It took me so long to sort out the problems with my computer that by the time I’ve made one Scrubs post it’s time for another one. I’ve already gone on my little rant about how Scrubs is going downhill so I’ll try not to repeat myself. I liked this episode but it made me think about another aspect of Scrubs that bothers me.
At first I quite liked JD, but then my girlfriend at the time pointed out how he is superficial and egotistic and I started to dislike him as much as she did. The reason I liked him originally was that he seemed to be quite geeky and sensitive as opposed to the rather macho image or attempted image of most sitcom men (the Crane brothers not withstanding). I love that he always orders appletinis (and I kinda want to try one). And is a lot more open and honest with his feelings than so many television characters. The pinnacle of this was in the musical episode, I cried with joy at the song ‘Guy Love’.
Then of course they do this episode ‘My Manhood’, and destroy even my last vestiges of sympathy for the characters in Scrubs. I don’t know if the whole macho thing is something that hasn’t crossed the Atlantic in the way that some American culture hasn’t yet, or if it’s merely to do with the kind of people I hang out with, but the manliness ideal is never something I’ve strived for, nor do I respect people who do. Now I understand the whole alpha male deal, and I’d say there are probably times when we all engage in it in some way, but the Americanised platonic male is just a little too far for my sensibilities.
The end of this episode seemed to almost make a point about this, coming close to scratching the surface of the point that it’s all ego rather than a real problem, but then they shied away from it. It didn’t go as far as I thought it would, but it just bought into the whole thing that I’ve always kind of been hoping Scrubs would find a way to take a stand against. I guess the realities of the culture that Scrubs is made in was always going to prevent this, it needs to appeal to a broad demographic, mostly in America, so of course it’s going to play into American stereotypes. Sigh.
Also, they’re exploring the issue of masculinity and there’s no mention of the fact that Dr Cox always calls JD by girls names? Did it even happen in this episode? That seems like a bit of a cop out too.