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Representations of Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory

a

Heather McIntosh
a

Department of Communication Arts, Notre Dame University of Maryland

Published online: 17 Dec 2014.

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To cite this article: Heather McIntosh (2014) Representations of Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory, Journal of Popular Film and
Television, 42:4, 195-204, DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2014.896779
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Representations of
Female Scientists in

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory (CBS), TV Series. Season 6,
20122013. Episode: The Holographic Excitation.
Airdate: October 25, 2012. Shown from left: Melissa
Rauch, Mayim Bialik, Kaley Cuoco. Photo courtesy
of CBS/Photofest.

By

Heather McIntosh

Abstract: The Big Bang Theory offers a unique opportunity to explore the representations of female
scientists within the situation comedy. This article first discusses the representations of scientists
across media genres, highlighting the differences created by the situation comedy. Focusing on Bernadette and Amy, this article then analyzes these characters as representations of female scientists
through their professional roles, gender roles, and intelligence. It concludes by suggesting that while
on the surface there is some challenging and even undermining of these stereotypes, those challenges
remain short-lived in light of the situation comedys goals to entertain while reinforcing the status quo.
Keywords: The Big Bang Theory, female scientists, gender roles, scientists, situation comedy

NLIKE SCIENCE FICTION AND POLICE PROCEDURALS,

the situation comedy genre historically has offered few, if any, representations of female scientists. The Big Bang Theory thus offers a unique
opportunity to explore these representations within that genre. Debuting in 2007,
The Big Bang Theory follows the nerdy adventures of four scientist friends: in195

Copyright 2014 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2014.896779
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196

JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television

tellectually gifted theoretical physicist

Sheldon Cooper, his roommate applied
physicist Leonard Hofstadter, astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali, and engineer Howard Wolowitz. These four
friends hold esteemed degrees, work
at the same university, and pursue varied interests such as comic books, kite
fighting, role-playing and video games,
and science fiction shows. Balancing
out these four scientists is Sheldon and
Leonards neighbor Penny, a waitress
and aspiring actress from Nebraska who
wields popular culture references the
same way the men wield scientific theories. When the scientists get caught trying to unravel some seemingly complicated puzzle, Penny provides the laughs
in suggesting the obvious solution.
Starting with the third and fourth seasons, The Big Bang Theory introduced
more regular female characters as love
interests for the main characters. Bernadette Rostenkowski starts her role
as a student of microbiology working
as a waitress who later earns her Ph.D.
and lands a good-paying job with a major pharmaceutical company. She later
marries Howard Wolowitz. Amy Farrah Fowler begins her role as a blind
date for Sheldon Cooper, and she holds
a Ph.D. in neurobiology and works in
a lab at another university. After much
awkwardness, she eventually becomes
Sheldons girlfriend. Both Amy and
Bernadette befriend Penny. While other
female scientists do appear briefly
throughout the series, Amy and Bernadette appear most frequently and with
the most developed storylines.
The Big Bang Theory offers a unique
moment to explore the representations
of female scientists within the situation comedy. This article begins with a
brief discussion about representations of
scientists in media genres, highlighting
the differences created by the situation
comedy. Focusing on Bernadette and
Amy, I then analyze these characters
representations within the contexts of
representations of scientists, focusing
specifically on their professional roles,
their gender roles, and their intelligence.
The article concludes by suggesting that
while on the surface some challenging
and even undermining of these stereotypes do appear, those challenges re-

main short-lived in light of the situation

comedys goals to entertain while reinforcing the status quo.

Representations of
Female Scientists
in Media
Scientists of all typesdoctors, forensics experts, chemists, biologists,
physicists, and othersappear regularly
throughout television programming.
These appearances and audience reactions to them vary form genre to genre.
Nonfiction programming includes news,
talk shows, and childrens educational
programs. Within nonfiction programming, scientists often appear for their
expertise, but not all programs or audiences respect that expertise. For news,
experts, including scientists, remain a
staple part of these programs. While we
might think that their increased use in
news programs would affirm peoples
views, instead, as their use in programs
increases, the public trust in them declines (Limoges 424 as cited in Boyce
890). Talk shows continue this distrust
of experts by downplaying intellectuals
contributions while playing up individual experiences (Holderman, MediaConstructed 49). According to Holderman, talk shows accomplish this distrust
through using experts in small numbers,
introducing them late in the show, interrupting them when speaking, and
overall using short screen and speaking
times (5155). Childrens programming
further features scientists, such as Bill
Nye The Science Guy. Steinke et. al examined middle-schoolers responses to
the scientists in these and other shows
using traits such as intelligence, domi-

$
Within nonfiction

programming, scientists
often appear for their
expertise, but not all

programs or audiences
respect that expertise.

