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| Source: Being Mary Jane |
Who watches Being Mary Jane? It comes on BET on Tuesday nights, and is about Mary Jane Paul – played by Gabrielle Union – a successful broadcast journalist moving through her career and life while struggling to find “Mr. Right”.
At 38 years old, with no Mr. Right, and a yearning to have children of her own, Mary Jane embarks on a journey to do what most career-driven women of today are doing these days: freezing their eggs. I talked about that just last week here.
However, Mary Jane, instead of going through this process privately, she chose to pimp out her uterus for the sake of her career by accepting to subject herself to “free” fertility treatments. Unfortunately, Mary Jane’s fertility treatments were unsuccessful. To make
matters worse, her results were blasted live for the world to see and hear. Mary Jane had no time to process the bad news, and was told to continue to keep recording for the sake of the story. And through all of this, her friends, her close friends had not one ounce of compassion. Her friend Mark said to her, “It is a step up from being an old ho.” Prior to that, Mary Jane asked her friend and co-worker, Kara Lynch “Where was your compassion? That’s what I needed, your compassion.” I think a lot of women can relate to that. Sometimes you don’t need to hear that you should pray as if you haven’t, or stop stressing or stop thinking about it. You just need compassion and empathy.
matters worse, her results were blasted live for the world to see and hear. Mary Jane had no time to process the bad news, and was told to continue to keep recording for the sake of the story. And through all of this, her friends, her close friends had not one ounce of compassion. Her friend Mark said to her, “It is a step up from being an old ho.” Prior to that, Mary Jane asked her friend and co-worker, Kara Lynch “Where was your compassion? That’s what I needed, your compassion.” I think a lot of women can relate to that. Sometimes you don’t need to hear that you should pray as if you haven’t, or stop stressing or stop thinking about it. You just need compassion and empathy.
Angry, frustrated, and confused, Mary Jane asks her doctor the same questions many women struggling with infertility ask when going through this, such as the following:
“What went wrong?”
Could I have taken my medications wrong?
“You said 38 isn’t old, old!”
Mary Jane’s doctor suggested that she can always try another round of hormones at a higher dosage.Mary Jane then wonders just how many more times she would have to go through this. Fertility is unpredictable and can affect anyone at any age. Mary Jane just figured this out late in the game.
I’m happy that shows like Being Mary Jane are touching on real life issues. Like Mark, Mary Jane’s friend stated, “A lot of viewers can relate to what you’re going through.” Although Mary Jane decided to not continue the process in order to freeze her eggs, she did decide to move forward with the 4 eggs produced during her fertility treatments. I hope for Mary Jane’s character that she at least gets a happy ending – a baby of her own.
Gabrielle Union, as someone who openly discussed her inability to have children even though she wants to, I wonder how playing this role has affected her.