!!! WARNING FOR MENTIONS OF SUICIDE AND MISCARRIAGE !!!
hi guys just wanted to say first that it makes me soso happy that people respond well to my ramblings and i find it endearing how you guys hype up my angry rants 😭 glad to hear it doesn’t just sound like needless complaining.. so with that… have another!! but with a twist!!!
so, i’m randomly coming out as a fan of the pitt, and with this comes a rant for something that’s been on my mind a bit lately that i think people will actually get mad at me for this time: Robby. before i start anything, i’d like to say that i DO like Robby as a character and he’s definitely one of my top 3 favorites in the show, if not #1. however this doesn’t mean i condone everything he does or believe he’s done nothing wrong. my main beliefs on fans’ reaction to him as a whole is that they twist scenarios or make silly arguments just to justify wishing terrible things on him. and we know how i feel about misinformation and media literacy. ok!!! anyway.
the fandom has very mixed feelings on him and i 100% get it given his bigoted tendencies, but fans are also the reason i have interacted with the fandom either very little or no way at all. i think the main problems with the fanbase is its incapability to accept nuance in a topic that severely requires it—in this case, mental health. (i understand many have strong morals and that is a great thing to be confident in, but at some point you have to reevaluate and look at a situation wondering, “is there something i’m missing that could expand my understanding? is there more to this that i need to learn yet be less willing to mentally battle against?“)
my main concern with Robby and The Pitt “fans” is their behavior when it comes to how mental health presents itself. you’ll have someone crying for help and disappearing inside of their shell, never opening up, turning to harmful tendencies that are directed at themselves, making honest silent mistakes, severe depression to where they don’t want to do anything, and people will yell and cry about “we NEED to take mental health more seriously! we need to help everyone get better!” they say this until part of that “everyone” is someone like Robby; when mental health presents itself in the less aesthetic way that you can’t romanticize, suddenly that advocacy disappears. suddenly they actually mean, “we need to help those who are easy to save and fully open and compliant to treatment.” they only want to showboat their morals to everyone to show they’re a good person instead of actually showing empathy like they preach when in reality, you have to apply those morals differently depending on what context you’re putting them in. i say all of this as someone who will likely get a degree to become a therapist in the future.
below are some common complaints i see that i’d like to break down:
1. “i hope Robby doesn’t come back after the way he’s acted. i hope he goes through with it.”
— i feel like this is terrible to say about him for obvious reasons…? but anywho. they say this because the way his depression manifests is in an uglier way that effects others around him. he pushes people away but also takes out his inner turmoil on them. this is ESPECIALLY true in season 2 (still working on that season..). but when fans react the way they do above when it comes to this “genre” of mental health that’s more destructive and at times explosive, even toxic towards those he states and shows several times that he loves, it really does show they aren’t true mental health advocates. the ones who beg for help are welcomed into recovery with open arms while the ones who bite are left to deal with it themselves, along with the dogpiling and shaming when all they want deep down is to recover just like anyone else. i truly think the only people who deserve death or i wouldn’t give a single shit if they died or killed themselves are rapists, child predators, and cold brutal murderers/serial killers. not men like Robby. he NEEDS help even if he refuses it and would rather commit suicide or curl in on himself to block it out. everyone except the sick freaks i mentioned earlier deserve to be seen and heard. wishing death on him when he needs help just like the palatable mentally ill people that you guys solely care about when it comes to mental health says so much about you—you don’t genuinely want everyone to change and get better, you just want to feel better about yourself.
depression and generally poor mental health is not a linear experience; people go through and respond to trauma, grief, and other bad shit in so many different ways, sometimes in ways you don’t agree with, like, or understand. but why should that stop you from hoping something better will happen for them especially when it’s something they can work towards changing?
2. “he’s a misogynist/he hates women.”