nance, alone, and respected (172) and

found the overall response favorable.
While previous scholarship generally considers audiences reactions to
the representations of scientists and experts within non-fiction programming,
the scholarship on their representations
in fiction programming garners a little
more depth of inquiry. Gerbner conducted one of the first content analyses
of representations of scientists, and he
found that these characters exhibited
features of intelligence but overall remained less attractive, sociable, or warm
when compared to other television characters (Gerbner 4144). In contrast with
talk shows, these fiction representations
overall showed the scientists in a positive light, but these characters still failed
to become as popular as other characters on these shows (Gerbner 4144).
Furthermore, scientists in general were
shown less frequently than other occupations such as doctors or law enforcement
personnel (Gerbner 4144). While noting the significant changes in television
programming since Gerbners study,
Dudo and colleagues conducted a more
recent content analysis (20002008) to
see if any changes had occurred. Dudo
and colleagues found that scientists
were more likely to be male than female
and were more likely to be white than
of other ethnic groups (761). They also
found that scientists were more likely to
be good (Dudo et al. 762), but these
scientists still overall were not as commonly represented as other professions
(Dudo et al. 763). More specifically,
female scientists were considered
good nine out of 10 times, with the
remaining scientists being considered
mixed (Dudo et al. 762).
A more specific framework for analyzing female scientists emerges when
drawing on studies across fiction genres.
The first theme to emerge is the dominance of males and masculinity in science (Steinke 35). This dominance leads
to observations of the lack of female
scientists in various media (Steinke et
al. 165), while Flicker notes the strong
presence of male scientists in film (308).
The second theme demonstrates the disparity in valuing the abilities of male
and female scientists. In their review of
the literature, Long and colleagues ex-

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Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory

197

plain how female scientists capabilities

get downplayed while their ineptitude
gets played up in professional settings,
sometimes highlighting their lack of
skills (359). Flicker calls these women
the nave expert; these nave experts
might make some contributions to science, but their emotions become part
of the problems in dramatic arcs (312).
At the same time, though, these representations cast these women as leaders of projects or research or as mutual
partners in a research team though frequently working with male colleagues
(Steinke 44). Even within these teams,
the female scientists do experience challenges and dismissals from their male
colleagues (Steinke 4748).
A third theme centers on work-life
balance, in that female scientists struggle to find equilibrium (Long et al. 359).
These characters frequently fall in love
with and marry male characters, though
they less frequently have children
(Steinke 4952). Female scientists also
struggle to engage in romantic relationships. Flicker refers to the lonely heroine, or the woman who exhibits extreme
competence in her work yet still suffers
from the lack of recognition or romance
(31516). In the end, though, a female
scientist only can succeed at home life
or work life, but not both (Edwards
122). Flicker concludes, femininity
and intelligence can both be completely
developed. Femininity and success,
however, are mutually exclusive (316).
The valuing of female attractiveness
becomes the fourth theme. Steinke analyzes filmic representations of how female scientists are represented as attractive, stylish, and fashionable (39). What
the the nave expert lacks in knowledge
she makes up for in appearance (Flicker
312).
Among all these studies, few focus
on scientists generally and female scientists specifically in situation comedies.
Steinke and colleagues study refers to
only two situation comedies, The Simpsons and Friends, but the authors exclude
them from the findings because of the
low numbers (179). Long et. als study
includes The Simpsons and Friends,
along with cartoons, dramas, and educational shows (360). As one of the most
popular and recognizable television

genres, the situation comedy warrants

further delineation for understanding
how genre shapes these representations
of female scientists. Television genres
scholar Jason Mittell defines the situation comedy as featuring an established
setting and small group of ongoing characters who each week encounter lowstakes comedic mishaps that are happily
resolved by the end of the half-hour episode (248). Sitcoms reflect the changing social values of different times and
eras (Mittell 254), such as with showing
a single woman focusing on her career
(The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Murphy
Brown); mixed sex, unmarried couples
living together (Threes Company, New
Girl); successful African-American
families (The Cosby Show, Family Matters); and gay couples adopting children
(Modern Family). Sitcoms fall into two
broad types: domestic comedies and
workplace comedies (Mittell 249), with
the location determining the types of
people and their interactions. The Big
Bang Theory represents a cross of these
two subgenres in that three of the original characters (Leonard, Raj, and Howard) are brought together through work,
and the fourth (Sheldon) is added to the
group when he and Leonard become
roommates. These main male characters appear in both work and domestic
settings throughout the show. The three
main female characters do appear in the
work situations at different times, but
their locations remain primarily in the
domestic ones.
A hegemonic tension operates
throughout situation comedies and provides a flexible boundary along which
these tensions humorously play out. On
the one hand, situation comedies push
the boundaries of representations, particularly for women, in that they offer
a greater diversity of roles (Lotz 139).
The comedy allows the genre to address
taboo subjects through the shows humor and story lines. While the potential
exists for commenting on and possibly
even changing how these ideas get represented, the situation comedy instead
mostly reinforces the hegemonic underpinnings and thus the status quo (Dow,
Hegemony 26263). The hegemonic
boundary is permeable, though, as some
of these subversive ideas still get re-

tained and reincorporated back into the

show. According to Dow, The point of
the hegemonic perspective is not that
television never changesit clearly
doesbut that it is less progressive than
we think. The medium adjusts to social
change in a manner that simultaneously
contradicts or undercuts a progressive
premise (Dow, Hegemony 263).
Unlike other television genres, the
situation comedy offers the opportunity
to push the boundaries of these representations in terms of female scientists
through their professional roles, their
gender roles, and their intelligence. On
the surface, then, The Big Bang Theory
seems progressive in that it represents
female scientists alongside male scientists in ways that value their intelligence
and professional achievements. At the
same time, though, the hegemonic underpinnings suggest a development and
reinforcement of these female scientists
not as professionals but as through their
expected gender roles.

