Do you remember the scene from Sunday’s season premiere of “Desperate Housewives” where Teri Hatcher’s character, Susan, goes in for a doctor’s appointment and is stunned when the gynecologist suggests she may be going through menopause?
“Listen, Susan, I know for a lot of women the word ‘menopause'” has negative connotations. You hear ‘aging,’ ‘brittle bones,’ ‘loss of sexual desire,'” the doctor tells her.
“OK, before we go any further, can I check these diplomas? Just to make sure they aren’t, like, from some med school in the Philippines?” Susan retorts.
That exchange, which I’m sure show writers meant to be a joke, has had the opposite effect. According to an ABC spokesperson, the network has been inundated with angry calls from viewers, including ones from irate Philippine officials who are targeting show producers. In addition, an online petition has making rounds demanding an apology. As of Wednesday evening, more than 40,000 names were attached to the petition.
“A statement that devalues Filipinos in healthcare is extremely unfounded, considering the overwhelming presence of Filipinos and Filipino Americans in the medical field,” the petition read in part.
For their part, ABC executives tried to make amends by saying they are considering editing the episode.
“The producers of ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines,” a statement from network execs released yesterday read.
“As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs,” it concluded.
There’s no word on how doctors in the Philippines are reacting to the apology, but I think it is safe to say they aren’t surprised that a statement by network execs was issued given the intense coverage the TV episode has been getting in Manila and the rest of the country.
Reports about the show’s offensive remark topped Philippine news shows and headlined a number of local newspapers as Filipino officials went public with their displeasure about the scene. (It doesn’t help that the scene is now posted on YouTube where it can be viewed around the world.)
In New York, the man (a Filipino-American college lecturer) who drafted the online petition demanding ABC issue an apology says he continues to hear from friends and family members worldwide who were distressed by the scene.
He told news reporters that while he appreciated ABC’s apology, he wanted executives to go the extra step and remove the scene from future airings and DVDs. He also suggested that the show’s producers and ABC executives could illustrate a true gesture of goodwill by making donations to scholarships for Filipino and Filipino-Americans.
I grew up in Hawaii, which has a large Filipino population so I can definitely see how the scene may have raised eyebrows, but I also have Filipino friends who didn’t think twice about the scene.
Do you think the reference to Filipinos was uncalled for?
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