"The Big Bang Theory" is a popular sitcom, which explores how two geniuses interact with a pretty, but dumb-wit blonde. Sheldon Cooper, the protagonist, is a 'Caltech' graduate with two doctorate degrees in his hands. Leonard is the other genius, while the role of Penny is essayed by Kaley Cuoco, who is the blonde. There are two other friends of Sheldon and Leonard, Raj and Howard, who are also highly intellectual as well. Sheldon's "girlfriend" is Amy Farrah Fowler and Howard's fiance is Bernadette Rostenkowski. Amy and Bernadette specialize in neurology and microbiology, respectively.
This sitcom reflects the dominant discourse revolving around blondes and how they are all about "beauty-with-no-brains". Penny is constantly bombarded with insulting or reminding gestures from Sheldon, in particular, how she is a community college diploma holder and nothing more. Through the lens of Sheldon, Penny is the common citizen who struggles to manage her personal life with an "eight to five" job as a waitress in a restaurant. Through the lens of Penny, Sheldon and Leonard are two lifeless souls who are very scholarly, yet unaware of how to deal with women (i.e. - flirting, getting a girlfriend).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEIn3T6nDAo
You can see Sheldon passing scornful comments about Penny's intelligence throughout the video and how he feels superior to her because he is so smart compared to her. He thinks it is "exhausting" to teach Penny physics. To add to Penny's misery, everyone is dumbfounded to the end of the video when Penny recites a mouthful of memorized, scientific blabber.
Through the lens of Leonard, Penny is a beautiful woman whom he wants to have sex with. He always tries to get closer to her. Further, Howard used to hit on Penny; craving for her while Raj, too, slept with Penny once. Penny is characterized as this blonde seductress who satisfies Leonard's and Raj's (only once though) sexual appetite. Through Penny's eyes, Leonard is a sweet guy, Raj is interesting, and Howard is a sex fiend.
Penny reinforces the stereotype about how blondes "go crazy" when they meet a handsome (or "cute") man. An example is the recent episode #9 of season 5, The Ornithophobia Diffusion, where Leonard and Penny go out for an evening. Penny comes across a stranger in a bar and admits to Leonard that he [the stranger] is cute.
Penny is a heterosexual (obviously) female whose gender role in the sitcom is to interact with men and upon her willingness, please them. Nevertheless, she is an independent woman who does not financially depend on her parents or anyone else (at least as shown in the sitcom). She realizes that she is not as sharp as others around her.
1) What is the veracity of the portrayal of Penny's character?
2) Do you believe blondes are changing or are they the same? Can you name a few blondes who are popular not only in the fashion industry, but anywhere else?
3) I dislike how Penny is characterized in the sitcom. Do you think the makers of the sitcom should portray blondes differently, instead of targeting them or does she serve comic relief?
4) Do you think she was named as Penny intentionally by the makers representing her intellectual power (as she is basically dumb - not worth much)?
Please feel free to offer any general comments as well. No offense intended to any blonde.
1) Well it depends, because perhaps the character is supposed to be like that. Just because a person fits the stereotype doesn't mean that their character is flawed. For example considering that all Muslims are terrorist is a gross misrepresentation, but if a person who is a muslim is in fact a terrorist doesn't mean that they're character is flawed or misrepresented. Although stereotypes are often not true, it doesn't mean they're entirely false. The stereotype that all Blonde people are dumb is false, but it doesn't mean that they're all smart.
ReplyDelete2) I don't understand the context of this question, can you please rephrase or explain it a bit more?
3) They don't portray all blondes to be stupid. For example a character you talked about briefly in your introduction, Bernadette Rostenkowski, is a blonde if I'm not mistaken. Based on what you have said about her, she doesn't seem at all stupid. So the makers of the sitcom clearly don't perceive all blondes to be stupid. In a sense, Penny does serve comical relief but it depends on the sense of humour of the audience. The lens of the audience can determine whether something is funny, or in this case a form a comedic relief, or not. So that also depends on the audience.
In my opinion she isn't there for comedic relief, but for sexual purposes. Do you think that they chose an attractive actor on accident or purpose? I feel that this sitcom uses the attractive sex appeal that Kaley Cuoco possesses in order to entice the audience to tune in again.