Professional Roles
A professional role refers to a characters job or occupation outside the
home. Roles for female characters in
early sitcoms were domestic ones, such
as housekeeper and child care-taker as
in I Love Lucy (19511957), The Brady
Bunch (19691974), and Leave It to
Beaver (19571963). These domestic
restrictions limited the range of opportunities and expression available in that
these women received little power and
supported others in their roles as wives
and mothers (Dow, Hegemony 264).
These representations shifted during the
1970s and 1980s when more situation
comedies featured women with careers
and relocated their settings to workplaces. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
(19701977) follows Mary Richards
in her career as an associate producer
and later producer in a Minneapolis
television newsroom. Dow acknowledges that while some critics hailed
the show as feminist in its representations of Mary, she still asserts how the
show relies on hegemonic devices that
reinforce gender roles within the newsroom family and within other female

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JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television

relationships (Dow, Hegemony 271).

Another definitive show appeared in the
1980s with Murphy Brown, which focused on a 40-something, career-driven
woman working as a successful anchor.
As much as Murphy Brown represents
another potential feminist character,
Dow demonstrates how the characters
qualities bring her career success while
they also cripple her ability to sustain
a relationship and start a family (Dow,
Femininity 15253). Then-Vice-President Dan Quayle even derided the show
for its erosion of family values (Crotty
12).
The professional aspirations for female characters thus become an opportunity for ridicule within situation comedies. Humor within situation comedies
serves two key functions beyond evoking laughs within the audience. One,
these comedic strategies highlight
social issues (Dow, Femininity 147).
Two, while these strategies possess the
potential to appear subversive or progressive, they almost always function
to reinforce the dominant social values
informing those issues (Dow, Femininity 147). This reinforcing of dominant
values, however, becomes more complicated with The Big Bang Theory through
representations of Bernadette and Amy.
In particular, these nuances appear
through their discussions of their areas
of expertise and their careers, their performances of their work, and their external recognitions for their achievements.
Because Bernadette and Amy work as
scientists, they both have the potential
to contribute to the discussions among
the friends about their own work and to
share their own observations based on
scientific inquiry. These contributions
significance, however, differs between
the two characters. Bernadette, in particular, becomes the the nave expert
(Flicker 312) in these situations, such
as through her comments about the
mishaps and mistakes that occur within
the lab and that sometimes cross ethical
lines. For example, she mentions making a pinky swear with her colleagues
about crossing the ebola virus with the
common cold virus, the implications
of which could be catastrophic. When
Howard questions her about the wisdom

of doing so, she smiles hugely and denies it. The scientific explanations for
her notable absences also become points
of humor. For example, in The Justice
League Recombination, Bernadette
misses a key event because she remains
under quarantine for possible yellow fever because of drinking out of contaminated petri dishes.
Amys discussions of her expertise
and her work appear more frequently
throughout the show. She often comments on working with monkeys and
examining their emotions, their addictive behaviors, and their tumors. Her
knowledge frequently becomes a way
to explain certain types of gendered
behavior. In the fourth season Leonard
begins dating Priya, who is a lawyer
and Rajeshs sister and who is arguably
more intellectually suitable for Leonard than Penny. Yet, Priya represents a
problem for Penny and Sheldon in different ways, and Amys referrals to animal behavior studies help explain their
reactions and suggest their suitable responses. In a discussion with Penny and
Bernadette about Priya in The Zarnecki
Incursion, for example, Amy suggests
that Bernadettes catty responses are
hard wired and cites studies that note
how flinging waste is suitable behavior against a potential threat. In The
Agreement Dissection, Sheldon finds
Priyas undoing of his roommate agreement on legal grounds impossible to
live with, and Amy refers to scientific
studies about animals enacting revenge
on others to regain power. Sheldon uses
this knowledge to blackmail Leonard
into successfully signing a new roommate agreement.
While discussions of work become
one way to show their professional
roles, another way lies in showing these
characters performing their professional
roles in a work setting. Since both Bernadette and Amy are scientists, this setting becomes the lab. Throughout the
entire series, Bernadette never appears
in her own lab, though video chats show
her in an office. She visits Leonards
lab to learn more about his experiment,
and she visits Raj and Howard when
Raj seeks to study an astronomical phenomenon. Amy, however, appears in her

