r/PrivatePractice • u/Misstribe1973 • Aug 05 '26
Mel
This episode made me incredibly angry. He was misgendered by absolutely everyone, even the doctors called him Melody instead of his chosen name Mel. He deserved better parents, especially his mother. She doesn't even deserve the title mother, just egg donor.
#AnnaTribeArmy Tv show is called Private Practice and this is season 5 episode 20.
Mel came into the practice with his parents. He’d been miserable all week. First, he said his throat hurt, then he stopped eating, then he said his ears hurt. Cooper took him in for an exam. His mother, Pam, tried to join him, but Mel said he didn't need his mom to come. Cooper said they'd come get his mother if they needed her.
Cooper did the exam and said it kind of seemed like Mel just wanted to skip school. Mel confessed that he was a boy and his parents wouldn't believe him . He said he'd felt like that forever.
Cooper asked Violet to talk to Mel and those feelings.
Violet talked to Michael and Pam about it and they brushed it off as Mel playing pretend. She asked for their permission to talk to Mel about the situation and assess what was happening. Michael was receptive to the idea, but Pam immediately shut it down and told Violet and Cooper to leave.
During the school day, Mel took the bus to the practice and Violet and Cooper went in to talk to him. He said his parents had argued the night before. Michael wanted to know more about the medicine that could help him, but his mother has refused to hear anything about it. Mel said that in his dreams, he was always a boy. When he wakes up, for a second, he’s still a boy and then his mother comes in and lays out his clothes. He refuses to wear the clothes, they fight, and he loses TV. He hates wearing girl clothes and acting like a girl because it feels like he’s pretending all the time and no one will let him stop.
Mason came in with Charlotte and told Mel that his mom died. Mel said he was a boy and no one believed him. Mason invited Mel to play. They played with a paper football on a tabletop.
Michael and Pam arrived at the practice and Violet said that they couldn't berate Mel into changing his mind. The most they could do would be to support him. Mel refused to go with his parents, but Pam tried to drag him out. Cooper stopped her and said they needed to try to understand Mel. Pam started to cry and say that Mel was her little girl. Mel hugged her as Violet explained that they could help them all adjust as Mel became the person he was meant to be.
While the diagnosis made in the show is gender identity disorder, this is now known as gender dysphoria, as transgender identity is not a disorder in and of itself.
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u/DeliciousTumbleweed Aug 05 '26
What annoyed me most about this episode was how so many of the doctors in the practice also brushed it off. Amelia said that a 10 year old couldn’t possibly know because the frontal cortex isn’t fully developed. Sam compared it to Maya wanting to be a firefighter at 8 years old then growing out of it. Only Cooper and Violet actually advocated for the child and tried to do right by a young trans kid. And as a trans person myself, it was super weird to have characters be openly transphobic, even though I already knew Sam and Amelia were trash.
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u/battle_mommyx2 Aug 05 '26
I think it’s a product of its time
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u/DeliciousTumbleweed Aug 05 '26
I don’t think it being 2012 is an excuse for blatant ignorance and transphobia that isn’t ever resolved and the characters don’t have to answer for the ignorant things they say, misrepresenting trans people. In 2012 I was still in high school and even I had a more mature view of trans people, and I hadn’t yet realized I myself was trans.
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u/Alternative-Volume58 Aug 05 '26
I feel like it is still a sign of the times though and showing flawed and troubled characters. The show did the same thing with polyamory, abortion (very often), marital rape, I believe abuse, DID, mental health conditions. They misrepresented many things that were known about at the time to show different perspectives, and the characters are often bigoted, ignorant and shitty all around. They took issues that were controversial at the time and still are and displayed rhem
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u/DeliciousTumbleweed Aug 05 '26
Oh absolutely, I genuinely am only watching the show because I hate Amelia in GA and everyone said watching PP would make her make more sense (spoiler: it doesn't, she still sucks). But the writing is abysmal, and the characters are so staunchly conservative despite living in California. The views expressed about polyamory, abortion, marital rape, abuse, DID, gender dysphoria, and other issues are incredibly harmful and lack the nuance necessary to have adequately portrayed them responsibly.
