Maternità e sala operatoria: il caso di Grey's Anatomy

Shonda Rhimes has been recognized as one of the most successful and influential TV showrunners and her shows are celebrated for promoting a strong feminist agenda that tends towards equality regardless of gender, race, class, religious beliefs or sexual orientation, but what about the relationship between motherhood, interpersonal relationships and work position? Building on our previous research work in which we discuss the representation of race and womanhood in Shonda Rhimes’ TGIT shows, in this presentation we will focus on the representation of motherhood narrowing our focus to the case of Grey's Anatomy (ABC, 2005-). We will adopt a hybrid methodology that combines quantitative and qualitative approaches. The quantitative analysis focuses on finding a character’s persistence, calculated on the number of seasons in which a main character appears. This approach is complemented by textual analysis focusing on three main dimensions: (1) the character’s self-representation of motherhood; (2) the impact of motherhood on interpersonal relationships; (3) the impact of motherhood on the character’s career goals and achievements.