You know her. You love her. We all wish we could be her. Who am I talking about? Detective Olivia Benson from Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, of course.
Maybe it’s the way she fearlessly takes on the worst criminals in NYC and fights for the justice of innocent victims. Or how she perfectly balances being a total badass with being an empathetic angel sent down from the heavens. But maybe it’s also how she somehow manages to flawlessly rock professional attire while chasing, tackling, and gunning down perps all over the city. Or perhaps it’s her relationships with her super sexy partners (Elliot is always #1 in our hearts, but how can you not love Amaro). But then again, maybe it’s how she’s managed to command the attention of SVU lovers for 16 years and counting, while growing as a detective and woman before our eyes.
No matter what your reasons are for loving her, there is no denying that Detective Olivia Benson is a great role model. And that’s why I decided to base all of my decisions for a week on what the one, the only, Olivia Benson would do. Let’s see how it went.
The look
While I always watch my fair share of SVU (God bless Netflix and marathons on USA), I used the week leading up to my experiment as an excuse to “study up” and watch a particularly large number of episodes. My first task was to observe Olivia’s look so that I could recreate it to the best of my ability. And basically what I found was: pantsuits, pantsuits, and more pantsuits. Sure Olivia’s style has changed throughout the many seasons, but wearing nice black pants with a sharp blazer never goes out of style (cue T-Swift, who has taken Olivia Benson…er…Mariska Hargitay…into her girl squad!). I would say that probably 75 percent of Liv’s outfits are mostly black as well, so I made sure to incorporate this color scheme. While her hair has also changes many times over the years, I went with the pony-tale with bangs or slightly curled longer hair eras.
My experience
While I applaud myself for replicating Olivia’s appearance fairly accurately, I quickly discovered that pulling off this look is a lot harder than it appears! Having the benefit of a wardrobe team and endless clothing paid for by the show is a luxury that Olivia has, and I sadly do not. After pulling from my sisters’ closets and my own, I finally put together a week’s worth of Olivia-approved professional attire. I mostly rocked all black dress pants, blazers, tight three-quarter-length shirts, and a put-together hair and makeup look. I certainly had to put more time and effort into my appearance, but found that I felt even more professional while at my internship and believed that people took me more seriously with my work. Olivia’s look screams hard-working, low-key sexy, and confident. However, a huge part of me did feel like I was a little girl playing dress-up in my mother’s closet and I quickly began to miss my favorite yoga pants and sweatshirt combo. Kudos to Detective Benson for flawlessly rocking this look for 17 seasons straight!
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The work ethic
Obviously when you think of Detective Benson, you think of her incredible work ethic. Olivia can often be found staying late at work, coming in on weekends, and seemingly working all hours of the day. Basically, the perps that she fights against don’t sleep, so neither will she. Detective Benson is 100 percent committed to her job and often puts her work over other aspects of her life. Her work-ethic is such an essential part of her character and I really wanted to do it justice during this challenge.
My experience
Well, after a long, long week, I am proud to say that my many hours of work would hopefully make Olivia proud! I am currently a graduate student and split my time between an internship, taking classes, and doing homework. I decided that the work-ethic portion of this challenge would require me to make decisions with the mind-set of “what would Liv do”? This dedication resulted in me going into my internship on a day that I usually have off, coming in early and staying late, completing all of my assignments above and beyond the requirements, and using my free time to find additional ways to advance my career. Afterward, I felt a renewed passion for my work and was inspired to continue to squeeze everything out of my workdays, as Olivia always does. However, this week of hard work did not come without its trials and tribulations. I found myself exhausted from the long work hours, needing to rely on coffee more than I usually do, and not having enough pure me-time. I also found that working this hard took away from other aspects of my life that are essential to my essence — my relationships, physical health, and inner happiness. I applaud Olivia for her hard work, but I definitely need to take my foot off the gas a bit.
The attitude
While pulling off Olivia’s look and her work ethic were my two main goals, I couldn’t forget about her attitude. I believe that Hargitay’s character is a great role model for women mainly because of her amazing personality. She is the perfect combination of badass and sweetheart (If you haven’t realized this yet, yes, I obviously have a major girl crush on this woman). Olivia and Elliot made a great team (RIP) because he was the anger-fueled “bad cop” and Olivia was the sympathetic “good cop”. She always makes victims feel as comfortable as possible, is an amazing listener, and lets her huge heart guide her work. However, she’s also not afraid to stick up for what she believes in and can intimidate even the biggest and baddest perps.
My experience
My approach for pulling off Olivia’s attitude was by remembering the quote, “do no harm, but take no shit.” This is a favorite of mine, as it reminds me to be gentle, yet tough — just like Olivia! I was pleased to find that Benson and I are more alike than I originally realized, because I too tend to be a very sympathetic, empathetic, and caring person. Being a part of the social work profession, I work with survivors of horrific events and must be listening ear and helping hand for clients. When trying to implement Olivia’s traits during my work with clients this week, I discovered that her character would be an awesome social worker! I came across issues that she deals with every day at SVU and did my best to be a loving, yet hard-working, and badass woman. I also have a newfound appreciation for how Olivia works with mainly men and comes across some pretty scary people, yet walks into every room like she owns it.
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The relationships
Any SVU fan knows that the bread and butter of this show are the characters themselves and the relationships that they build. While some of the topics explored can be tough to bear, the characters make all the dedicated fans keep coming back for more. We can’t get enough of the low-key sexual tension between Benson and Stabler, the fan-imagined relationship between Rollins and Amaro, the respect everyone has for the captain, the brotherly love between Fin and Munch, and so on. The beloved relationship between Olivia and Elliot is certainly an epic tale of partners, good friends, and everyone’s favorite wish-they-were-lovers combo. While Detective Benson spends most of her time on the job, she can also occasionally be seen unwinding with co-workers, and having some laughs over a bottle of wine. Her adventures with Baby Benson in more recent episodes also display her dedication, love, and loyalty to the people in her life.
My experience
Besides spending almost all my time working throughout this week, I did manage to dedicate some Olivia-inspired time towards my relationships. I got to unwind after my long week by watching crappy reality TV (hey you never know, Liv may do this too), ordering Chinese food, and drinking wine with a good friend. I understand that Olivia’s family situation, unfortunately, has a lot of rocky history, but I did wish that her lifestyle incorporated more family time.
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I was also lucky enough to actually have spent the weekend of my What-Would-Olivia-Do week in the one and only New York City. While I walked the streets with my boyfriend, instead of Elliot, and spent my time watching college football in bars and attending basketball games at Madison Square Garden, instead of….you know, basically everything that Olivia does; I tried to imagine that I was there as her character. I daydreamed that my partner and I were having an epic chase with a wanted criminal or sipping coffee while keeping watch in a nearby car. God bless my boyfriend for putting up with my craziness and accepting my daydreaming of Mr. Elliot Stabler and Detective Nick Amaro. Oh Liv, you lucky girl.
Basically, my week of pretending to be SVU’s Detective Olivia Benson was a great adventure that gave me a new found appreciation for everyone’s favorite detective. While I will continue to incorporate her passionate and caring mindset, I am going to put back on some yoga pants and probably go take a nap. Oh, and go watch some SVU of course. Being Olivia is hard work, kudos Mariska Hargitay.