I don't think it's so much an offensive stereotype about smart people as it is an offensive stereotype about women vis-a-vis gaming and other so-called "nerdy" hobbies. This is the type of stereotyping that pushes women away from hobbies they might otherwise enjoy and leads to people snarling at "fake geek girls".
Fair, and that barely begins to scratch the surface of how problematic Penny is as a character. She's not that bright, she's insecure, she's a serial college dropout who's failed at her life goals, but she's pretty. The boys are smart, the girl is pretty.
The addition of actual geek girls to the show's cast later on helps a bit, but as you mention down below it IS striking that none of them have the same hobbies as the male characters.
I mean, how would you feel if they said something like, "oh, women don't watch Doctor Who."
Oh, I'm not beginning to argue in favor of stupid reductions like that. The show's problem is that it's pure lowest-common-denominator. It'll take a cheap laugh over subtlety or accuracy every time.
But while I certainly think it deserves to be called out when it does something wrong, I also think that howling against the writers and cast is another form of "fake geek" accusation. My point was that there are people involved in the show who really are the genuine article. Bialik is one, and while I wouldn't call myself a Chuck Lorre fan I think naming his main characters after
Sheldon Leonard qualifies him too.
My point is that it's entirely possible to criticize the show and its ridiculous broad-brush depictions without indulging in any of our own. I'm not a huge fan of the pandering humor, but that doesn't mean everybody involved is a terrible person or a phony.
And while it's not something I would ever watch if my wife weren't a fan, it's not all bad; I get a good laugh out of it now and again. Stephen Hawking playing himself as a sore loser and trash-talker is funny; Raj getting drunk and Wallowitz's bachelor party and talking about the time they double-teamed a 300-pound Sailor Moon cosplayer is...well, not funny ha-ha, but I definitely have to give the show credit for pushing boundaries of the hoariest possible sitcom tropes.
And I think it HAS been a positive influence in how people with Asperger's are depicted in popular culture.
And this isn’t even touching on the way TBBT portrays women. Most notably the fact that until recently the only female character on the show had no understanding of science or nerd culture, and the episode in which it’s treated as a miracle that a woman is in a comic book store – “she must be lost” they say. Even Amy Farrah Fowler isn’t the geek girl representative we may have hoped for. She’s portrayed as distinctly asexual and when she mentions sex it’s always played for laughs, because of course intelligent, socially awkward women shouldn't think about sex at all.
Just because she has a degree in neuroscience doesn't mean she's immune to making problematic decisions decision in her acting career.
I'll grant the person writing the editorial has probably seen a lot more episodes than I have, but from what I've seen the joke is that she's plenty interested in sex but is dating a guy who's repulsed by it.
She's described the role as similar to herself and I take her at her word. It's hard for me to say it's a problematic decision if the role resonates with her, even if other people find it lacking. Again, that's exactly the kind of judgemental attitude that we're criticizing here.
I haven't seen the comic book episode this season that caused a kerfuffle and I'm only dimly aware of what people were pissed off about. I've seen fairly mixed reaction to it.
On the one hand, it's sad to see the stereotype of comic book shops as horrible dank pits that are hostile to women reinforced.
On the other, far too many of them actually ARE; I've heard any number of stories of women going into comic shops and being made to feel uncomfortable by staff and clientele. That's totally unacceptable, and the shops that ARE hostile to women absolutely deserve to be called out for it.
And it occurs to me that it never bothered me to see the absolute worst stereotypes about comic stores and their owners depicted on a popular television show when that show was The Simpsons.
Or problematic decisions in her personal speech. Telling women that they're Bad Feminists if they choose to shave their legs or put on makeup, and using that vaunted PhD in neuroscience as an authority to argue against vaccination.
Hadn't heard about that stuff; not finding references immediately offhand. If it's true then sure, she absolutely deserves to be criticized for those things. Not sure why that means she should be criticized for being on The Big Bang Theory, but yes, vaccinations are important and women should be allowed to make their own decisions about body hair.
If nothing else I can respect sitting so comfortably on the extreme opposing ends of what people think the political spectrum should be.
I don't know what people you're talking about but there's a pretty huge overlap between people with strident opinions about feminism and questionable opinions about medicine.
Next time you're in Arizona, take a trip to Sedona; you can't go half a block without hitting a new age shop. And hey, the weather is way the fuck nicer than in Phoenix.
