Having It All: The Legacy Of 'Being Mary Jane' [SERIES REVIEW

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After six seasons and a movie, Mary Jane Paul (Gabrielle Union) finally has it all: a man, a baby, and a booming career. She has the stereotypical dream every hetero working woman wants after years of break-ups, breakdowns, and restarts. I began watching Being Mary Jane when it debuted in 2013. It came at a time when networks were rapacious to fill their diversity void with African-American women in leading roles in an effort to duplicate the success of ABC’s Scandal . But where most women enjoyed the well-heeled messiness of crisis manager Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington), I felt more closely aligned with Mary Jane because of my job as a news producer. The brainchild of Girlfriends creator Mara Brock Akil, Being Mary Jane illustrated the double-consciousness and code-switching Mary Jane was forced to employ at work and at home. It is a lifestyle, coping mechanism, and behavior pattern instantly recognizable to Black women. Mary Jane’s work life is my work life: The fight to be seen