own lab. Within this space she engages

in activities related to scientific inquiry,
such as slicing through brain specimens
before examining them under a microscope. Sheldon critiques her brain slicing in The Alien Parasite Hypothesis,
and instead accepting his criticism, Amy
asserts that her work is suitable for the
two-photon microscope she is using.
In The Vacation Solution, Sheldon
decides to take his mandatory vacation
in Amys lab, wherein she subjects him
to cleaning beakers and counting phenomena. Even though Sheldon asserts
his expertise in science and even in biology, Amy quickly shows the gaps in
his knowledge and abilities and asserts
not only her expertise, but also her confidence in her work.
Both Bernadette and Amy earn recognition for their achievements in their
fields. At the end of season 4, Bernadette announces that she successfully
defended her dissertation and earned
her Ph.D., and she then announces being
recruited by a pharmaceutical company
and getting paid a buttload of money.
This announcement becomes an opportunity to deride Howard (yet again) for
his lack of Ph.D. and his less-significant
career. The show introduces Amy as a
professional scientist already, once mentioning her experience in the neuroscience field running 12 years so far. After
Sheldon and Amy begin dating, they
agree to semiregular date nights. On one
of those nights in The Shiny Trinket
Maneuver, Sheldon boasts that he has
reached 100 followers on the social networking site Twitter and that he created
a palindrome in his alphabet cereal that
morning with Nice hat, Bob Tahecin.
Amy shares that her single-author study
has been accepted as the cover article
in the key publication for her fieldno
small achievement in that it validates her
work as a scientist. Her achievement,
however, becomes a comedic catalyst
for the episodes remaining scenes. We
laugh as Sheldon continues to assert the
importance of followers on Twitter while
he ignores Amys accomplishment, but
Amy gets upset at Sheldons disregard
for her, setting up the classic plot situation of the boyfriend trying to find a way
to make up his poor behavior to his girl-

Bernadettes and Amys

scientific careers set them

up as suitable partners
for their accomplished
boyfriends, but these

careers become fodder for

the developments of

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their relationships.

friend. With Pennys help, Sheldon buys

her a tiara, which Amy adores.
While both Bernadette and Amy possess achievements as scientists as part of
their characters, sharp contrasts appear
in those representations. Bernadettes
career and achievements only get spoken of, and even then, those mentions
usually bear some comedic implications
to them either at her or Howards expense. Amys career and achievements
are more serious and carry more weight
in that she appears in a lab setting, regularly uses her knowledge to educate others, engages in ongoing projects, and
even challenges Sheldon on the grounds
of her own discipline. Her knowledge
validates gendered behavior, but her
achievements become catalysts for her
own gendered behavior.
Bernadettes and Amys scientific
careers set them up as suitable partners
for their accomplished boyfriends, but
these careers become fodder for the
developments of their relationships.
In the case of Bernadette, her scientific career provides income that offers
Howard a comfortable life, but her ineptitude and possible unethical behavior
prevent her from reaching that balance
between work and home lives (Long et
al. 359). Her navete is revealed through
her mistakes in the lab, which border on
potentially dangerous outcomes (such
as crossing viruses) or on careless practices (such as celebrating with contaminated beakers). The comments evoke
laughter about these mistakes, but an
awkwardness about them remains.
In the case of Amy, the situation appears more complicated on the surface,

Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory

199

but the outcome is the same. For Sheldon to engage in a relationship with a
woman, he needs an intellectual equal,
which he finds and even admits to in
Amy. She makes for an interesting contrast with Sheldon in that while he perpetually brags about his future Nobel
Prize, Amy mentions her continuing
studies. She even maintains the dedication to her work by refusing to take
Sheldon on errands. As Sheldon takes
comfort in his superior knowledge, Amy
finds ways to undercut that superiority.
These moments offer times for laughter
just as Bernadettes misdeeds so, but
Amy holds more credibility. Even with
that credibility, though, she remains vulnerable to skewering that occurs through
gender roles in a situation comedy.

ing potential but also from career gains

and assumed authority. Even though
the 1950s saw two different kinds of
femalesthe zany and the more reserved (Mock 33)both still remained
at home. The zany is perhaps best exhibited by Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy
(19511957), wherein her pushing those
boundaries of her husbands work and
their home life became opportunities
for humor. The 1960s saw a representational shift with more women working,
such as in the ground-breaking Julia
(19681971), though her job situation
gets explained through her husbands
death in the Vietnam War. The Mary
Tyler Moore Show shows a working
woman who remains single throughout
the series and continues to advance her
career. Into the 1990s other shows appeared to offer some challenges to the
hegemonic representations of gender
roles. Ally McBeal (19972002) features a young, independent lawyer who
pursues her career before her relationships, though her relationships become
focal points for plotlines. Ouellette and
Dubrofsky situated McBeal within the
questions of postfeminism, which dismisses the concerns of the 1970s feminist movement, and reasserts values of

Gender Roles
Traditional situation comedies followed rather rigid gender roles in that
men were cast as the breadwinners and
women as the homemakers. Following those divisions, men exercised the
power over the family, while women
catered to supporting mens needs. The
males power came not only from earn-

The Big Bang Theory (CBS), TV Series. Season 6, 20122013. Episode: The Re-Entry Minimization. Airdate: October 18, 2012. Shown from left: Simon Helberg, Melissa Rauch. Photo
courtesy of CBS/Photofest.

