{"id":780,"date":"2026-04-20T15:02:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2026-04-20T15:02:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T15:02:00","slug":"the-pit-is-competence-porn-in-many-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/?p=780","title":{"rendered":"The Pit is &#8220;competence porn&#8221; in many ways."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>I finally got to watch the HBO medical drama this weekend. <em>the pit<\/em>is a show that everyone is crazy about, but I avoided it because I&#8217;m a creepy baby. As long as I kept my eyes closed for most of the medical stuff, I enjoyed it and even devoured it for a season and a half even if I wanted to quit. When Season 2 recently ended, a quote from an interview with star Noah Wyle went viral, in which he referred to the show as:<u>competence porn<\/u>&#8216; is not only a workplace drama, but also a fantasy of a world where people can receive adequate medical care. <\/p>\n<p>I think people other than me probably know this, <em>the pit <\/em>It follows a day in the life of doctors, nurses, and medical students working in a Pittsburgh emergency room. There&#8217;s relationship drama big and small, and both seasons feature a lot of turmoil within the usual turmoil. Each episode is one hour of the day, a very clever structure that allows for both continuity and the &#8220;patient of the week&#8221; format common in other medical shows. Most of what happens inside <em>the pit <\/em>It&#8217;s not necessarily rare illnesses or medical mysteries, but ordinary people having the worst day of their lives, played out on a daily basis in the unique way the emergency room does. We see the staff go from crisis to crisis with the dedication and professionalism that is part of the show&#8217;s appeal.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Pitt | Official Trailer | Max\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ufR_08V38sQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>late fee <em>GQ<\/em><em> <\/em>That show is<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It became a beacon of hope and humanity in an alternate universe. But within that, the fifth point, this is essentially competency porn. You&#8217;re seeing really smart, dedicated people doing something that only they know how to do at a level that you don&#8217;t know how to do, and you&#8217;re so happy that they&#8217;re there and doing it and splitting up their stuff to put the broken pieces back together. It&#8217;s such a relief to know that there are people out there who can laugh and joke and lock in like that.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As I watch this show, I was definitely struck by this on two levels. One is to see very good actors who are very good at pretending to be very good people in their work. The show is full of medical jargon and they deliver it with authenticity. And once we get into the show&#8217;s fiction, the characters themselves peacefully go through a day that would break the rest of us. A motorcycle accident or drug overdose may be an ordinary day for those involved, but for the staff at The Pit, it&#8217;s just another day at work. This does not mean that they are not affected by it all, but they remain committed to doing their work skillfully and with care. <\/p>\n<p>Being a professional surrounded by other professionals, doing important things with other people who care about it as much as you do and can do it at a high level is aspirational as workplace drama, no matter what field you&#8217;re in. The hospital in this show is a teaching hospital, and throughout the drama we see that experienced doctors prioritize teaching the next generation. We live in a time where jobs are scarce and AI boosters are trying to downskill us all to line their own pockets (something). <em>the pit<\/em>), it was touching to imagine that such a workplace might exist. In addition to the medical field, <u>specific<\/u> When it comes to skills, the show&#8217;s emphasis on teamwork and professionalism felt like something that was rapidly being destroyed in many workplaces in favor of cost-cutting and short-term efficiencies, although this isn&#8217;t the case in other fields. This also applies if <em>the pit<\/em>watching its characters resent tone-deaf orders from above feels like it never deeply threatens the core integrity of the workplace in the way that so many of us have seen our own workplaces eroded, at least from what I&#8217;ve seen so far.   <\/p>\n<p>The second thing that impressed me was <em>the pit<\/em>&#8216;s ability is unique to the show as a medical drama, and for many of us, the illusion of proper medical care. The show doesn&#8217;t shy away from the ugly realities of emergency rooms, such as long wait times, understaffing, and the financial burden of getting care, but it also shows that doctors take their patients seriously and strive to help them, despite these challenges and even when patients are rude or spout medical misinformation. The emergency room appears to be a place where you can go and actually receive help, even if it&#8217;s not a very pleasant experience. <\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Content Note: A discussion of negative medical experiences follows.