Essay on the Representation of Gender in “The Big Bang Theory”

Running Head: ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG
THEORY”
Essay on the Representation of gender in “The Big Bang Theory”
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ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”1
Introduction
Culture is dominated by stereotypes that are more evident when it comes to women. The
various characters in the American television series “The Big Bang Theory” has brought in the
scope of exploring the portrayal of genders in the comic series. The aim of this essay is to
understand and critically comment on the portrayal of the women in the field of science as
fictional characters in the television. The society has always portrayed science as a field that is
dominated by men. However, The Big Bang Theory breaks the stereotypes of typecasting
women as independent figures of the two protagonists- Bernadette and Amy. The thesis
statement states how the essay makes an attempt to show in some of the significant episodes of
The Big Bang Theory have portrayed the stereotypical and socially awkward representation of
the female leads.
Discussion
The concept of power, mirroring the words of Wole Soyinka regarding the concept of
power, it can be stated that power is a form of domination and control. Thus, it is also an
extremely selective form of truth, and thus is nothing but a lie. It is extremely significant and
stunning at the same when looked through the critical lens of thinking, television and mass media
has become a huge nest of power play that is portrayed with the help of the various fictional
characters in shows (Colladon & Naldi 2019). It is likely easy to assume that the audience
determines that kind of content they want to consume from the various mass media platform, and
not the other way round. Truth is the consumption is largely based on the large number of
images, and audio-visuals that become the accepted narrative for the audience to consume. The
function of media thus lies in the process of restating and accentuating the common narrative of

ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”2
the patriarchal structures of power. Apart from feeding these common narratives, they also hold
the power of dissemination (Colladon & Naldi 2019).
In such contexts, it is extremely common to witness the common issues of gender
inequality in variable forms. They are in fact so common that the audience hardly recognize them
to be sexist and they are termed as “media sexism”. The common narrative thus has restricted the
role of women to be nothing but objects of sexual satisfaction of their male counterparts or as
figures who struggle to survive and make a place for themselves in the world that is largely
dominated by men. Comedy in such a context plays a huge role as these texts are largely based
on ideologies, and various stereotypes that have been culturally coded (Filipova, 2017). The
analytical episodes come with the tool of humor are instrumental in providing them with a
perspective that is fresh and provides better opportunities for understanding the perception of the
contemporary world along with the extremely common issues of gender as well as sexuality. The
modern culture holds the medium of television as carrier as well as teller of multiple stories and
hence is termed as “principle storyteller in contemporary...society (Filipova, 2017).” Thus, it
holds a mirror to the view of many fragments of individuals in the contemporary society along
with their speech and dialogues that hold different meaning for different people. The television
as a medium thus serves as a signifier that does not represent the reality, but puts forth its own
set of nature of characteristics.
The essay tries to understand the content of these narratives and the message that can be
derived from the show. The Big Bang Theory was first aired on 24th September, 2007 as a
comedy in CBS. The plot of the American show revolves around the lives of four men who are
friends with each other and are residents of Los Angeles. They are the epitome of the nerd
stereotype. The series is described in the official homepage of The Big Bang Theory as “Leonard