Triage Island

Could A Drug Addict Do What I Do?

[bigenderfranklangdon]

Sorry for this post to hit the timeline but I wanted to do a (temporary) pinned post

Moving on I’m going to actually post ficlets and my art, hopefully that’s something interesting, to move away from just tagless reblogs (and improve my tagging).

Maybe I’ll replace this with a directory of some kind when I feel that’s appropriate.

[fangs4faggots]

i think we should start openly mocking male creatives who can't figure out how to write women. like actually i think it's embarrassing that it took elliot page transitioning for christopher nolan to give him a good role. why did it take like ten years to get the first female lead in a marvel movie? why is it a Known Fact that stephen king can't write women? why is 50% of the population omitted from large ensemble works? i asked my friend to name a movie directed by a man with a majority female cast and he said ghostbusters 2016. ghostbusters. ghostbusters. g

[schrodingersregret]

Since Langdon moves out and into an apartment, Abby keeps the dog. It’s not good for a high energy young animal like that to live in an enclosed space where they’ll spend twelve hours plus inside, and Langdon doesn’t want his shitty couch any shittier by the dog biting on it out of frustration.

So, he’s alone. And it’s the first time he’s by himself basically ever. He went from a busy house to living on campus with a roommate to an apartment with Abby to kids and now.. to himself. Alone.

It sucks. It really, really sucks. Usually Abby’ll drop the dog with him when he takes the kids which he’s happy with, but still, the majority of his time is spent alone.

That is until one day on a run, a hobby he’s getting back into that he’s loving, he hears these tiny little sounds from a bush in the park. Originally he thinks it’s just a rabbit, a squirrel, whatever, but then it mews, and after an initially reluctant investigation, he looks to find two kittens in the branches.

He’s not a monster. He also doesn’t really want cats, but it’s not like he can leave them there, so he has a very awkward walk back to his apartment with two squirmy babies bundled up in his now removed shirt.

It isn’t really until he gets back does he realize huh, he has no idea how to take care of them.

So, naturally, he texts the only person he knows with cats that has a modicum more experience with these guys than he does.

Santos is initially very confused by a message from Langdon of all people, and then the picture of the kittens comes through, and fuck shit damnit, she does know how to help. Her deciding to is resolutely not for him. It’s for the kittens that have ears way too big for their heads and eyes so wide they look like they’re going to roll out.

[bloomwx]

atp I can't see Langdon as anything other than bi, like he is nawt straight to me

[samirasystole]

no because imagine next season where samira is nervous about robby’s first day back just like santos was nervous about langdon being back. the tension, the opportunities; what we could have had

[willow-s-linda]

Felt like doing something picture book like.

[footsteps-on-the-dance-floor]

me and my mutuals reblogging tumblr posts

[bambimand]

Baran Al-Hashimi come home I miss you

[grace-williams-xo]

Suits becomes a MUCH better watch once you read Katrina Bennett as lesbian

[alethialia]

I got an ask about unconscious bias and Robby's sexism that I won't post because it's way long, but I hear you, Anon, and I did have some thoughts. re: Taylor Dearden's point* about unintentional sexism and my point about the show unintentionally revealing the male EPs' unconscious bias, the question is, how is that possible when the writers' room is full of women? To which I would say: TV shows are not a democracy. They're not a commune. They are a dictatorship. Hopefully, a benevolent dictatorship, but the reality is that every woman in that room could object and it doesn't matter because Scott Gemmill can do whatever he wants. Even if the writers disagree, none of them will say so publicly because that is simply not done. It's the showrunner's show, period. (If anyone wants to learn more about how writers' rooms work, check out the Children of Tendu podcast. They talk a lot about the hierarchy.) But I'd also point out, well, women hold sexist views, too. We live under patriarchy, man. Sexism is so baked in that many people simply don't recognize it. It's 'obviously women are more nurturing' or 'of course men are better engineers.' A lot of people hold sexist beliefs and have simply never thought twice about them, women included. That's why it's called unconscious bias.

When I talk about the EPs' unconscious bias, I'm not talking about characters being sexist on screen. I'm mostly talking about bias in the storytelling framework of the show. I've said it before, but I find it telling that almost all of the women have stories related to their gender or their families and none of the men do. It's the choice of the stories themselves that reveals the problem. The male EPs in charge can choose to tell any story they want. The fact that they picked the ones they did, and that it fits a pattern, reveals a way of thinking about women and their stories. To be clear, I don't think the show or Robby are misogynistic; they don't fundamentally hate women. I think we're seeing good old-fashioned Gen X benevolent sexism. I'm gonna go into detail on the storytelling, which is long, so now I shall cut.

