Project:Sandbox

Feminism in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
Television can offer the audience a “powerful and popular vision of liberated women…a journey through phases of popular consciousness over the past quarter century” (Kitch) and can provide an opportunity for sociological study. In addition to the weekly medical cases and dramatic storylines, feminist ideology is interwoven into almost every episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. The show follows Michaela Quinn as she attempts to merge her many conflicting roles as respectable doctor, loving wife and mother, and activist, thereby achieving self-actualization. She only reaches this goal when she gives up trying to be what others expect her to be and is instead her true self, a lesson she often preaches to others.

The character of Michaela Quinn is a well-balanced mix of “progressive” feminism and “traditional” maternalism (Ott). She is a working, single mother performing an occupation that is not commonly performed by women at the time, and not accepted by most. She asserts her right and her ability to do what she loves and proves herself time and again. In addition to this, Dr. Quinn fights for women’s suffrage, the right for women to hold public office (in fact, running for office herself), and the right to own property (Sullivan, The Campaign), as well as “championing the cause of gun control, exposing environmental polluters, battling disease or sexist cowboys, or liberating oppressed frontier women” (Ott). She risks her life and her reputation time and again in order to break convention and do what is moral, not what is merely accepted as right by the townspeople. Her aim is not simply equal rights for women, but to fundamentally transform the whole of society into something better for everyone. She was a radical feminist a century before the term was coined (Wiki, Radical feminist).

However, she also plays the role of [[:en:Maternal_feminism|] maternalist.] The belief that “women as mothers and caregivers [have] an important but distinctive role to play in society and in politics” (Wiki, Maternal Feminism) certainly applies to Michaela Quinn. She argues that a woman’s point of view is important in the town’s decision making process. Since women raise the children, they should have a say in choices that affect them. Michaela becomes a member of the town council so she can do just that. In addition to the three Cooper children who are gifted to her when their mother dies, Michaela further explores her maternal instincts by temporarily taking in several foster children throughout the show’s run, once again complicating the delicate balance between her career and her family and showcasing the show’s ability to integrate “liberal feminist assumptions with a sentimentalized affirmation of motherhood” (Wiki, Maternal Feminism).

Other characters in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman possess feminist ideals as well, including many strong female characters. Michaela’s daughter, Colleen, admires her mother’s work and decides to become a doctor herself, although she knows it will be a difficult road (Sullivan, Epidemic). There are also many single women in town who own businesses although it is looked down upon. Grace owns her own café and Dorothy, with a little push from Michaela to strive for her full potential, starts her own town newspaper, The Gazette, in which she is the Editor in Chief (Sullivan, Sanctuary).

The subplots from week to week also deal with intersectional feminism. The people of Colorado Springs are faced with issues of race and religion frequently. The Cheyanne Indians are a constant presence throughout the series as the show begins just two years after the end of the American Civil War (Wiki, Native Amer.). The Cheyanne, as well as all other tribes, are looked down upon by most characters in the show. The army eventually orders them to cut their hair and change their ways in an attempt at assimilation. The Cheyanne believe that this denial of their

heritage would erase their past, therefore leaving them with no future at all (Lipsitz). When Sully becomes frustrated that he cannot affect a big enough change, he decides to accept the position of Indian Agent to advocate for their needs (Schmidt, Indian Agent). Michaela, Sully, and a handful of townspeople continually fight to ensure they receive proper care and sufficient supplies, as well as equal treatment from both the town citizens and the government.

Grace and Robert E., the sole African American couple in town, also face issues of racial acceptance. They are told their children are not welcome in the town’s school and are even the victims of a hate crime carried out by members of the Ku Klux Klan (Graphia). Although not all of the townspeople fully accepted the pair, most did not condone the behavior of the Klan and adjust their views on racial discrimination.

Religious acceptance also becomes an issue for the town when a Jewish man and his family arrive in town as peddlers. He sells quality products, but many townspeople will not buy from him because of his religion. According to Kimberlé Crenshaw, intersectional feminism illustrates “the interplay between any kinds of discrimination, whether it’s based on gender, race, age, class, socioeconomic status, physical or mental ability, gender or sexual identity, religion, or ethnicity” (Wiki, Crenshaw). In this case, the family is discriminated against based on their ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and their religion. Michaela and her family immediately accept the newcomers. They work to prove to the town that the family deserves better than to be shunned and that their differences should be celebrated (Schmidt, First Christmas).

In addition to feminist characters and subplots, the writers also take a leap towards breaking down expected 19th century gender roles. Although the character of Byron Sully is a strong, rugged mountain man, he is also sensitive and at times emotional. He sees Michaela as his equal, and takes a stand for the rights of minorities. He even stays home with his infant

daughter so his wife can return to work. Bell Hooks states in her book Feminism is For Everybody: “(Men) find it easier to passively support male domination even when they know in their minds and hearts that it is wrong.” That is not the case as far as Sully is concerned. He often sticks up for the women of the town and does not hesitate to offer up a woman’s name over a man’s if he thinks she will be the best person for the job.

A controversial episode of Dr. Quinn, “The Body Electric,” aired in its fifth season. Walt Whitman, a 19th century American poet, comes to Colorado Springs and at first Dr. Quinn accepts his work because she believes it to be written about a heterosexual relationship (Henderson). When she finds out he is in fact homosexual, it challenges her views and once again, she is trapped between her liberal views and her maternal instinct. She does not want her young son to be left alone with Whitman out of fear and false prejudice. Michaela is also still discovering her own sexuality as she has only been married for less than a year, and this revelation forces her “to come to terms with the nature of her own sexuality and, by extension, her own identity” (Henderson). When Dr. Quinn discovers Whitman’s secret, it causes her discomfort that she was not able to “see” that he is homosexual. Her initial instinct to consider his sexual preference a “physical flaw” lends to the ongoing debate concerning whether being gay is a cause of biological or psychological forces. Whitman replies, “Some things cannot be altered, dear Doctor. We must learn to accept them as they are” (Berardo). Bell Hooks includes ending oppression of all kinds in her definition of feminism. This episode brings to light the importance of not judging others based on the attributes that constitute someone’s identity.

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman sometimes focuses on one of the above issues at a time, or occasionally interweaves them for effect, but feminist ideals are always present in some fashion. Michaela is “a woman in a man’s world” (Ma), but as she tells her daughter in “The Visitor”:

“Never hide behind the fact that you’re a woman. And don’t give up on your dreams just because you’re afraid you can’t achieve them in a man’s world. You just have to fight even harder to make them come true.”