The popular American sitcom, the Big Bang Theory is a perfect example of how our perception of class
and gender roles is influenced by popular sitcoms today. Beautiful, blonde,
Penny moves across the hall from two genius physicists. Penny is portrayed as
sexy, fun, popular and socially proficient; however, her inadequate education
and economic conditions constantly embarrass her. Penny failed to graduate from
community college and currently provides for herself by waitressing. Many of
the comic situations of the show involving interaction between Penny and her
smarter neighbors make our female lead look dumb and insecure. When she begins
to date one of her brilliant neighbors, she reveals early in the relationship
that she's insecure he'll want "a girl who doesn't have to look up words
he says in the dictionary when she gets home." Some episodes focus on
Penny struggling to appear "smart" and "sexy" for her new
boyfriend. Similar to the front she puts up in this clip below where Penny's smarter boyfriend asks her what she was up to "7 years ago" to
which she replies "I was in high school. I was studying, keeping my notes
clean, doing volunteer work for the community..."
When
Penny's response is immediately followed by a clip of a clueless teenaged
version of herself staring confusedly at a pregnancy test and its instructions
until her face lights up, she exclaims "Not pregnant!" Reinforcing
Penny's reputation as a stereotypical dumb blonde, this scene also tells
viewers that the attractive, fun girl is not concerned with school or volunteer
work because those are issues we leave to the unattractive, smart people.
On
the other hand, the males of this show are victims of stereotyping just as much
if not even more than Penny. Penny's various boyfriends (besides her specific
neighbor) are always muscular and pitifully stupid while her brilliant
neighbors lack muscle and are socially awkward.
In
contrast, Modern Family's character
Alex Dunphy struggles as a social reject but is known for her high intelligence
and academic success while her more attractive, popular sister resembles
Penny's persona and capabilities.
More
prime time comedies like, Subergatory
and The Middle are continuously
utilizing similar character models to reinforce messages that tell us blonde
waitresses are dumb, privileged people cannot possess street smarts, and 'book
smart' people are socially awkward. Even though some of these shows may imagine
they parodying such typecasts I would argue that this method is overused and
perhaps it is time for new characters and to ditch the our outdated
stereotypes.
I agree with all of this post, I am tired of the typecasting of characters based on their physical appearances and gender. Its false representation that leads to ignorance and false stereotypes. I've seen its effects in my close group of female friends, all of whom are very intelligent and attractive but some feel that because of they are intelligent they must lack in another aspect of their life. And one of my friends who is blonde has told me before that she has been treated like she was "dumb" and was only approached by guys because of how she looks.
ReplyDeleteThese type castings are also rampant in films. "The House Bunny" has Anna Faris playing a blonde model who just happens to be "dumb" and tries to become more educated to date a more intelligent character. And Faris plays the same character in "The Hot Chick." "The Princess Diaries" turns awkward Anne Hathaway into a princess by changing her physical appearances into something more feminine. And in "Miss Congeniality" sure its important to the plot but its only when intelligent and independent Julia Roberts gets a makeover that a man is attracted to her. Its a terrible message to send to women.