I want to start with a couple definitions for clarity's sake here. When I talk about plot, I mean the incidents that happen in the show. Story is how a character changes. So "Mr. Green's unknown AAA bursts and he dies" is plot. "After missing Mr. Green's AAA, Ogilvie doubts he's cut out for the ED" is story. One of the odd things about S2 is it failed to give all of its regulars season-long story arcs, which is considered poor TV writing. I think it might be a symptom of S2's shaky writing, but we'll have to see how S3 goes to make a full judgment on it.

If you look at S2, the men's stories are thus: after struggling with suicidal ideation, Robby realizes he still has things to see and people to love. After falling from grace, Langdon realizes he still has what it takes to be an ED doc. Whitaker doesn't really have a story, but if I were BSing it, I'd say it's that he comes into his own and realizes the ED is the place for him. (If you squint it's maybe that he learns to set a boundary with Langdon? But again, it's kinda BS. He doesn't have an emotional change over the season.) Abbot's not a regular, but hey, let's include him: when he realizes how much Robby is struggling, Abbot reveals his own vulnerability to save his friend's life.

What about the women's stories? After her mom's engagement, Mohan abandons her previous life plan and struggles to find a place she belongs, realizing it might not be the ED. Under relentless pressure from her parents, Javadi realizes emergency psychiatry is her passion. Mel learns that her sister is building a life that doesn't always involve her and realizes she must do the same. (Note that Mel's plot is overwhelmingly about the deposition that meant nothing, but her actual story is with her sister.) The catalysts or impediments to their stories are all family members. Quite different from the guys.

Santos is the real exception. Her story is that she confronts the superior who made her question herself and finds a new equilibrium. I would've liked the story where she struggles with self-harm only to find refuge in building a new friendship, but we can't actually say that from what we saw on screen. (All they had to do was show her putting the scalpel back! Sigh.)

I'd argue that our other returning regulars don't really have stories. Broadly, I'd say that McKay's plots deal with her acknowledging how the ED is negatively affecting her life (needs to get laid, can't cry), but she doesn't have an emotional change over the season, so it's not actually a story. Through the course of the season, she's sexually harassed in a way the show treats as cute and then is there to empathize with a dying mother and her children. Most of her material relates to female-coded things - sexual object, mothering, crying, etc. What's frustrating is it would've been so easy to give her an arc. Just show us one shot of her crying at the fireworks at the end. It would still be about a woman being all emotional, which is of course sexist in its own right, but it would've been something.

And then there's Dana. I said a while back that it felt like a final Dana scene in the finale was cut - because her story doesn't have an end, it just kind of stops; her last scene is giving the cops the rape kit, but it's not about an emotional change for her - so I was glad to have Noah confirm that at the terrible FYC panel. Whatever that scene was, I think it was a mistake to cut it because its absence left Dana without a story end. Broadly, her plotline was about taking a trainee under her wing and protecting her, which she does, but it doesn't change her emotionally. She struggled with her own mental health through the season, but that doesn't really have an end, either. I wish they had landed the mentorship story - Dana finds new purpose in being a nurse by seeing it through the eyes of a trainee - but even if they had, it's not treated as a professional mentorship story. It's the story of a mother nurturing and protecting a child. Abbot makes that explicit when he says, "You are the mama bear glue that holds this place together."

Mothers. Daughters. Sisters. Even objects of desire. That's how the show views women, broadly-speaking. Sure, men have relationships (flings, wives, Amys), but they're incidental, whereas the women's relationships are the lens through which the show sees them and the catalysts for their stories. That's what I mean when I say the male EPs' unconscious bias seeps in. I think the three old, privileged men in charge see women as relational, not as ends in themselves like men are.

Again, I wouldn't call this misogyny. It's not hatred of women. Hell, Noah made this explicit when talking about how Robby believes the women are better, so he's harder on them because he expects more. That is benevolent sexism right there.

Just to be clear, I don't think any of these stories are "wrong" or even that they shouldn't do any of them individually. I think most were written poorly, or didn't quite work, but I rather liked Javadi's. The problem is the totality. When all of your stories approach women a certain way, that shows a very limited view of what women are and can be. And it can unintentionally tap into harmful stereotypes of women, as I think it did in S2.

The big example of that is Mohan's story, which I think was bad on pretty much every axis and sexist in a harmful way. As I'm sure many know, there is an age-old stereotype that women are too emotional to hold important jobs. We see this every time a woman runs for president in the US, which is how it plays out on the grandest scale, but it's a still widely-held, harmful belief in everyday life. Historically, it's been an excuse to exclude women from certain jobs, the echoes of which still affect women today. So why The Pitt would choose to deploy this negative stereotype of women is utterly baffling to me.

