I do see that a lot as well.  What I mean is, they’re all generic characters with virtually the same personality.

So, when I tell a writer that their characters need to be more diverse, I don’t necessarily mean:  Make one black or one gay.  What I mean is that each of these characters needs to have a distinct and unique personality.  That’s what diversity is to me.

But that’s not Hollywood’s definition of diversity.  What they’re looking for is more people of color and maybe a gay person or two.   This feels a bit contrived, but there’s a reason for that.  The reason there is such a need to "diversify" TV is that it has, for so long, been un-diversified.  Ok, so maybe that’s not a word, but it fits.

In the 90s there was a wonderfully, charming show called “Will and Grace”.  The premise of it was: a gay man and a straight woman are best friends. 

 

The existence of a gay man in the world was so remarkable it was the premise of a whole show.  I call that a Tuesday. 

I’ve been fortunate enough to have always been a part of one of those “groups” of friends.  At first it was friends from acting school

and now it’s friends from Capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian Martial Art I study.  And having a friend who is gay, or black or Asian or Latina, isn’t the premise of show; it’s just… life.

Capoeira Brasil Los Angeles - Mestre Boneco

Not to disparage “Will and Grace”.   It was a great show and I loved it.  And, the reality is, at the time, gay characters on TV – unlike real life – were extremely scarce. 

There was a time when NBC was in its golden age of comedy.  I remember fondly the Thursday night comedy line up of “Mad About You”, “Friends” and “Seinfeld”, all of which took place in New York.  In fact, the shows existed so much in the same universe that there was one night when a New York City blackout covered all three shows.

And I loved these shows.  I tuned in with such excitement and I laughed and laughed and laughed.  The characters were wonderful, the humor well executed.  We loved these shows.   We loved these characters.

Small problem.  These were three whole shows that took place in New York, a city populated with as many races, genders, ages, and people of various sexual orientations as Los Angeles.  And yet, on not one of these shows were the main characters anything but white, 20-30 something straight people.

I’m not going to get into what they should or shouldn’t have done.  I’m simply going to say this.  “Diversifying” those shows, if we must call it that, wouldn’t have been bold or daring.  It would have simply been more realistic. 

The world, and certainly New York City, isn’t made up of one kind of people:  Straight and white.  Neither is Los Angeles, which is where I often set pieces that I’m writing.  It’s where I live and it’s what I know.

Warning:  Shameless self-promotion ahead. 

I tend to have a lot “diversity” in my writing for two reasons.  One, when one writes about a group of people, giving them as many diverse characteristics as possible will just make the script and the characters more interesting.

But here’s the other reason:  That’s what my world looks like.  I have a lot of friends and let me tell you it’s rare, in fact I’d go so far as to say it never happens that I find myself spending an evening with all white, 20-30 something straight people.  That isn’t my reality, so why would I write about it?

And here comes the shameless self-promotion.    In 2010, I made a TV Pilot called “Five in a Car”.  It featured a white woman in her 30s (me) who broke up with her husband and moved in with four men, who happened to be: An Egyptian, a Mexican, a Brazilian and a black guy.  Did I set out to write a show with characters of these specific ethnicities?  No.  I shot the project on a budget and used the friends I had on hand. 

And to fully embrace the shameless self –promotion, here’s a link to the pilot.  Enjoy!

Five In a Car Pilot

I currently have three original TV pilots that I’m using as writing samples.  In these scripts, I occasionally specify some characters as one race or another, but often this is merely a suggestion.  Perhaps I have an actor in mind for a part or it’s simply how I see the character in my head.  

There’s also a serious misconception that if I don’t specify the race of a character, then they must be white.  Again, not at all true.  Sometimes, the race of the character isn’t relevant.  There are, however, times when I specifically make a character a certain race because the story will be about the experience of someone of that race.

For example, in one of my samples,  “Theater Folk”, set in a small town community theater, the young black character has trouble getting cast in the shows because he’s black.  However, I specify another character as being of Indian descent.  I actually did this because I was working with a group of actors at the time, one of whom was Indian/Australian, and I like having an actor in mind when I write.