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JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television

the feminine and femininity alongside

the ideas that women no longer need
worry about unequal status with men.
Hammers in particular expresses concern over postfeminist representations
such as the ones offered by Ally McBeal,
suggesting the damages that might occur as a result. Another show that drew
mixed critical responses similar to Ally
McBeal is Sex and the City, which features four independent women working
and living in New York City. On the one
hand, the show represents four friends
with careers, but on the other hand, the
show features these women looking for
long-term relationships (despite whatever reservations they express along the
way) and even families (Brasfield 132).
Dows analysis of The Mary Tyler
Moore Show provides a starting point for
considering the gender roles among the
female scientists on The Big Bang Theory. Without the domestic and familycentered plots of the traditional situation
comedies, the opportunity seemingly exists to represent women in different gender roles and with the different opportunities that might come with them. Dow
asserts that The Mary Tyler Moore Show
offered an initial response to the changes
brought on by the feminist movements
starting in the 1960s (Hegemony 261).
Drawing on the work of Todd Gitlin,
Dow explores the hegemonic forces at
work within the show. Dow focuses her
argument on three hegemonic devices:
family roles, same-sex relationships,
and the situation comedy genre (Hegemony 264). While Mary remained
single and childless throughout the series, Dow argues that Marys family
consisted of her coworkers, and in particular she casts Mary in terms of her
three major roles: daughter, wife, and
mother (Hegemony 265). The daughter relationship occurs when she seeks
advice and approval from her boss Lou
Grant about various situations (Dow,
Hegemony 26566). The mother and
wife relationships occur through Marys
functions as a nurturer and a caretaker
(Dow, Hegemony 26667). All three
roles hinder Marys supposed independence in that she seeks others approval,
places their problems above her own,
and accommodates others when called
on (Dow, Hegemony 267).

Though Howard attempts

to place Bernadette

$
within specific gender
roles as homemaker

and mother, Bernadette

frequently adopts more

traditionally masculine
roles within the
relationship.

In The Big Bang Theory these roles

fail to flow fluidly for either Bernadette
or Amy. Bernadette struggles with the
gender role expectations of homemaker
and mother the most, as Howard consistently expects her during their courtship and engagement to take over roles
his mother performed for him. For example, after an evening of love-making
in The Cohabitation Formulation,
Howard gets up to go home, and Bernadette claims that his leaving makes her
feel cheap. Howard leaves because
he helps his mother in the morning, but
after a fight with his mother, he decides
to move in with Bernadette. He reveals
his expectations of Bernadette quickly:
doing his laundry, shopping for string
cheese and detergent, and taking him
to the dentist. Bernadette resists these
impositions, and Howard moves back
home. In The Shiny Trinket Maneuver, Bernadette reveals her disgust
of children when she helps Howard
with a magic show, and Howard actually questions whether her dislike is a
deal-breaker. Bernadettes solution to
the problem of child is an interesting
one. She proposes Howard stay home
and pull cereal out of noses and watch
childrens television while she works
and has conversations with adults and
enjoys her life. The basis for her argument comes back to her earning more
money than Howard does, but her comments make clear her reluctance even to
have children of her own.
Though Howard attempts to place
Bernadette within specific gender roles
as homemaker and mother, Bernadette

frequently adopts more traditionally

masculine roles within the relationship.
For one, she is the breadwinner, the one
with the important career that supports
them both, even though Howard does
work. She also manages the budget and
keeps Howard in line about not spending money frivolously. In The Cooper
/ Kripke Inversion, Howard and Raj
purchase a $5,000 three-dimensional
printer, with which they make a plastic whistle and dolls. When Howard
surprises her with the toys, Bernadette
initially likes them, until she learns
how much the printer cost, and then she
yells at him for being irresponsible. She
makes Howard get back the $2,500 he
invested in the printer and she puts him
on an allowance. Other hints to his potential fiscal irresponsibility come before their wedding at the end of season
five, when her father demands Howard
sign a prenuptial agreement because
Bernadette makes that much more
money than he does (The Vacation Solution). The show never specifies the
exact or even estimated amount of the
difference, however, but instead relies
on exaggeration to convey.
Despite these tensions, Bernadette
remains supportive of Howard and his
career. This support appears in particular in The Werewolf Transformation
when Howard trains to become an astronaut and eventually launches into
space to spend three weeks on a space
station. Howard panics about everything from the zero-gravity training and
the launch to the weightlessness on the
space station itself. One drill forces him
to survive in the wild overnight, and he
gets spooned by an armadillo and eats
a butterfly. Bernadette listens to his
complaining and his fears, offers moral
support over the phone, and even sends
fresh underwear at his request. At one
point the experience sounds so awful
she packs up and goes to his hotel room
to help him through the difficulties of
the training, only to find his mother already there running a bath for him. As
much as she assumes the breadwinner
role, Bernadette also assumes a caretaker role, though the role sometimes
becomes a competition with his mother.
For Amy, the sense of being female
and assuming feminine gender roles

