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

This essay critically analyzes the representation of gender in the American television series, "The Big Bang Theory." The essay examines the portrayal of female characters, including Penny, Amy, and Bernadette, within the context of societal stereotypes and media influence. It discusses the show's impact on gender perceptions, exploring how the characters either reinforce or challenge traditional roles in science and social settings. The analysis references scholarly sources to support arguments about sexism, power dynamics, and the role of comedy in shaping audience understanding of gender and sexuality. The essay highlights the characters' intelligence, the impact of their physical attributes, and the show's overall contribution to the discourse surrounding gender inequality in media, concluding with the portrayal of women as sexual objects within the male-dominated universe of the show.

Running Head: ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG
THEORY”
Essay on the Representation of gender in “The Big Bang Theory”
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

1ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”
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

2ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”
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

3ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”
and Sheldon are brilliant physicists, the kind of “beautiful minds” that understand how the
universe works. But none of that genius helps them interact with people, especially women. All
this begins to change when a free-spirited beauty named Penny moves in next door. Sheldon
(Cooper), Leonard’s (Hofstadter) roommate, is quite content spending his nights playing Klingon
Boggle with their socially dysfunctional friends, fellow CalTech scientists (Howard) Wolowitz
and (Raj) Koothrappali. However, Leonard sees in Penny a whole new universe of
possibilities…including love (Prabhakaran, 2016).” The character of Leonard is shown to be
very timid and weak, and fails to establish any social relations. Sheldon on the other hand, is
more stubborn and awkward in social situations who does not show any interest in women or any
societal norms. He is neither capable of understanding codes that are followed in social
situations, nor does he understand that these facts need to be adhered from them. This becomes
further clear in an episode in Season 2, when Sheldon makes an attempt to set up a date for
Penny for making her stay away from her addiction to video games. His dialogues show how the
problematic dialogue are since they are charged with gender issues when he says- “She was kind
of a honorary man. She had a penis made of science.” As well as “You should think fast because
men are sire offspring their entire lives, but those eggs you’re toting around have a sell-by date
(Prabhakaran, 2016).” The other characters in the show, Howard and Raj are also aerospace
engineer and scientist respectively; however, both of them have been shown in the light of nerdy
awkwardness. While Raj is unable to speak to women without the influence of alcohol, Howard
uses cheesy pickup lines and continues to live with his mother. Both these situations reveal the
fact that they are struggling socially.
In spite of these stereotypical portrayal of the characters, there has been the casting of the
female figures as an attempt to rethink the gender norms (Putri, 2017). The female characters of

4ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”
Bernadette Rostenkowski, who holds a Ph.D. in Microbiology, Amy Farah Fowler, who is a
Ph.D. holder in neuroscience, and Priya, sister of Raj, who hold a J.D. are all examples of how
the female characters belong to high intelligence groups. While Penny is shown to be smart and
intelligent as she holds knowledge about the pop culture, along with being street smart about
people in everyday life. Beverly Hofstadter, mother of Leonard is a degree holder in psychiatry
as well as neuroscience who speaks in extremely clinical language, as well as resorts to
statements that are extremely logical (Putri, 2017).
In many instances, women are seen to defy the pre-stated nature of masculine
intelligence. Beverly is very skillful as well as experienced when it comes to her professional
roles. But in terms of her sexuality, she becomes the symbol of the one who remains emotionally
disconnected and practices sexual repression. Amy as a neurobiologist is the carbon copy of
Sheldon. Her growing interest in human relationship is the reason of Penny coaxing her rather
than Sheldon as a potential mate (Yi, 2019). According to many critics, Amy’s look is somewhat
frumpy, while personality is shown to be extremely cold and masculine. This again is the
resemblance of the stereotype that is sexist and is shown to be in terms of women. Sheldon does
not acknowledge that a woman can be equal to him in terms of intellect; however his belief is not
limited to women. In spite of the fact that he takes to like Amy, he fails to let go of any chance of
mocking her, devaluing her or trying to tone done her accomplishments. The character of Amy
becomes “the other” to Penny. Thus, she has almost no control over her physical desires when
she is in a relationship with Sheldon. Her being the sexually unattractive character, she strives
very hard to fulfill her needs. The character of Penny is that is a classic American blonde beauty.
In her terms, nothing else but her physical attributes is what matters the most. She is also
deprived of a last name and hence an identity throughout the entire show. Her character is shown

5ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”
as a symbol of “normalcy” when compared to other characters. Her character is deemed to be
stupid in terms of her nerdy neighbors whereas she shows how she is actually way smarter than
them as she learns how to play chess in the very first time she plays it. The sitcom however,
highlights only her beauty that matters (Yi, 2019).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is very evident that The Big Bang Theory states that only men are those
who are geeks as the scene of the three women- Amy, Bernadette, and Penny walk into the
comic bookstore while men gawk at them awkwardly. They are thoroughly portrayed as
characters who are nothing but sexual objects who reside in the men’s universe. Media plays its
role in exerting its power as it repeats the circulation of some particular versions of femininity as
well as masculinity that are termed to be acceptable.

6ESSAY ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GENDER IN “THE BIG BANG THEORY”
Reference
Colladon, A. F., & Naldi, M. (2019). Predicting the performance of TV series through textual
and network analysis: The case of Big Bang Theory. PloS one, 14(11).
Filipova, P. (2017). Women (and) scientists: modern sexism in The Big Bang Theory. Oceánide,
(9), 2.
Prabhakaran, R. (2016). Gendering Intelligence: Representation of females in The Big Bang
Theory. Editor's Note, 85.
Putri, L. M. (2017). A Pragmatics Analysis of Humor in The Big Bang Theory Season 6: a
Representation of American Social Issues. Sastra Inggris-Quill, 6(8), 787-796.
Yi, K. Y. (2019). Gender Discourse in American TV Series The Big Bang Theory. International
Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences (IJELS), 4(2).