However, there is nothing in the story that makes it imperative that he be Indian.  In fact, for him, the most important characteristic is that he’s currently in the process of transitioning.  So he could be of any race, he just has to dress as a woman.

After the emergence of “The New Girl” on Fox, I felt the need to change up “Five in a Car” a bit and came up with another TV Pilot, “Complex”.  I absolutely know with certainty that it will be touted as “Friends” with diversity.   

However, I simply wrote the characters as racially different because that’s the world I live in.   But it’s not just race that makes these characters “diverse”; it’s also age and sexual orientation. 

I would have no problem changing the race, sexual orientation or age of one character or another, but I would definitely not be ok with them all being white, straight and in their 20s as that is not the story I’m telling.  The point of the show is that these people – who range in age from 20s-40s and are from “diverse” racial backgrounds and sexual orientations – have formed a makeshift family.  The point is, that’s my life.  That’s my world.  I would have nothing to write about a group of white, straight people in their 20s all living in a house together – at least nothing that would be of interest to me.

While I do not necessarily set out to try to make my scripts as “diverse” as possible, there is something to be said for pushing this kind of diversity in order to show audiences, who may not encounter people of different races, ages or sexual orientation, that they exist.

But mostly I think we need to change the way the TV universe looks because it doesn’t reflect the real world.  Do we really want to project onto the airwaves the idea that only straight, white people in their 20s and 30s have experiences and lives and stories worth seeing? 

That above all others is the reason to include more “diversity” in television.  Because if we don’t, we are arrogantly saying – to a rather large population of people – that they don’t exist in TV land… and maybe that means we wish they didn’t exist in real life. 

No.  Absolutely not.  We cannot continue to express that idea.  So I embrace Hollywood’s determination to embrace “diversity”.  It’s not so much a new idea as it is… a correction of an old fallacious one.

MINDY KALING, BODY IMAGE and “THE MINDY PROJECT”

by Kristin Scheimer

I love “The Mindy Project”.   The writing is hilarious, Mindy is delightful and Danny Castellano makes me swoon.

Speaking purely from a writer’s perspective, the humor is top notch and the growing love story between Mindy and Danny is intoxicating.  I’ll be honest, I think Mindy’s career takes a bit of a backseat and those storylines are not as strong as they could be, but I’m too busy thinking about Mindy and Danny to care all that much.

I love comedy and there are a number of very funny shows out there, but with so many shows to choose from, the ones I find I leave in the dust are the ones where there isn’t any sense of suspense or hope that the characters will eventually reach something for which they are so desperately striving. 

On “Cheers” we rooted for Sam and Diane.  On “Friends” we just hoped Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey and Ross would find love.  That’s what drives the sitcoms we adore; their search for and optimistic hope for love.

  

And that is what drove me to watch every episode of “The Mindy Project” over a very short period of time.  I wanted so badly for Mindy and Danny to finally be together.

But there is one part of this story of which I was also painfully aware.   As cute and charming and loveable as Mindy is, she is also, by many standards, overweight.  The episode of “The Mindy Project”, “What To Expect When You’re Expecting”, which aired on March 17^th, centered on the subject of weight, attractiveness and love.  As Mindy’s pregnancy progresses, she finds she can no longer fit into her clothes and she begins to reveal her insecurities that Danny couldn’t possibly find her attractive at her weight. 

This hit pretty close to home for me as, in the last few years, I have also become overweight.  This is difficult for me.  I was never a frail waif, but the weight I am now is relatively new for me and quite uncomfortable.  

Many years ago I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia, which is Western Medicine’s way of saying “You have quite a lot of chronic pain throughout your entire body but we don’t know why.”  I was briefly prescribed medication that had the lovely side effect of weight gain.  Thank you, Western Medicine.   I’m now dealing with my “Fibromyalgia” in a not so Western Medicine manner and finding success, albeit slow success.

However what all this means is that the exercise I can do is limited.  My exercise of choice for the last 14 years has been an Afro-Brazilian Martial Art called Capoeira.  Now, I love Capoeira.  It has become a central part of my life.  I’ve trained hard.  I’ve trained like a maniac, even at 10 to 15 years older than most of my fellow students.  But as the pain continued to get worse and worse, this became more difficult and at last impossible.