— oh boy… prepare for an ESSAY.. /lh ok but seriously, this is just not true😭 he displays sexist behaviors but he definitely isn’t a misogynist. i feel like people love to throw around certain terms like “misogynist” in an attempt to signal that they’re woke without actually knowing how to apply it in certain contexts while staying true to its meaning. firstly, as i’ve recently learned, there is a slight difference between being sexist and being misogynistic. while sexism is general discrimination and belief in superiority over someone because of their sex (typically because of stereotypes), misogyny is the enforcement of patriarchal norms rooted in hatred towards women who challenge said norms and male authority. the key part in here is that one is rooted in hostility and hatred and is more blatant (misogyny), while the other (sexism) is typically rooted in stereotyping and general initial bias against a certain sex, not specifically policing and hate. sexists are capable of loving women in person but also aren’t opposed to discrimination against them. such admiration may be true consciously, but sexism is usually presented in a subconscious manner (not always however). if you see in season 1, there are times where Robby takes actions that are in short the results of sexism. it’s hard to avoid with him, he’s a middle-aged white man… i don’t know what you guys were expecting, especially in that sort of workplace💔 not that it makes it okay to be uneducated in that way at that age!! but a lot of you forget that detail.
anyway, one (but not singular) example of this is when Theresa (the woman who induced vomiting in season 1) comes in and is actually there for her son David, as she’s concerned he might harm girls he listed that need to be “eliminated.” Robby sides with her and is determined to get David help, and despite him thinking this is considerate to everyone, he dismisses the idea of calling the cops on him for the girls’ safety first as to not “ruin his life.” this is a common argument used by both sexists and misogynists. after McKay calls the cops anyway behind his back, he does eventually admit how he didn’t pay ENOUGH (this IS important) attention to the girls and focused more on David because of Theresa’s concerns as a mother, but we also know this is also likely caused by unlearned sexism. still, i think it’s important to note how he does recognize he should’ve been more concerned with the girls at risk and doesn’t try to dismiss police involvement afterward, and later expresses how he’s mostly upset that she didn’t consult him first. this isn’t to erase the fact his actions were driven by sexism, but instead one instance to rule out misogyny. season 2 is a whole other animal unfortunately but i’ll get to that… 😭
misogyny can also be ruled out with how Robby treats his female coworkers. many claim that he’s some evil misogynist to the women in the show and act as though he’s rude to them 24/7, especially in season 2… but he isn’t. as for season 1, there are several moments that some strategically leave out where Robby clearly cares about all of his team, including the women, listening to their concerns and defending them against patients and coworkers. he’s the hardest on Mohan, but there are still times where he praises and defends her. i think people forget that each season is ONE DAY and there’s constant stress in their line of work, especially for the higher ups. i don’t really get how some of you expect them to perfectly handle such stress the entire shift—some of his team points out how he acts under stress and while it’s not an excuse to take it out on others, it’s completely understandable, especially considering the whole Adamson situation and having constant reminders of it alongside all the stress with patients and student doctors. another issue i see is that every time Robby reprimands a woman they immediately jump to making it about sexism when in half of those scenarios (but not all ofc), he isn’t entirely wrong to scold, or there’s more to it. for example, when dealing with the sickle cell patient, he gets onto Mohan for spending too much time on the patient. to an extent i can see why he’d get onto her for this—the ER doesn’t really allow them to take their time on everyone. but also, we can see Mohan’s and Collins’ point of view where building trust with your patients is very important, too. both sides have valid points. but!! a lot of people ignore the fact there’s not a straightforward right or wrong to that situation and jump to conclusions. there’s other instances of that sort of thing too where people misinterpret a scene and blame it on a generalized issue.
another good thing to point out is he can also be harsh on his team sometimes because he see himself in them, ESPECIALLY Mohan. there’s a scene where Dana insists she’s fine and to stop worrying about her and Robby says, “you sound like me. that’s not a good thing.” someone online explained it better than me, but he (not exactly words) “sees his more empathetic traits as a weakness and gets so harsh with those who express it, while he molds the ones who haven’t achieved that yet.” i swear guys it’s RIGHT in front of your faces but you refuse to acknowledge it.
and i ask, would a misogynist listen to Collins and express genuine sympathy towards her over her miscarriage and repeatedly advise her to go home and relax like Robby did? would a misogynist be willing to take the fall for Collins when it came to the teenage girl wanting an abortion and lying FOR HER about how many weeks in she was like Robby did? would a misogynist tell off two men on two different occasions for how poorly they were treating his female coworkers like Robby did? i could go on and on, but you get the point. he does NOT hate women. even in season 2, he acts out because his mental health is worsening and he doesn’t know how to cope, acting impulsively without thinking of how he says it. and also with the likely assumption that he acts worse in season 2 so he can push them away and make it easier to off himself… it makes sense. it’s not an excuse, but an explanation, one that many people completely ignore. especially when in real life, many struggling with depression turn into the worst versions of themselves and say and do hateful things they usually don’t mean.