To recap, Mohan's mom gets engaged and plans to go on a year-long cruise, which (inexplicably) upends Mohan's life, destabilizing her so much that she literally has a panic attack at work, the distraction of which makes her miss a diagnosis, causing a patient's entirely preventable death. To which I say...seriously? In 2026, they thought it was a good idea to show a woman panicking and getting a patient killed because of it...seriously??? Whatever the intention was, they have a responsibility as storytellers not to reinforce harmful negative stereotypes, so what the actual fuck, guys? Why was this story so important to tell that it trumps the reinforcement of what generations of professional women have fought to achieve? Yes, they gave Robby a panic attack in S1, but men don't have the same history of exclusion based on being too emotional; as soon as you give that story to a woman, it becomes a sexist stereotype because of the context. People can say it's just a story, but stories are how we understand the world, and these EPs have talked about the importance of their storytelling.

The sad thing is, if I had to guess, I'd bet it just...never occurred to them. Or if someone brought it up, they didn't think it was a big deal. And that is how unconscious bias and benevolent sexism lead to the reinforcement of harmful stereotypes that can have real effects on people's views. It's a shame and why I do think it matters.

To sum up, there are different ways to analyze sexism in a show. A lot of attention has been paid to X character treating Y character in Z way. That's certainly valid, but I think it's also important to look at it from a wider view of what stories the writers choose to tell and how those stories are approached. That's what I'm talking about when I talk about the EPs' unconscious bias creeping in.

*Just a note on the critique that Taylor has (apparently?) said she doesn't watch the show: I don't think that's relevant. She reads all the scripts, given that she has to act out the scenes, and then she's there when the show is filmed. She knows the show and her opinion is worthy of consideration.

[pghumfort]

Abby and the kids are at her parents’ place in another state and Frank is home because he has to work (and Abby asked him not to come). He decides to put up Christmas decorations.

He’s on the roof, he’s got a tether on because he treated too many guys who fell off roofs doing this shit, being perfectly safe despite the cold weather…. And then a gust of wind knocks the fucking ladder over.

At first he thinks it’s fine. This is a residential neighbourhood, someone’s gonna walk by soon. Except somehow no one does and he’s getting fucking cold up there. Who the hell does he call? The fire brigade? This is so stupid, they have actual emergencies to deal with. He calls two neighbours he has in his phone, but they’re not in town. Fuck!! Okay, he’s really cold now.

He’s trying to decide whether to call Yoyo or 911 when a text from Mel pops up. Mel! Of course! She’s only about ten minutes away, fifteen with traffic.

“Hey, hi Mel… listen…”

[bigenderfranklangdon]

I’m not gonna lie I haven’t posted about it because of the pitt being my main focus.

But butchfemme strattland from PHM has consumed me for about two months nearly it’s actually over for me. 26 fics of f/f strattland is not enough 😭😭😭

[gearsdraki]

oh my god james ortiz' hair is actually that fluffy. oh my god

[gearsdraki]

im deeply attracted to this somehow. i feel like a bird. Girl your wings are beautiful please nest with me

[vaguedisapproval]

Got blocked for saying exactly why I, as a healthcare worker, do not feel represented by the show anymore🤷‍♀️.

And my tags when I reblogged the post:

[salsie]

happy pride !! here is a garsantos kiss to celebrate <3

[bigenderfranklangdon]

I’m free from A levels!!!! I can be creative and live…

oh… a job

it will never end actually

[mxmmyprentiss]

hello. i'm so sorry for doing this again but my body isn't cooperating well with me these past few weeks. i need help in buying my meds for PMOS and now, anemia (due to heavy period bleeding).

meds cost around ₱7,500 ($122) per month and my doctor said i need to be medicated for at least 6 months. i just paid some bills and i'm so broke right now. i'm not asking for a full 6 months worth of meds but even a month or two would be a huge help to me since i need it for my health to improve and not miss work.

paypal / ko-fi

reblogs and shares are greatly appreciated as well. please and thank you. ❤️

[limbel]

we have to thank our brave soldiers in fandom who write gen fics. we have to thank our brave soldiers in fandom who write character studies and stories with no focus on romance or sex. we have to get on our knees and thank the brave soldiers in fandom who write about minor characters and friendship and family with no focus on romance or sex. i know it’s hard to care about characters in a world that seems to only revolve around ships but i see you. and i love you