                                                                                           CAPOEIRA BRASIL LOS ANGELES

I have absolute and total faith, as I slowly start to heal, that I will one day, and hopefully not too far in the future, be able to return to training Capoeira.  I’m not young and perhaps will never train with the fervor I once did, but discipline and motivation to train have never been an issue for me.                                                                                                                  

Self-control and will power are also not an issue and I am rather diligent with my eating habits in an attempt to lose weight, but without the necessary vigorous exercise, this just isn’t having the impact I would like.

The result of which is, I am not at a weight of which I feel comfortable.   I say all of this because, while anyone who struggles with their weight understands how difficult it is and that oftentimes there are other factors involved – these happen to be mine – there seem to be many people out there who simply see the weight and dismiss the person without an understanding that there is more to them than their weight.

Which brings me back to Mindy Kaling and “The Mindy Project”.   I personally think she’s adorable and loveable, but I admit quite freely that as her “will they won’t they” love story with Danny was progressing, I was particularly keen on her ending up with him because it felt like hope for me.  If someone like her, who is not thin and lithe, could find love with someone like Danny, maybe there was hope for me.

What a horrible idea; that somehow our weight makes us less loveable.  Yet that is a very real idea that exists in our society. 

And let’s face it, I live in Los Angeles, where thin is measured by a whole different scale.  There’s skinny and then there’s Hollywood Skinny.    

Once upon a time, this was Hollywood Skinny:

 

Which has somehow turned into this:

There was a time when this was the ideal woman’s body:

 

Now it’s more like this:

Every time period, every culture, in fact every person, has their idea of the perfect body, but Hollywood has a strong tendency to give us a very specific, slim figure as the ideal for which we should all strive.

In 2010, when I was getting ready to shoot my TV Pilot, “Five in a Car”, I was looking for an actress to play the character that was essentially me.  Now, I went to acting school, and I’ve been told I’m quite funny, but when it was suggested – by multiple people – that I just play myself, the first thought that came to my mind was “I would if I wasn’t so heavy.” 

 

 When I told this to my mother, her response was:  “So what?  If you think it’s a problem, just make jokes about it on the show.”  So I did, but then I found myself in a house full of men, whose cultures tend to value women with more meat on their bones. The only jokes that really worked were for them to scoff at me for thinking I needed to lose weight.  Irony, right?  

"FIVE IN A CAR" PILOT

I now have a TV Pilot script, “Complex”, in which again there is a character for which I’d be perfect, but the same thought goes through my head.  “I would love to play this part if I lost a lot of weight.”  And I would.  I would love to be the next Mindy Kaling and star in a show of my own creation.  And despite the fact that she does it with great success, even though she’s a little on the heavy side, I still see Hollywood’s image of the perfect sized woman and I’m not it.

This same obsession with my weight affects my personal life as well.  Watching “The Mindy Project” made me all too aware of thoughts I was having.  “I’m really awesome… aside from being a little heavy.”  “Any guy would be lucky to have me… as long as he was ok with my weight.” 

But Danny loves Mindy.  Adores her.  He feels for her exactly how I would want a man to feel about me.   He doesn’t seem to care that she’s not super thin.  And yes, I am aware that these are fictional characters, but what struck me most about “The Mindy Project” is that while most of Hollywood only lets the thin girls find love, this show tells us that, at least in their opinion, the heavy girls can too.  So why can’t I believe that?  When did I decide being thin meant being loveable?     

I work hard at being smart, well educated, talented, kind, hard working, diligent, determined, charming, funny and yes, loveable.  Truth be told, I also work hard at being thin.  I’m just not – at the moment – as successful at that as I would like.  

I applaud “The Mindy Project” and Fox for shining a light on the insecurity of women who aren’t waifish and trim.

 

I wish I could say it completely rid me of any feelings of self-doubt about my weight.    It hasn’t done that, but it has made me feel that the possibility does exist.  And another fine example of TV excellence has had a positive and encouraging impact on the world – or at least this blonde, curvy writer.