3. “season 2 focused on Robby too much.”
— he’s….. the main character??? like what
4. “he is a terrible person.”
— again, also not true. it’s very distasteful to me that for such a nuanced show about mental health you guys feel this need to turn every single story into a good vs bad situation. i mean this for EVERY character, especially the most hated ones. the only villain in this show is the flaws of the healthcare system, how it fails people in need, and Gloria is also making work difficult on everyone. later into season 1, after Dana was punched by that angry patient and she talks about that probably being the end for her, Robby tells her he’s not sure how he’ll do this without her (again, would a misogynist admit to relying on a woman that much?). in this scene she SPECIFICALLY says that he’s a good man and the rest of his team also seem to think highly of him (McKay, talking about Robby: “Learned from the best.”) this and other interactions clearly show how much they mean to Robby and vice versa, and also suggests that the Robby we see now is pretty different from how he normally is. ofc we can say his behavior has been greatly altered because of him struggling to cope with Adamson’s death. it’s obvious!!! but apparently not to some of you…
listen, what i’m about to say next sounds pretty strange but can be 100% true: Robby is a good doctor, a decent well-meaning man, and also sexist and a hypocrite. humans have never been that simple and i find it odd that it always jumps to “good vs bad” the moment a character has flaws. i don’t sympathize with sexists, misogynists, or any bigot, but in this context there are certain things i can understand and be more patient on. saying this as someone who is afab and still actively experiences sexism/misogyny as well so i THINK i have a say in this conversation😭 but additionally i’d like to add that people picking Robby apart for his flaws and thinking he’s so terrible for them, criticizing him for being a hypocritical, are also hypocrites themselves. we are hypocrites in ever day life and always contradict ourselves!!! don’t pretend we don’t.
people also say this about Santos and occasionally Langdon and i’ll say for both of them i heavily disagree, because i’d make the same arguments for them that i do with Robby. ESPECIALLY Santos, because half of the time the excuses for her criticisms are rooted in misogyny and sexism.
lastly, as for his hypocrisy, again i think you guys just really don’t pay attention or absorb any of the scenes. i saw someone call him a hypocrite for doing what the two siblings asked with their elderly father to put him on a machine despite the father’s wishes, when they also carefully leave out how they threatened to call a hospital attorney on him, which would cause SEVERAL complications, and he strategically and gradually convinced them to let him pass naturally. LISTEN PEOPLE!!!!
— i feel like people today, specifically on twitter and tiktok, really don’t have good media literacy anymore. they hear certain things and immediately jump to hasty conclusions that ruin the message of the story, a scene, etc that leads to misinformation and mischaracterization, things that i heavily dislike as yall know it also comes from people being the morality police and virtue signaling and they always deny these things because they learn ALL of their politics and morals from tiktoks and random reddit posts. i truly think sometimes it’s okay to just trust your gut and learn later even if you end up being wrong, and also just learning to experience the world around you to get more insight. generally i feel like how people treat more destructive depressed folks (especially those with PTSD like Robby probably has) that act out and have a poor personality because of it is pretty ableist, that’s the correct term here… in an attempt to be woke they contradict themselves and lean into other bigoted ideologies. close-mindedness and media illiteracy will (as i say) DIE BY MY HAND!!!
finally, as i always tell you guys, none of this means you have to like Robby and whatnot. you don’t have to be friends with everyone who acts this way just because it’s a mental health issue and they deserve to get treatment. you don’t owe forgiveness if they affect you from their mental health. what this DOES mean is that you should think more carefully about the media you consume and what it’s trying to tell you!! also again i will add i do NOT condone the poor behavior he displays at times, especially when he truly is being sexist. i’m simply advocating for the sides of mental health that a lot of you won’t, and trying to expand understanding, eliminate misinterpretation!! all the good stuff.
also as always, if you disagree with me and hate what i said, i also don’t care to hear it. ofc if i think of other things to add i’ll be adding them since i’m very into this topic :]
edit: i’m aware that there’s shit surrounding noah wyle but with the rate all celebs are going around doing weird stuff left and right, i can’t keep up with all of it😭 some of it is reaching and some of it isn’t. i don’t directly support the show *wink wink* and in this post i’m specifically talking about the story, not the people outside of it. that’s all i gotta say.