<\/em> <\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"kg-card kg-embed-card\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Pitt Season 2 | Official Trailer | HBO Max\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xq8x47ky2Tw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<p>As a transgender person seeking treatment while covered by public insurance, I didn&#8217;t have many positive experiences with medical care. There is no doubt that most doctors and nurses are good, skilled people who want to do their jobs well. I have always tried to be polite and considerate when I have to interact with them, even when I&#8217;m frustrated or scared, but most of my experiences have been pretty upsetting, especially in the emergency room. As a result, I have avoided seeking medical attention when I needed to. Especially if you don&#8217;t know how the place will treat your transgender status, or you&#8217;ve hidden your transgender identity from medical institutions until it becomes unavoidable. <em>the pit<\/em>Doctors start by asking patients what medications they are taking. It reminded me that this is a routine question and that people often don&#8217;t tell their doctors that they are taking testosterone. I always know it&#8217;s a bad idea because I&#8217;m taking it. <\/p>\n<p>One time I <em>did <\/em>When I told the ER doctor that I was blood type T, we had an awkward and upsetting conversation trying to figure out why, and at one point during that conversation I said in pain: &#8220;I used to be a girl, but now I&#8217;m a boy because of testosterone.&#8221; They looked thoughtful for a moment, then asked, &#8220;Is it to develop male reproductive organs?&#8221; And despite the absurdity of the question, I said yes. I simply wanted to end the interaction and try to understand what I actually went to the ER for. (I want to tell this story because it&#8217;s so funny to me now. It wasn&#8217;t that funny back then. I hope knowledge of transgender people in ER has improved since then.)<\/p>\n<p>Even the places I regularly seek medical care aren&#8217;t always able to address my medical needs outside of hormones and sexual health, and I often feel inadequate. A long time ago, at a medical institution <u>Misdiagnosis<\/u> This disease has completely disrupted my life. It took me and various health care providers a year to convince myself that I had a rare and serious disease, but ultimately it turned out to be a common skin condition that had been overlooked as a possibility, in part because I am transgender. (This experience taught me a medical maxim: <u>Find the horse before the zebra<\/u>I nodded knowingly when the characters mentioned it <em>the pit<\/em>.) This experience made me even less willing to go to the doctor. I know I have to work harder to overcome this habit as I get older. Despite these times, I&#8217;m not so concerned about access to hormones, but I am very concerned about how I can receive care for other medical issues. I also worry about how I will be able to get additional care if I need it now that many of the systems that once helped me have been discontinued.<\/p>\n<p>What I will always remember about my emergency room experience is the momentary kindness of the nurses who saw me struggling and reached out to me, offered me food, and helped me get a room after hours of waiting. These nurses seemed to come out of nowhere, and then I never saw them again, but in my memory they descended to earth like angels. <em>the pit <\/em>Although they do not spend as much time on nurses as they do on doctors, they demonstrate the important and often overlooked role that nurses play. It was touching to see the continuity of their days. They are real people working, not the people I imagined when I was in a crisis. <\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m watching <em>the pit <\/em>It gave me a more positive view of the emergency room than what I actually experienced. This feels like an important project for the show to take on due to COVID-19, but it&#8217;s also valuable for those of us who have bad experiences in healthcare on a daily basis for a variety of reasons. A health care provider&#8217;s office staffed only by the best doctors may be an impossible dream, and a workplace that actually cares about training new employees may be even more realistic, but a world where everyone has access to competent, advanced care is not the way it should be. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"kg-card kg-bookmark-card\">\n<div class=\"kg-bookmark-content\">\n<p>&#8216;The Pit&#8217; is more than just an anxiety-inducing medical drama &#8211; Aftermath<\/p>\n<p>Have fun while expressing your gratitude to medical workers<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"kg-bookmark-thumbnail\"><\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div>\n<p>#Pit #competence #porn #ways<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I finally got to watch the HBO medical drama this weekend. the pitis a show that everyone is crazy about, but I avoided it because I&#8217;m a creepy baby. As long as I kept my eyes closed for most of the medical stuff, I enjoyed it and even devoured it for a season and a &#8230; <a title=\"The Pit is &#8220;competence porn&#8221; in many ways.\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/?p=780\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Pit is &#8220;competence porn&#8221; in many ways.\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":781,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1941,1204,1942,1943],"class_list":["post-780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-competence","tag-pit","tag-porn","tag-ways"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yasbou.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}