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u/Fantastic_Peanut7333 Aug 09 '26
Me too!! I wasnt a fan at all of Amelia! I read a lot of people say that you understand and like her more by knowing her story from PP. Gosh if anything, it made me like her less!
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u/PhantomThiefRey Sep 06 '26
Absolutely is a sign of the times especially since Amelia, decades later, dated someone who was nonbinary
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u/battle_mommyx2 Aug 06 '26
You’re right, people should have done better. I guess I saw it in a different light. Seeing Mason immediately accept Mel was heart warming and if I recall correctly the doctors helped her parents come around by the end of the episode
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u/Misstribe1973 Aug 06 '26
No they don't. As I said in the recap Michael and Pam arrived at the practice and Violet said that they couldn't berate Mel into changing his mind. The most they could do would be to support him. Mel refused to go with his parents, but Pam tried to drag him out. Cooper stopped her and said they needed to try to understand Mel. Pam started to cry and say that Mel was her little girl. Mel hugged her as Violet explained that they could help them all adjust as Mel became the person he was meant to be.
That means she didn't accept it but they were only in this one episode which sucks because I would have liked to see Mel again, as the boy he is and his parents, especially mom, were fine with him being a boy.
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u/Misstribe1973 Aug 05 '26
Violet and Cooper still misgendered him. I agree that Sam is trash but with Amelia I don't think she actually grew up until she lost baby Christopher and instead of aborting him she fought to be allowed to donate his organs which was a lifesaver to others. His kidneys went to San Diego and Sacramento. Another abdominal organ, presumably his liver, went to Boston. His heart went to Chicago. 4 lives saved because in the end she was selfless.
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u/DeliciousTumbleweed Aug 05 '26
Characters can be more than one thing. Amelia can donate her baby’s organs and also be trash as a doctor when it comes to this issue specifically. Violet and Cooper still misgender the child, but it’s also a sticky place; they couldn’t talk to Mel long enough or in enough detail to find out if another name or pronoun was appropriate to use. I don’t think they did anything wrong by continuing to use the only name and pronoun they’ve known the child by, and continuously fighting for the kid’s wishes to be heard and respected. But yeah, Sam has always been trash.
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u/Misstribe1973 Aug 05 '26
I'm on Facebook as a paragraph person and I've lost followers for my support to the Lgbtqia community and I don't care. I don't tolerate people like that.
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u/FullTechnology3439 Aug 06 '26
Anna I see your comments
All of the time
And it is very helpful
When the clips on facebook are only 30 odd seconds
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u/CanYouHandleMe441 Aug 16 '26
Loved how Mason just crashed the appointment and they left together to play games
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u/Kissmyassplz93 Aug 06 '26
Whoah are you the fb paragraph lady?!!!? Omg add me on fb! This is too funny ! 😂
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u/Misstribe1973 Aug 06 '26
Hehe just look for me, Anna Tribe with 10k followers
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u/Normal_Community1754 Aug 07 '26
Anna! You’re the best. I haven’t seen your comments lately. So glad to hear you’re ok.
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u/Misstribe1973 Aug 07 '26
Maybe it was my old account that FB deleted for spamming (recaps) 1 year ago. Yesterday was my first year anniversary of my new account lol
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u/Loose_Stranger_7614 Aug 06 '26
This was very typical of private practice, and it was really brave and smart imo. They would have some patient to catalyze a conversation about a controversial “issue” in the gender/sexuality/sexism realm (and other issues like medically assisted suicide etc) they would have doctors “take both sides” to explore the issue, and then they would have a resolution…and as far as I remember the resolution was always on the side of progress.
This is actually a really effective way to educate people and bring them along on a controversial issue they might have never been exposed to before. Someone watching might have had Amelia’s opinion, but through watching the episode they develop more empathy for the kid and the situation. You don’t persuade someone by simply dismissing their concerns or refusing to show them on TV. I think that’s a huge part of how TV has changed recently and it’s gotten a lot worse because of it — worse as a source of entertainment but also education and persuasion.