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becomes less fluid and less neatly defined, in part because her relationship
with Sheldon remains awkward and
unclear in its trajectory. Amy desires a
more traditional relationship than what
Sheldon currently offers, but Sheldon
remains avoidant or clueless about those
conventions. We see her desire in some
traditional and some clever ways. More
traditionally, she invites Sheldon to a
relatives birthday party, which he ducks
out on in order to spend the weekend
playing video games in The Weekend
Vortex. In The Launch Acceleration
she draws on theories of neuroscience
in order to transfer Sheldons affectionate feelings from some areas of his life
to her. She makes a special dinner just
for Sheldon with some of his favorite
things, including spaghetti with cut-up
hot dogs in it, strawberry Quik, and Super Mario Bros. music, and he soon admits (to Leonard, anyway) that he finds
himself thinking more often about Amy
and even her dandruff.
Less traditionally, the two establish a
formal boyfriend-girlfriend relationship that is bound by a relationship
agreement, which outlines the parameters of their behaviors and expectations
of each other. The agreement generally
favors Sheldon, though out of it Amy
gets the benefit of a monthly date night
and some reluctant hand-holding. Furthermore, under the agreement Amy
lies about being ill in order to gain attention from Sheldon, which results in
chest rubs, baths, and, as punishment for
the lying, a spankingall of which she
ultimately enjoys in her own way (The
Fish Guts Displacement).
Caretaker functions start as awkwardness between the two and ultimately
become part of the formal relationship
agreement. Early in their friendship,
Sheldon refers to a time when Amy
used her thumb to wipe jelly from his
face, and it was an action that they both
regretted. Yet, under the relationship
agreement, Amy is expected to take care
of Sheldon, at least as outlined in a section about booboos and ouchies. Early
in the relationship in The Flaming Spittoon Acquisition, Sheldon finds Amy
and announces he has a splinter, and
Amy responds, What do you want me
to do about it? Sheldon then cites the

Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory

$
For Amy, the traditional
gender role of caretaker
in particular becomes a

way in which to get and

keep Sheldons attention.

agreement and she obliges, though saying she should have gotten a lawyer before signing the agreement.
For both Amy and Bernadette the
gender role expectations occur outside
work and within the domestic spaces
of the various characters on the show.
For Amy, the traditional gender role of
caretaker in particular becomes a way
in which to get and keep Sheldons attention. Amy also offers a domesticating
force on Sheldon, whose intelligence
frequently becomes his excuse for his
social awkwardness. She regularly explains to him the proper ways to behave
in particular situations. In The Monster
Isolation, Penny helps Sheldon with
his Fun with Flags videos. Penny
later invites him to see her perform in
a play, which he dismisses as boring.
Amy reminds him the proper behavior
is accepting the invitation and going. In
The Thespian Catalyst, Amy suggests
Sheldons failure as a teacher comes
back to his difficulties in interacting
with people. Though, she, too, retains an
awkardness related to intelligence, she
still attempts to normalize Sheldon into
a more traditional, masculine role.
For Bernadette, the roles of caretaker
and mother offer little to no appeal. She
has no trouble offering the support, but
when the roles are thrust upon her, she
resists. Furthermore, she assumes a
more traditional masculine role in that
she is the breadwinner and the financial
manager, which suggests her power in
the relationship. Their situations come
back to the ideas that rarely do professional women succeed both at home and
at work (Flicker 316; Long et al. 359).
Bernadette earns significant income,
but she struggles in her relationship
with and marriage to Howard, such as
his frivolous spending, his video game
playing, his attachment to his mother,
his gendered expectations of her, and

201

even her expectations of him. For Amy

these tensions play out according to the
work-life imbalance. While her work
life remains a success, her relationship
with Sheldon fluctuates constantly and
regularly comes up short on intimacy.

Intelligence
A key trait often associated with scientists is intelligence, which becomes
part of story arcs in that it factors into the
motivations moving the stories forward
to their resolutions. Intelligent characters exhibit similar characteristics, such
as possessing multiple degrees, spouting obscure facts, announcing their
intellects, exhibiting social awkwardness or aversion, and even overusing
logic. More specifically, Steinke and
colleagues offer this definition of intelligence: Characters exhibited intelligence when they made factual statements or offered opinions about why
a phenomenon may have happened,
explained how a process worked, explained or used specialized terminology,
offered suggestions on how to proceed
with an experiment, or used scientific
equipment to analyze material (174).
Despite these lists of general characteristics, however, it is important to
remember that intelligence remains difficult to define neatly as it cuts across
character types, story lines, and identity
categories.
Still, this bringing forward of intelligence as a character type into fiction
television makes for an interesting break
with cultural attitudes toward intelligence in the United States. As Richard
Hofstadter explains in Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, this questioning
of and resistance to intellectuals pervades the countrys history, fluctuating
depending on the intellectuals public
prominence (6). Among his extensive
evidence, Hofstadter cites scientists as
one group struggling with these attitudes
found not only in the general public, but
also within the government (1112). He
points to the public celebrating of scientists such as Thomas Edison for his
practical (if determined) achievements
while overlooking the theoretical accomplishments of Josiah Willard Gibbs,
whose work changed understandings of

