Feminism (and Grey's Anatomy??)

There was a nice moment in tonight's episode, but I'll give you some back story first. The chief of surgery is played by a black man, and two other main surgical attendants are white men. A third attendant was just recently replaced by a white woman. At the opening of the episode we see the three men (chief and two attendings) planning a "gentleman's evening." There's much snickering about whether this implies porn or strippers or what. Toward the end of the episode, the new female attending catches wind of this plan, and in the course of a totally separate conversation (during which the chief is attempting to call her out for not running a surgery plan past him) she reminds him that social events where only the male attendings are invited are like the old days when a club would invite only its white members for a weekend getaway. It's nicely played out, because I think it nails the subtle forms sexism can take, as I've mentioned here before. Because we 'know' the characters in the opening scene it's easy to think of their guys' night out as something innocuous. We 'know' they aren't really sexist, aren't actually being malicious. They've been 'friends' for a couple of seasons now and this newbie just stepped in and it's just a coincidence that she's a woman, that's why they didn't think to invite her. Which may all be fine and true. But doesn't make the action any more ok, since it involves careers and power. It's nice the way the new attending calls them on it, and gets invited, and it's all ok and friendly in the end. I know the real world doesn't work that way, and most viewers probably just thought she was being a bitch. But maybe one or two people out there got an idea planted in the backs of their minds, and maybe one or two more female colleagues will get invited out for drinks next time. It would be nice to think so.