samiras undershirt

The Pitt’s misogyny is interesting, really, because the women have screen time. They’re competent doctors. They are well-written in a general sense, i.e. people with dimension and personality. The misogyny is deeper than any of that, and it’s harder to see: the writers reach for biology when they want to give a woman depth because biology is where they think women’s depth lives. The show casts women — and multiple women of color, in particular — in prominent roles and then gives them stories about their uteruses, their eggs, their panic attacks, their bleeding. All the while, The Pitt gives men stories about what it means to lead and what integrity costs. <...> The show has the same instinct: it can see gender bias when an EMT does it, but it cannot see gender bias when its own writers do it. <...> Each one of these reveals the same default: competence is male, and women who demonstrate it earn his surprise.

© “The Pitt is Weird About Women” by Emmy Writes Sometimes.

oh and samira’s chopped liver

A male authority figure who is specifically harder on one female subordinate than he is on anyone else despite demonstrating the same traits himself and other characters also demonstrating the traits he objects to. (x2)

A female character that steps up to take the blame for something that fundamentally did not deserve any blame on anyone because there was no actual error made in defence of another female character, knowing a male authority figure will lash out at her for it.

A second male authority figure who lashes out horrifically at a female subordinate and humiliates her in public.

The first male authority figure recognizing that that's an entirely inappropriate way to treat a subordinate and immediately chastising him for it.

The two female characters having a conversation about what happened, featuring the more senior one reassuring the junior one about her place in the environment.

The more senior of the female characters being arguably the only authority figure that simultaneously holds this subordinate to high standards, is fair and open to changing her own perspective, and results in reflection on the part of the junior.

Ongoing tension because of the public lashing out in season two an entire ten months later.

A male and a female character who had opposite journeys in season one in terms of the main character's esteem now being on the same level.

That first male authority that had managed to keep his dickishness just on the one side of the professionalism line, with his belittling far more subtle, throws himself into full asshole mode in season two and has his turn to publicly humiliate the female subordinate he's harder on than everyone else.

The other male character present during this event.

Both female characters having perfectly good professional relationships with the male character the other has huge problems with.

And this doesn't even get into the way Santos is the most outgoing and social character, heavily defined by at least trying to connect with basically everyone, while Samira is reserved, lonely, deeply aware of the importance of community but completely lacking one of her own!

It's really freaking weird. There were a million ways they could have taken this story that would have been interesting. But they didn't delve into the implications of any of this. Santos and Samira exchange, what, half a sentence in the entire season? Santos doesn't observe Robby yelling at Samira? She doesn't either have a moment of being thrown by that in any way? Neither one where it shakes her faith in Robby nor one where she rationalizes why this situation is different from and not as bad her own with Langdon so her Robby pedestal doesn't break? Samira doesn't have any reaction to the way Robby treats Langdon better than he treats her even when Langdon is back from rehab after diverting meds?

You know what's not? Race and Sex based discrimination and harassment. If Samira sues that hospital, the first thing her lawyer is going to do is find a comparator to establish disparate treatment. Her one for one comparator as the only person in the same role is FRANK LANGDON, a white man who stole drugs from the hospital that Robby covered for, didn't report, and didn't fire.