4) That is a interesting perspective Akshay, but I don't think that the process of naming her character was that thought provoking. I think it would look bad on the writers if they intentionally named her that because of your reasoning, why would they even want to look bad? I think she was named simply because Penny isn't a generic name and sounds memorable.
As for the word veracity I feel like you used it in the wrong sense because it means adherence to the truth; truthfulness so i am not quite sure what you are asking in the first question. As for your second question I don't feel like blondes are changing because you cant characterize a person by their hair color. It only takes a few seconds to change it and now they are miraculously smarter, so i disagree. You will never be able to tell whether blondes are changing because each one is a different person. As for other famous blondes, one very prominent, smart person is Hillary Clinton who goes against all the blonde stereotypes.
ReplyDeleteI feel that Penny serves as a comic relief because her character wouldn't be found as funny if she was a red head or had black hair. I wouldn't want the makers of the show to portray her completely differently but i would like them to have another character in the show that is portrayed as dumb as well but is not a blonde.
As for Penny's name, i believe that the film makers are very thoughtful and creative and it would be extremely difficult for them to not realize the comparison to the coin. They may not have originally created her character with that name but decided to use it in the end to maybe further use that as a joke in the show.
In my opinon Penny is protrayed as an independent women, who works hard to achieve her dreams, not needing a lot of support form others. The only reason viewers may see Penny has a dumb blond is because of the way Sheldon portrays her. By constantly making fun of her for the fact that she doesn't have a diploma. Just because she doesn't have a degree doesn't mean that she is stupid. Also she surrounds herself with geniuses making her look dumb as anyone would if they didn't have the knowledge of Sheldon. But there are times in the show where Sheldon does go to Penny for help, example when he is sick, or needs advice when facing life problems.She many not be smart in science area, but she does have common sense.
ReplyDeleteI believe that there is nothing to change, but the idea behind the stereotypes itself. Being blond is just variety of hairs colors that are out there. And as for Penny, she is there to help out with the comic relief, after all the show is a comedy.This show also portrays blond has a successful individual, for instance Howard's fiancé, Bernadette is also blond, who is working her way to graduate her studies in microbiology.
I feel the name "Penny" has nothing to do with her being a dumb blond, maybe it's there because it repersents her workethic, since she works really hard to pay for rent, food, utilities etc, for her every "penny" counts.
1.) The veracity of Penny's character is that blonds are dumb. As seen in the clip when he had to teach Penny physics he called it project guerilla. Which is insulting her intelligence.
ReplyDelete2.)I do not think there is anything to change, they are blonds that are smart. As we can see we have more blond teachers in school.
3.) I think the show shows Penny ass being dumb because the show is a comedy and it wouldn't of been as funny if she was represented as smart.
4.) I don't think the show named her as Penny to insult. I think the chose the name Penny because it was an original and memorable name.
3.)
Penny is portraying blondes as being dumb. In the video Sheldon tries to teach penny physics and while he tries to help her he insults Penny’s intelligence by the way he explained things to her and also he called his project, “project gorilla”. There is nothing to change about blondes. There are both smart and less educated blondes as there are any others with different color hair. There are many famous blondes like Pink, Marylin Monroe etc...In my opinion Penny was chosen for sexual purposes. She is an attractive actress which will attract tons of male viewers to the show. I do not think they named her Penny because is meaningless, but maybe because it is catchy name for viewers to retain.
ReplyDeleteTito – What I mean is the portrayal of blondes or for that matter, blondes by themselves, changing from being dumb-wit to smart? Or are blondes really what they are shown as in the media?
ReplyDeleteSumayah – Yes, I agree with you that the word “veracity” means adherence to truth, but I think you do not remember the other definition, which we were provided with by Mr. Henry for one of the recent round-table discussions on SlutWalks. The word “veracity” can also mean the “quality or accuracy or precision of the truth”. I used the word “veracity” in that sense; asking about the accuracy of the portrayal of Penny as a blonde (does her character conform to all the tenets of being a blonde?).
Harshika – Your take on Penny’s name is something that caught my attention. It is quite thought-provoking that her name could be associated with her good work ethic and her diligence. When I think about it, it makes a lot of sense.