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The Big Bang Theory (CBS), TV Series. Season 6, 20122013. Episode: The Santa Simulation. Airdate: December 13, 2012. Shown from
left: Kaley Cuoco, Melissa Rauch, Kunal Nayyar, Mayim Bialik. Photo courtesy of CBS/Photofest.

physical chemistry (Hofstadter 2526).

He also points out how the Department
of Defense remained skeptical that science could contribute to military advancement during the 1950s (Hofstadter
11), even though research from The
Manhattan Project resulted in the creation of the atomic bomb.
Television representations of intelligence in females further suggest ambivalence, aberration, outsiders, or even
invisibility (Innes 45). An intelligent
female character never quite appears as
a normal or wholly accepted part of the
social scenes within a show, and her intelligence, possibly with other qualities,
prevents that acceptance. According to
Sherri Inness, Lisa Simpson of The
Simpsons is one of the most influential
smart female characters on television,
but she is not depicted entirely positively, being too studious and serious
when compared with her brother Bart
(4). Inness further cites Daria (1997
2002) and Willow Rosenberg of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer (19972003) as
other characters who experience similar

wary reactions from other characters (4

5). Edwards hones the description further with how smart female characters
are celebrated for their intelligence and
career success yet condemned for how
they depart from traditional gender roles
in their private lives (122).
The normalizing functions of the
situation comedy suggest some reinforcement of Edwards dichotomy.
Since the basic premise of The Big Bang
Theory centers on an intelligent group
of friends, intelligence manifests in
multiple ways throughout the show. The
concept cuts across identity categories,
and it cuts across both professional and
gender roles. Frequently, it becomes a
point of humor, particularly when one
character exercises it at the expense of
another character, such as Sheldon over
Penny or, perhaps more amusingly, such
as anyone else over Sheldon.
Bernadette and Amy exhibit intelligence in different ways. While the show
develops backstory of Bernadette and
her accomplishments, the plots play out
with her representing the ditzy blonde
202

stereotype in some ways in that she remains absent-minded and careless and
she fails to understand the simple jokes
and puns Howard plays in order to be
funny. Early in their dating as seen in
The Vengeance Formulation, Bernadette tells him, Youre so funny. Youre
like a stand-up comedian. Howard
replies drolly, A Jewish stand-up comedian. Thatd be new. Bernadette
says, Actually, I think a lot of them are
Jewish. Howard attempts to clarify his
point but abandons the idea. Despite this
missing of wordplay, Bernadette admits
to downplaying her intelligence so that
Howard feels more masculine in The
Alien Parasite Hypothesis. In a scene
with Penny and Amy at a restaurant,
Penny mentions she no longer dates
Zack because he fails to meet her on an
intellectual level. Zack, for example,
thinks that a laser situated on Earth can
destroy the moon and finds Archie comics compelling reading. Penny claims,
He just didnt really challenge me on
an intellectual level. Bernadette asks,
Couldnt you just fool around with him

Downloaded by [181.118.250.55] at 07:08 01 April 2015

Female Scientists in The Big Bang Theory

and then listen to NPR? After Penny replies, Bernadette continues, Its what I
do with Howard. Im much smarter than
he is. But its important to protect his
manhood. Since her intelligence poses
a potential threat to Howards masculinity, Bernadette subsumes it in order to
preserve gender expectations.
Amy represents the more traditional
intelligent female character shown in
other situation comedies and animated
shows, such as Lisa on The Simpsons.
Since Amy becomes a mirror to Sheldon,
she must be intelligent, but her showings
of this intelligence can be awkward. For
example, Amy refers to neuroscience
and even specific studies as examples to
explain the dilemmas behind other peoples behaviors. She also finds creative
solutions to certain problems, such as
using an electric toothbrush for handling
sexual urges. But she also uses her intelligence to demonstrate her compatibility
with Sheldon. In The Tangible Affection Proof, for Valentines Day, for example, she and Sheldon make plans to
spend an evening together, but when she
arrives at his apartment, she announces
the best present for himan evening at
home with delivered pizza and science
fiction television watching.
Unlike Bernadette, Amy makes no
attempts to downplay her intelligence
around Sheldon. Instead, she frequently
engages Sheldon not only on scientific
grounds but also on social and behavioral ones. In The Zazzy Substitution,
Sheldon and Amy fight over the validity of their scientific work, attempting
to claim his or her own paradigm as
superior to others paradigm. Reaching an impasse, they agree to terminate
their friendship. The two also play intellectual games and even make up their
own, such as Counterfactuals, wherein
they create a world with one key difference and then pose questions about
it. In one exchange, Sheldon offers a
lengthy explanation for his answer, but
Amy challenges Sheldons request for
explanation of her answer with, Isnt it
obvious? He replies, Youre right. My
apologies. With many other people,
Sheldon would have required the explanation; only with Amy does he accept
her replies as valid without justification. On several occasions throughout

