ABSTRACT
In its 380 episodes to date, Shonda Rhimes’ medical drama series Grey's Anatomy (2005–present) has featured 26 characters with various types of facial disfigurements both congenital and acquired. Following previous work (e.g., Wardle and Boyce; Kirby), this chapter conceptualizes facial disfigurements as a disability and, therefore, analyzes them through the lens of disability studies in the context of media representation. As the chapter will show, there is ample scholarship providing evidence that depictions of characters with disabilities (and facial disfigurements) are not only rare but also follow stereotypical patterns. In a close reading of the relevant episodes, this chapter will demonstrate in how far Grey's Anatomy partly reinforces but also challenges common conceptions of people with facial disfigurements. Given the genre of the series and the fact that the central characters are doctors and not patients, it is unsurprising that the series still heavily relies on many of these established models and narrative techniques. However, this chapter seeks to argue that the series nonetheless manages to advance the representation of characters with facial disfigurements by trying to steer away from some of the negative tropes and offering more complex character depictions.
