Representation

Representation questions

1) How does the film challenge or reinforce stereotypes?

The film reinforces stereotypes by showing that most scientists are friends with each other. This is reinforced when Sheldon facetimes Stephen Hawkins. We also see this because most of the Characters in the Big Bang Theory who are friends, and some enemies, are scientists. Not including Penny and Stuart. This is mainly because they all share the same common interest in science and comic books. We also have the stereotype of Scientists being Nerds because Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj all have hobbies including Gaming, Technology and Comics. These are all stereotypically associated with nerds. They explore the stereotype of types of women in the Big Bang Theory as they have Penny who isn’t a scientist but as the ‘hot blonde’ who seems to date tons of men and care about her appearance, whereas Amy who is a scientist is not interested in any relationship at the start of the series and wears glasses and is portrayed as not caring about their appearance unlike Penny.

2) What is empathsised by the Representation?

Raj’s relationship with Women is partially empathised throughout the ongoing series as he is inadequate to talk to women unless he is drunk. This could be because where Raj is from, India; they have arranged marriages and so Raj doesn’t have to worry about talking to Women and dating them. This means Raj doesn’t have the experience in talking to women and therefore struggles to communicate with Penny and Bernadette in the first few series. We also see the relationship with Howard and his mother. With Howard being a Jew it is stereotyped that he has an almost intrusive relationship with this mother. This is shown as Howard lived with his mother during her whole life and this empathises on the fact that Jewish Mothers are usually stereotyped to be invasive of their children’s life. Such as when Howard and Bernadette start dating they never get any free time because Howard’s mother is constantly pestering them. 

3) What does the representation neglect to tell us?

In the small clip of Howard and Raj discussing accents they mention small forms of stereotypes. Howard mentions that all Indians eat curry and ride elephants, but the representation negelects to tell us that infact not all India's eat curry and ride around on elephants.This also happens when Raj tries to speak in an American accents and says'Hey my snow white American friends,lets put some cow meat on the barbecue and eat it until we're all obese' The stereotype is that all Americans are, or are becoming obese.This is actually a true stereotype as the episode,'The Extract Obliteration' which was aired 1st November 2012.America had the highest obesity rates across the globe with 33.8% of the population being obese. However the representation neglect to tell us that all Americans aren't 'snow white' and eat cow meat.

4) Is a particular group being under-represented or omitted entirely? Why?

I believe that Women are being omitted because the whole series starts straight away with a 'hot blonde' moving next door to Leonard and Sheldon.The sterotype of Penny being a dumb blonde and always dating someone is explored continiously throughout the sitcom as she is only a waitress and has no interest in science.However when Penny and Leonards relationship does develop further we see that Penny starts to become more interested in his work and science altogether.The sitcom even has an episode where Sheldon tries to teach Penny some scientific facts and information about the area of science Leonard works,experiemental physicist.But yet again the stereotype of 'Dumb Blondes' is shown as Penny struggles to retain and understand the information Sheldon is giving her.Bernadette is almost a juxaposition to Penny as they are both blondes but Bernadette understands science as she is a microbiologist.Although feminism isn't brought up in The Big Bang Theory we do see the mental,and physical capabilities of women whilst interacting with male charcters.This is usually being flirtatious (Penny and Bernadette) towards them.However despite seeing negative representation there is positives running throughout the series. In one episode Penny wins tickets to go a Wine tasting, and with Bernadette being pregnant, and Sheldon not drinking they both opt to stay behind.Sheldon plans out a whole day for them and to Bernadette's surprise Sheldon has even created his own story for Dungeons and Dragons containing a character to represent Bernadette who is called Bernadetrix,a tall brave warrior queen.This is a postive stereotype as Sheldon is representing women as strong and powerful and not vulnerable and objectified.

5) What are the dominant messages to the film and how are these re-enforced by representations?

The dominant messages of the Big Bang theory is that 'work is work' despite Penny being a waitress,Stuart being a Comic book owner and then Bernadette,Amy and the boys being scientists they still get along because they don't criticise or judge each other by their jobs. We see this because Penny and Stuart both are friends with the scientists and they don't feel left out because of the different work roles. The Big Bang Theory is also educational in the fact that everything that Sheldon or Leonard's work we see are scientifically correct.This is because the script is written by scientists and so by watching the Big Bang theory the audience can actually learn science by watching the programme. 

6) What dominate ideologies are being presented or criticised by the representation on screen?

The main ideology we see on the Big Bang Theory is Penny's character.This is shown as extremely femine and at first the character is potrayed as beautiful yet dumb and is only there to start a love interest for the geeky boys who never usually interact with Women.She is also known to wear revealing clothes that caught the interest of three charcters Raj,Leonard and Howard.At first Howard's and Penny's relationship showed him trying to hit on her all the time when she clearly had no interest in him.This presents how her life is constantly revolving around the numerous boys that she has slept with and dated. Another ideology is that women were always suited best for being a waitress where they are serving to the men. In the show Big Bang Theory we see just that as Penny works at the Cheese Cake Factory as a waitress and she constantly serves the boys their food and this is also where Howard met his love interest; Bernadette.

7) What are the film’s social and political contexts?

The film's social context is how different everyone's friends groups are.Some  have the same interests and some don't.Much like the Big Bang Theory where each character has their own interests.Amy and the Harp,Leonard and his Cello, and Sheldon and his collection of trains.We also explore the different type of people there are.Whilst Penny is very extroverted,Sheldon is more introverted and we see how they develop a friendship despite being very different especially whilst they share nothing in common.Sheldon is also very socially awkward and when we see him outside it isn't just humerous but we feel almost sorry for him being so awkward and unable to act 'normal' around people due to his childhood and his introvertness.

We don't see many political contexts except the mention of the science political views when Leonard,Sheldon,Raj and Howard are working on a super secret project for the Armed forces.

8) What are the elements of film form used to construct the representation?

Mise en Scene is used in the Big Bang Theory alot to help with the representation of science and geekiness.Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment are full of science and geeky objects.As their apartment is one of the main sets we see the use of these sciencetific objects help to keep the representation of science shown throughout the series despite the characters not always talking about science.

Mise en Scene is used in the Big Bang Theory alot to help with the representation of science and geekiness.Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment are full of science and geeky objects.As their apartment is one of the main sets we see the use of these sciencetific objects help to keep the representation of science shown throughout the series despite the characters not always talking about science.