Clip Analysis

In an episode in the first season of Nip/tuck, Julia is continuing medical school to get her doctorate degree that she’s always wanted to become a plastic surgeon. It was a great time for her to go back to school because her second child was finally old enough to get a nanny for. Sean is still a successful plastic surgeon who is not able to watch the kids. While going to med school, Julia had an unexpected pregnancy and told Sean the news. Sean was very excited but was worried about Julia continuing school. Julia was not as excited as Sean about the pregnancy and continued to go to school everyday. She miscarried because of getting no rest. Sean was really sad about it, while the episode wasn’t clear about how Julia felt.
The person that obviously had power in the relationship is Sean. He continuously told Julia to get some rest, to keep the baby, and to not worry about school so much. As Julia went against his orders, it definitely was displayed as wrong and stupid, not smart and brave. In the end, she was the wrong one because her wrong actions caused a miscarriage.
Obviously there are a few stereotypes that are shown within ideas of gender. First, the man of the house tells the wife what to do. Julia is told to stay home and to rest. More importantly, Julia is told to keep the baby. Julia didn’t really want the baby because she wanted to finish medical school. It was Julia’s own fault for not telling Sean she didn’t want the baby as much as he did. However, because she is a woman, she wasn’t able to speak up to her husband. Another stereotype is that the man has the successful job, not the woman. Sean would come home everyday in his business suit and briefcase. Julia is trying very hard to be successful. However, no matter how hard she tries, she fails. After the miscarriage, she drops out of school. She doesn’t continue her dream of becoming a doctor. Another stereotype that could be seen is how all doctors are men, while women are nurses. Julia can’t become a doctor, and this idea implies how women can’t work as hard to become a doctor as men can.
This clip is definitely an old clip from 2003, the first season of Nip/Tuck. This is important because around that time there were many married mothers that were trying to go back to school to get their degree. The terrible thing is that Nip/Tuck made this impossible for women to accomplish in their show. It could have been intentional. If it was, I don’t think it was intentional to make it seem as though women can’t accomplish their goals. I think it was intentional for Sean and Julia’s relationship because of the episodes that followed.
This example is helpful to understand how gender roles are argued with binary opposites, which are seen as natural. Whatever Sean is, Julia is not. Julia can’t even become what Sean is, even with hard work. However, at the same time, it’s seen as natural. Julia’s natural pregnancy was key in seeing how natural the entire episode is. Julia miscarried and dropped out of school. It was a natural way of dropping out of school. Because it was so natural and biological, we don’t see the difference in gender roles.