Scandal: Why Women Hate to Love to Hate Olivia Pope

Its 10pm on a Thursday night and if you have a pulse, you're watching ABC's Scandal.

I'm not here to discuss why the show is amazing. I'm here to address why people love and hate Olivia Pope.

Ok, here's an overview of the show. Olivia Pope, played by Kerry Washington (loosely based on a real person: Judy Smith) is an African American woman and crisis management professional based in Washington D.C, she is a political advisor, confidant to & mistress of caucasian President Fitzgerald "Fitz" Grant (long story short, watch the damn show).

Now, if you're still reading this, you might be thinking... "Why don't people like Olivia?", if you watch the show, you might be thinking... "Why don't people like Olivia?", if you're a woman married to or in a relationship with a man who has a wandering eye, or a man who happens to slip and fall into the vaginas of other women, you might be thinking... "I cant stand that bitch!"
Why the shift? Olivia Pope is someone I like to refer to as a "conflicted protagonist". Why?
Olivia Pope is resourceful, intelligent, articulate, beautiful, powerful & weak to the touch of "Fitz". What's the problem? The problem is that women watching the show, struggle to respect Olivia, the professional, without judging Olivia, the mistress.

As a society, we love to hate certain characters. Shonda Rhimes wrote the story of a character so captivating that we all fell in love with Olivia, we respected her, we admired her, we tweeted about her hairweaves, fashion and snapped at the television when she said something that bordered "bitchy" but was delivered beautifully.

Flash forward and she's sneaking around the White House, being felt up in the oval office by a very married President Fitzgerald. We love whores, we hate whores, they're beautiful, they're opportunists who can't capitalize off of anything but their beauty. WE, are conflicted. We love and hate Kim Kardashian, Marilyn Monroe, Alicia Keys, Leann Rimes & Monica Lewinsky. Aaah, Monica Lewinsky, someone Olivia Pope might be able to relate to.

Why do women hate Olivia Pope? Is it because she's the Black mistress of a powerful man President much like Sally Hemings to a modern day Thomas Jefferson? Is it because ABC is airing a show where a President is having an affair while we have the first Black President in office? Is it because we love Michelle Obama and we'd hate the mistress of President Obama if he ever had one? Is it because we cringe at the thought of the man we love cheating on us in general or cheating on us right under our noses with a woman who is as beautiful and powerful as Olivia Pope? Face it, it's one thing when the "sidechick" is a busted Instagram model, but it's another when she's Olivia Pope.

(Here's a picture of myself & my dad with Kerry when she did a play "Race" in NYC in 2010)

Sound off: What are your thoughts? Are you a fan of the show? Are you a fan of Olivia's?