the show he even admits to her as being

his intellectual equal, a compliment he
almost never affords anyone else.
In the cases of Amy and Bernadette
their intelligence factors into both their
professional and gender roles, but in
different ways. For the professional,
the intelligence offers some explanation for their achievements. In Bernadettes case, that intelligence becomes
a question mark in part because even
though she earns a high degree and
gains a high-paying job, she rarely demonstrates any competence. Instead, her
work life becomes a joke. For Amy, the
intelligence becomes sustained as mentions of her work life become developed
and even explored throughout the show.
For the gender roles, the intelligence assumes different functions for each one
but toward the same end, ultimately.
For Bernadette, downplaying her intelligence plays up her attractiveness to
Howard. For Amy, the opposite is true:
Since she refuses to downplay her intelligence around Sheldon or any other
character, she at least remains intriguing
to Sheldon.
Both Bernadette and Amy suggest
some alignment with the professionalhome divide mentioned by Edwards
(122). While Edwards refers specifically to female professors who also are
parents in dramatic shows, her ideas still
apply to The Big Bang Theory. While
Bernadette remains inept in her job,
she enjoys a somewhat more successful
relationship with Howard. While Amy
remains competent in her job, she struggles in her relationship with Sheldon.
Overall, neither Amy nor Bernadette
are accepted just as intelligent, successful women by the group. Instead, their
intelligence is not a feature that defines
these characters for themselves, but instead functions as a means to attract and
maintain the attention of their men. For
Bernadette, the downplaying is what
she thinks keeps her relationship going
with Howard, while for Amy, the asserting and maintaining of her intelligence
keeps Sheldon interested. Interestingly
enough, the core group of men struggle
in accepting either woman into the group
as easily as they did Penny, the less intelligent but more attractive woman
on the show (Inness 4). Bernadette be-

203

Unlike Bernadette,
Amy makes no pretenses

$
about subduing her
intelligence around

Sheldon. Instead, she

frequently engages

Sheldon not only on

scientific grounds but

also on social and
behavioral ones.

comes a point of contention when she

joins their Star Wars gaming marathon
weekend, yet when Penny gets obsessed
with a game, they at first enjoy the idea.
When Amy regularly joins the group
for meals and evenings, Leonard, Howard, and Raj start spending evenings in
Pennys apartment to get away from her.
After even after these two women get
accepted as part of the core group, they
still remain outsiders.
The situation comedy, then, offers
an opportunity to explore subjects that
otherwise might remain unaddressed in
other genres. Within its contradictions
lie opportunities to transgress certain
boundaries and reincorporate new ideas
and lie opportunities to reinforce the status quo. The Big Bang Theory is unique
in that it features female scientists and
situates their interactions within comedy. The Big Bang Theory follows the
expectations set up within other studies
of female scientists in that neither Amy
nor Bernadette bring together professional and gender roles alongside their
intelligence in empowered and progressive ways. Instead, these three aspects
set the foundations for their relationships with the other men on the show,
in particular with their respective love
interests but also in part with Leonard
and Raj. Without her more feminine
qualities, Bernadette would not appeal
to Howard, though without her intelligence and career, he could not be cared
for as well as he is. Without her intelligence and professional career, Amy

204

JPF&TJournal of Popular Film and Television

Without her more

$
feminine qualities,

Bernadette would not

appeal to Howard,

though without her

intelligence and career,

he could not be

cared for as well

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as he is.
would not appeal to Sheldon, and her
conflicting intelligence, professional
roles, and feminine qualities prevent her
and Sheldon from entering into what she
considers a more ideal partnership.
Todd Gitlin writes, Genre [...] tells us
something about popular moods (257).
Situation comedies reflect the front edge
of progressiveness in responding to social changes, while at the same time reinforcing the social norms pushing up
behind them. In their career and their
intelligence, Bernadette and Amy represent progress in situating women in science roles. These representations come
at a time when concerns about the lack
of women in science careers is growing. But not everyone finds these roles
beneficial to raising awareness about
the issue. In an article in The New York
Times, Eileen Pollack writes, And what
remotely normal young woman would
want to imagine herself as dowdy, socially clueless Amy rather than as stylish, bouncy, math-and-science illiterate
Penny? While these representations
show some progress, the hypothesis still
needs more experimenting.
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Heather McIntosh teaches in the Department

of Communication Arts, Notre Dame University of Maryland. She is co-editor, along
with Lisa M. Cuklanz, of Documenting
Gendered Violence: Representation, Collaboration, and Movements. Her research
focuses on documentary, gender, and media
distribution.