The new season of Scandal has started on ABC and it’s bigger and better than ever. As usual the crew are confronting a whole world of issues surrounding politics and power. One episode in particular, Lost girls (S7E4) really got down to something. In the episodes leading up to it, as President Mellie Grant rises further, it seems she has become somewhat disillusioned with the rest of society. Her status means that she doesn’t seem to be able to have a normal relationship with anyone because she is in a position of such high power.
In Lost Girls, she is trying to initiate peace talks with President Rashad and President Nazari. Towards the end of the episode President Grant starts to confide in Cyrus, her VP. She says:
‘Everyone always doing what I say. I start to think I can do whatever I want. Whomever I want. But that is exactly what they all thought. All those old, dead guys with their mistresses and their child brides. The pigs. And now it’s happening to me. It’s a nightmare.’
This was very interesting, not just for Cyrus but for me too. It rings parallel with the recent scandals at Westminster and in the wider world of work and media. She is suggesting that getting positions of high power makes you feel invincible. Now this is not to saying that what has gone on in Westminster is at all acceptable or natural – as Mellie makes very clear, she is determined not to become like that – but it shows that it might require a level of self-control. This approach was one I personally had not thought about until I watched the episode.
So maybe, the real issue of allowing all these ‘pigs’, as Mellie describes them, to do all these vile things may be that they actually don’t realise they are out of line until it is over. What extent do the general public and the other people of power surrounding someone affect how invincible they feel?
This is not at all saying it’s okay, but maybe there needs to be some good old-fashioned consent classes for all those in a position of power to bring them back to planet earth. And to remind them that it is a privilege to be in such a position of power.