“Chicago PD” is one of our favorite TV shows. If depicts the exploits of the fictional Intelligence Unit. Despite the unit being close knit, each of the two female officers often go off alone, and are assaulted because of this.

Officer Kim Burgess is shot in the abdomen and put in critical condition. Nevertheless, she returns to full duty and undergoes no rehabilitation we are aware of. Detective Hailey Upton is beaten up, then knocked unconscious in an explosion, with blood shown coming out of her ear. Nevertheless, she returns to full duty and undergoes no rehabilitation we are aware of.

The women continue to run off alone, get injured, and “tough it out” without apparent problems. Does this indicate that the writers want female officers to be seen as really tough, or that some members of the audience are expected to enjoy seeing women beaten up? Hard to tell.

The problem, of course, is that this can be habit forming. When Caitlin Clark fell to the floor clutching her ear, the announcer said she saw no contact, while commenters were almost unanimous in telling Clark to “toughen up” and stop “flopping” – that is, faking injuries.

But soon after, photos were published of Clark with blood in her left ear canal, indicating a ruptured eardrum with associated hearing loss, hopefully temporary. The problem is that a ruptured eardrum due to a blow to the head may be associated with a traumatic brain injury. I do not recall Clark undergoing a concussion protocol before returning to the game.

Fictional female police officers running off alone and being seriously injured? Bloody faces, bloody ears for entertainment? And I am to believe that when a female athlete has real blood in her ear, people appear not to care, and this has no relation to what they have been watching for entertainment? No relation? Pardon the pun, but not bloody likely. I’d say there was more than a whiff of misogyny here. In fact, a real stench.