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When Simple Minds Watch Scandal: Enough of this Race Bullshit about Edison

I love Scandal. God knows I do. But I’ll kill y’all dead before I let you ruin it with false cries of racism, especially about Edison’s opportunistic ass. I am not here for such talk. It’s frankly pissing me off because levying criticism that the hatred towards Edison’s character has anything to do with race is demeaning to the term ‘racism’.

From Scandal Screengrabs

Yeah, I said it. #judgingyou. I need us to stop getting caught up in the trappings of so-called ‘blackness’. Blackness is whatever you want it to be; it’s still being defined. I don’t care if people don’t like Fitz for Olivia, or don’t like the Olitz pairing. You’re doing a disservice to yourself as a viewer, and frankly to the writers of Scandal, if you view the Olitz relationship from a perspective of racial inequality. But this post is not about race. It’s about relevant criticism of the character, Edison Davis. While I do find Edison to be more of a plot devise than boyfriend material, I know men like him. That’s why I don’t like him. Let me catalogue for you the many, many, many reasons why I hate Senator Edison Davis as a boyfriend for Olivia Pope.

His brand of masculinity

From Scandal Screengrabs

Having dated Olivia for four years, Edison comes back into her life and thinks he can just slip right back in to where they were. He knows nothing about her life in the last three years since she’s not been answering his calls. He goes out with her on a couple dates then expects that they are going to start knockin’ boots again because they had already lived together, he watched her press her hair, he’s a man who doesn’t play games. You know what they say about showing instead of telling? Edison is all talk. He hasn’t done a single romantic thing for her except bring over some salty sandwiches to her apartment in exchange for sex. You know, because he’s a man.

He repeatedly tries to pull rank on Olivia, which I believe has nothing to do with him being a Senator, but everything to do with him being the so-called ‘man’. He makes the law; he wants sex now; he gets to say when their conversation is over; he’s not going to give her any favours to help her do her job; he’s completely invaded her home by assumption (receiving mail there?!). He wants Olivia to submit to him, to play her role as the woman to his man. Edison is the type of man who falls in love with a beautiful, strong and ambitious woman then proceeds to try to change her because of his own insecurities. He tries to dull her shine. I’m not here for it. At. All.

He’s selfish and opportunistic

Edison called Olivia repeatedly over the course of 3 years. We have no idea how often. Some of you see that as dedicated, romantic even. Nope. I have said this before: Olivia Pope on paper looks damn good for Senator Edison Davis. She is the full package–everything a man like Edison, who is going places, should be seen to have. The type of relationship he wants to create with Olivia reminds me of the façade that Mellie and Fitz have: all image, no substance.

Olivia and Edison have an inequitable relationship. The first time we see them interact, Olivia calls him up to give him some free, unsolicited advice about the tie he’s wearing on tv. She then takes on a case (Beltway Unbuckled girl) for two parents from his constituency. After that, she basically delivers the Senate Majority Leader position to his lap—at the expense of her heart. And so on, and so forth. He doesn’t do ANYTHING to help her when she comes to him. Is it any wonder that she wants to maintain a Chinese wall with him?

He’s a basic bitch

From Scandal Screengrabs

In the very first episode of Scandal (Sweet Baby), we know that Olivia tries to help her employees find a little bit of normal in their lives. However, she tells them (and us) that she is not normal. Olivia is a high octane kind of gal firing on all cylinders. She’s on another stratosphere with no passengers on her plane. If anything, Edison brings her down. He needs a wife, in the traditional sense of the term. Olivia is sooooo not a wife.

I love Olivia Pope

From Scandal Screengrabs

I get Olivia. I get her brilliance, her strength and her emotional wall. With Edison, Olivia has built the most epic emotional wall ever: the Great Wall of China. Arguably, there are only two people in her orbit that understand that wall: Fitz and Huck. While Huck gets it, only Fitz has been able to penetrate that wall. Olivia’s world is very loud and very demanding. Things are constantly being demanded of her from her clients, colleagues and frenemies. Edison does very little, if nothing, to help relieve some of that tension. In fact, he adds to it by making more demands on her. Olivia herself would tell you she’s brilliant, the best at what she does. But she’s also human. To be fully human is to be vulnerable. I don’t expect Olivia to be some Strong Black Woman archetype. This archetype favours the optics of who we are as black women rather than who we actually are. Let’s let that archetype die because it doesn’t do Olivia any favors. I want her to be fully human.

I believe in ridiculous, inconvenient, true love

From Scandal Screengrabs

Edison looks great on paper. He’s also a tall, strapping, handsome man. A lot of people have remarked that Edison is good for Olivia because he makes her happy (where’s the evidence?). He’s normal, and she can be seen with him in public. She’s not his dirty little secret. All of that has more to do with societal constructions of what relationships are supposed to look like, the stages they go through, and the path that they are supposed to take. It has very little to do with actual emotions between two people who love each other. I look at Olivia with Edison and she seems anaesthetized sometimes. She performs ‘happiness’ for him and for herself because she’s afraid of the intensity of her love for Fitz and his love for her. That’s understandable, but it’s also cowardly.

I believe in triumphant love stories. I define ‘triumphant’ not by time, circumstance or marriage status. Triumphant love breaks through; it defines and changes a person. Olivia has that with Fitz. She will always have that with him even if they don’t end up together in the end. That’s a difficult thing to accept in a world so heavily invested in happily-ever-after.

Ok, I’m done.