They put the “grey” in “anatomy”

The passing of Prop8 in California feels like the first step in a long, ongoing battle, one that the good citizens of the US will one day finally win. (I did however think that Prop8 might get defeated on the strength of Ellen and Portia’s super-cute marriage pics alone!) It pisses me off, but in even having had marriage rights to ban in the first place the good citizens of California have come a lot further than we ever have in Australia.

But more on topic for this blog, and central to my ire this week, is the dumping of Brooke Smith from Grey’s Anatomy. You know, I never really liked Patrick Dempsey, but he gets my respect for his back-handed ribbing of the “official” comments he was told to deliver from ABC on his appearance on Ellen this week. When asked (inevitably) what he thought of Brooke Smith being fired, he whipped out his piece of paper and told us what ABC wanted us to know about it, and left us in no doubt as to how he felt about it.

LA Times critic Mary McNamara hit it right on the head when she said “In other words, and they are words I deeply regret, Ramirez, with all her lipglossed lusciousness, may be beautiful enough to be bi, but Smith is not beautiful enough to be gay. At least not on network TV.” She’s so right, it wasn’t just about her being gay; she was bigger, stronger and more powerful than gay characters are supposed (or allowed) to be.

I do wonder though, if they were going to get rid of one of Callie or Erica, how did they choose who they were going to fire? Did they flip a coin between Smith and and Ramirez? Hardly. Ramirez is the ongoing lust object of McSteamy himself, so she at least has the potential to be redeemed. It is deeply misogynistic as well as homophobic. The ABC execs have outdone themselves this time.

And of course, the worst thing is that in order to protest this ridiculous decision we’re forced to give Grey’s Anatomy more attention and free press than they deserve.

I just wish I could be shocked anymore. I wish when gay characters die or drive off inexpicably into the sunset that it produced even a gasp of “what happened?” in me. But no, the reasons are as obvious as a fart in a car and as difficult to ignore. I’m disappointed sure, but not surprised.

This stink of a decision has the same hallmarks of the Prop8 vote, only attacking us through our entertainment, this world of “it’s only television”, is somehow more subtle. But the good news is that it has the effect of keeping us in check right when the election of Barack Obama might have made our hopes fly and our optimism rise too high. It keeps it real, in this world of division and double-standards, and reminds us that the fight has barely begun, in our laws and on our screens.