Fitz and Olivia
While Olivia Pope is a successful woman who owns her own business, she still is a woman at the mercy of a man who has an extensive amount of physical, emotional and social power over her. It is not enough for Olivia to be a strong and successful woman--she has to be sleeping with the most powerful man in the free world. Olivia’s power as a successful “fixer” would seem unmatched if not for the presence of Fitz’s power as president.
Olivia’s love for the President is her Achilles heel. She is powerful on her own, but when Fitz comes into the picture, power dynamics are altered, causing Olivia to lose all authority. On the surface, Olivia appears to be in control of her emotions. Towards the beginning of the show, Olivia seems almost emotionless and insensitive, yet Fitz has the ability to expose her emotional vulnerability and love for him. In the first episode of the show where Olivia and Fitz’s relationship is threatened by a suspected love affair between Fitz and a White House aide, Olivia becomes enraged with jealousy and feelings of betrayal. The emotional distress Olivia encounters from her relationship with Fitz causes her to lack focus in all other aspects of her life, including her work
Olivia’s private feelings for Fitz began to seep into her work life. During a passionate argument between the couple, with tears in her eyes, Olivia proclaims “I believed you. You clouded my judgment. You made me mistrust my gut because I wanted to believe you. I destroyed that girl. She tried to kill herself."
Up until this point, we continuously hear Olivia and others in her office boast about how Olivia’s gut is always right, but the one thing that has the power to make her distrust her gut is her love for Fitz, further drawing connections between power and masculinity in the series.
Olivia’s life is derailed by Fitz’s masculinity in more ways than one. Scandal positions Olivia as the primary victim of the burden of her and Fitz’s affair. Despite the fact that Fitz is the president of the United States, the social ramifications of the affair rests primarily with Olivia Pope. She is the mistress who is made out to be a whore in the publc eye, she is the threat to the legitimacy of the White House marriage, and she is the one whose career suffers most immediately.