Written by Florence Basile
Opening credits can say a lot about the show a viewer is about to watch. Whether they are introducing a show like Friends, with a catchy theme song playing along goofy clips of the six main characters, or a show such as Criminal Minds, with eerie music over shots of agents solving cases, opening credits have more to say than we may think.
In Elana Levine’s article “Grey’s Anatomy, Feminism,” the author discusses how the show Grey’s Anatomy allows “us to imagine a world in which identity-based discrimination has been defeated to women’s benefit, rather than at their expense” through a postfeminist cultural environment (140). The opening credits give us a sense of this from the get-go. With a pair of stilettos beside sanitized shoes and an eyelash curler among surgical tools, the audience can tell that the show will follow women in the field of medicine. Going against stereotypes, it also emphasizes how the two coincide. In season one, episode four of Grey’s Anatomy, called “No Man’s Land,” we see the character Izzie standup to Alex after he hung numerous photos of her modeling as ‘Bethany Whisper’ in the locker room. There’s a powerful moment when Izzie strips down to her underwear and points out that it’s all flesh. It’s not sexual at all (huh, surprising). Their job is working with people, with bodies – it’s all just anatomy. She then sticks it to them that she graduated medical school free of debt while everyone else has thousands of dollars in loans to pay off. She can be a GIRLBOSS and a SURGEON! No compromise necessary. With each and every episode, the opening credits remind us of that.
