"House" 5 X 16: "The Softer Side"

The television show, House (also known as House, M.D.) is a television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network in 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), an unconventional medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.

House has been one of my favorite television shows since I started watching it last year, and after having taken LTCS 131, I started thinking back and noticing more and more gender biases and the way that they are portrayed through popular television shows such as House. In the episode that I will be discussing, a 13-year-old boy named Jackson collapses after playing in a basketball game. He is admitted to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital, mainly because of his genetic mosaicism; when he was born, it was found that half the cells in his body are male and the other half female. The parents decided to raise their child as male and lately began giving him testosterone, disguised as "vitamins". After a variety of tests, nothing is found and Jackson's condition continues to deteriorate, until eventually, he is diagnosed correctly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSv1qgwDt3k

Throughout the episode, gender biases are noticeable in more than one form. As we have previously discussed in class, gender roles have been ingrained in our society throughout the ages, and this episode clearly shows some of them. In the episodes, Jackson's parents first of all refused to tell their son that he was born with half male and half female cells. They decided to raise him as a boy and without telling him, decided to start giving him testosterone pills. In the episode, we see Thirteen, one of the doctors on House’s team, who is also known to be bisexual, try to encourage the parents to tell their son the truth about him, because he deserved to know the conditions under which he was born. The father, agreed to disclose the facts to their son, but the mother however, decided that the time was not right, and that she wanted to protect him; telling the truth would only hurt and confuse him further.

During Jackson’s interactions with Thirteen, he mentions to her that he had wanted to take dance lessons in school, which his father was alright with, but his mother “freaked out” and refused, stating that he was to choose only between hockey and basketball. Upon eventually finding out that he was born with half male and half female cells in his body, Jackson is initially shocked and confused as to why his parents did not tell him this, and later, starts questioning the way he felt about another boy that he was friends with.

This episode clearly shows the gender biases that are so present in our media, and our society and always have been. We have discussed the boy and girl roles that children are expected to follow while growing up, and looking at the reaction the mother had to her son wanting to take dance lessons, when knowing that he was inherently born with half male and half female cells further shows how strongly these gender biases affect our thinking and our integration into the society. The episode also talks about how gender labeling is done even before we are born, and how parents are the ones who ultimately decide how we are raised.

When Jackson finds out about the condition that he was born with, he starts to question the way he is “supposed” to feel, and how he is supposed to behave. He feels the need to re-identify himself, and called himself a “freak of nature,” once again, showing that even from an early age, the gender biases and stereotypes are learned through social institutions as well as with upbringing. In the episode, although Thirteen does not freely share her experiences or feelings of being a bisexual, we see that she is the one who appeals to Jackson more than any of the other doctors, and in the beginning of the episode, House says “our new patient, part girl, part boy, all Thirteen’s dream date.” Although House is known to be a character who is comically rude, sarcastic and blatantly honest with his patients as well as his colleagues, the comment he makes shows once again how the society has the mentality of “us against them” as he automatically states that the patient would be someone Thirteen should be interested in, or group herself with. House makes remarks on Thirteen’s sexuality from the minute he finds out that she is bisexual, and these remarks did go unnoticed by me as well, as I passed them off as humor, but after taking this class, I cannot help but notice how such stereotyping is so blatantly present in our media and although it is presented in a form that shows acceptance and tolerance of the LGBT society, there are always remarks that are made to make the dominant population of viewers relate to something, or sometimes, challenge those views.