Media and Gender Stereotypes in The Bing Bang Theory - Essay Example

Lecturer: Media and Gender stereotypes in The Bing Bang Theory The big bang theory depicts gender roles and stereotypical views regarding male and female behaviors through its various characters that include Sheldon, Leonard and Penny among others. The Bing Bang Theory being a comedy series involves a group of friends made up of four nerdy and socially naive guys and a lady desiring to be an actress who lives across the hall. Sheldon and Leonard are intellectual physicists with different personalities because Leonard is capable of hooking up with different girls while Sheldon remains the weirdest person; nevertheless, they both conform to the stereotype image of geek while showing different male attributes. Sheldon shows that male stereotype of being aggressive; however, his aggression appears to be verbal and he is rarely mean; however, he often makes fun of Penny who is a typical lady living next door. Sheldon is academically demeaning toward penny, which expresses stereotype belief that men show success and status within their shared group. The first episode shows Sheldon and Leonard comparing their works and arguing for their own in front of Penny; hence, Sheldon is a stereotype man who likes to show off his intelligence, while in doing so he remains hostile and aggressive to others. Another stereotype is the series is the notion that men retain the title of being rescuers while women remain victims. When Penny gets entangled in an unforeseen relationship problem, she requests help from Sheldon and Leonard who offer her solution to the problems; hence, the episodes unfairly highlight dependency of women on men in order to save them from unpleasant situations. Penny other females characters are either unemployed or struggling while the male counterparts are professionally accomplished. Even though, the “The Big Bang Theory” has well accomplished women characters, they still lack academic professional comparison to the male characters on the show. Big Bang Theory relies on stereotypes in various ways within its subject matter drawn from fantasy genre where historically men are heroes while women are scantily-dressed and to certain extend helpless. Women in the show are normally sexualized particularly in early seasons where Penny was considered as the typical helpless blonde in need of help from the intelligent lead characters. For a considerable amount of the time Penny was nothing more than a hot and unscholarly compared to the scientists in the show. Although women in The Big Bang Theory have flourishing careers, they are portrayed as carrying out expressive roles in relationships to a certain extent the show misrepresents the culture that surrounds it. Although cultural perception of nerds is changing, it remains largely a negative one as shown by male characters in the show because all of them fail to live up to the cultures’ unrealistic and burdening ideals of masculinity. The main male characters in the show are not physically strong or emotionally tough and they prefer the comfort of their apartments to outdoors. Therefore, as the show indicates, nerdy men are not masculine as indicated by the pairing of short and wimpy Leonard with Penny who is tall. Therefore, Leonard, Howard, Sheldon and Raj can be categorized as feminine instead of masculine; nevertheless, one group seems to be below the nerds within the social hierarchy and the group is women. Regardless of the state of male nerds, they remain more masculine compared to women; hence, making male nerds to be high in the social hierarchy. Amy who is Sheldon’s girlfriend is shown as shrewish for expecting Sheldon to honor the long standing obligation to her instead of hanging out with the guys. Sheldon considers Amy to be controlling and goes on to point out that if he was to be enslaved it would be by a creature from another planet. The Big Bang Theory, is not a win scenario for women because when they put their feet down and insist on spending time with their boyfriends, they are shrew and when they take a hands-off approach they are considered not to love them enough; moreover, if they join their boyfriends in their plans, the women are ruining the guys’ party. Some of the episodes in the show indicate the way girlfriends interfere with an all-guys gaming weekend with women portrayed with some dignity like Amy when she insists that Sheldon honor his commitment (Simpson). Intelligence is gendered masculine and the shows representation of intelligence reinforces the gendering and decreases the intelligent characters to characteristics like possessing multiple degrees, pursuing scientific interests, photographic memories and their overall awkward social acts (McIntosh). Sheldon, Howard, Rajesh and Leonard bond over the traditionally masculine activities that include comic books, science fiction shows and science as well as technology experiments (McIntosh). In contrast to the four nerds in the show, Penny has social skills as well as common sense although she lacks intellectual aspirations. The nerd depicted in the show is a male with exemplary skills in mathematics and sciences although lacking in social skills, which makes him a loner because he is disastrous with women; hence, not fully apt to the notion of masculinity. Studies indicate that male part is more dominant in heterosexual relations while the female is submissive. This is shown at the onset of the show when penny moves next to Sheldon and Leonard and she immediately becomes a potential love for Leonard; moreover, Raj and Howard struggle with girls and express the desire for romantic relations. Men in Bing Bang Theory challenge traditional ideas regarding gender because the show illustrates gender theory by using a wide range of characters both male and female (Irwin 245). The Big Bang Theory challenges the traditional ideas regarding gender since the show illustrates a different form of masculinity while feminine features are enhance by geek characteristics associated with males. The show indicates various roles associated with male gender like aggression portrayed by Sheldon and the desire for romantic relationships portrayed by Leonard and Howard. The show portrays that men are rescuers of situations while women are portrayed as victims since the nerds are capable of offering Penny advice out of a problem in her relationship. Women in the show embody a collection of feminist issues regarding sex, gender and behavioral expectations. Works cited Irwin, William. The Big Bang Theory and Philosophy: Rock, Paper, Scissors, Aristotle, Locke. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, 2012. Print Simpson A.J. Boys Club: The Gender Politics of The Big Bang Theory. I Wonder if you Wonder. 2012. Web. 26 Feb. 2014 < http://wonderifyouwonder.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/boys-club-the-gender-politics-of-the-big-bang-theory/ > McIntosh, Heather. Gendering Intelligence and Sexuality on The Big Bang Theory. FlowTv. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2014. The Big Bang Theory: First episode. (2007) Galecki, Johnny, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, Chuck Lorre, and Bill Prady.Dir. Burbank, CA: Distributed by Warner Home Video, 2008. Read More