Overall, neither Amy nor Bernadette are accepted just as intelligent, success-ful women by the group. Instead, their intelligence is not a feature that defines these characters for themselves, but in-stead functions as a means to attract and maintain the attention of their men.
Intelligence does not define their character, but instead use it as motives or the way they shape their lives
Traditional situation comedies fol-lowed rather rigid gender roles in that men were cast as the breadwinners and women as the homemakers. Follow-ing those divisions, men exercised the power over the family, while women catered to supporting men’s needs. The male’s power came not only from earn-ing potential but also from career gains and assumed authority.
Gender roles are displayed within comedies as women as caretakers and men as breadwinners. Takeaway: In the "Big Bang Theory" gender roles attempt to contradict, but show some reinforcement.
A professional role refers to a char-acter’s 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 (1951–1957), The Brady Bunch (1969–1974), and Leave It to Beaver (1957–1963). These domestic restrictions limited the range of oppor-tunities 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 work-places.
Women professional roles change throughout the time, but lack sustainability. Takeaway: Throughout the paper typical women occupations are displayed differently than men.
The first theme to emerge is the domi-nance of males and masculinity in sci-ence (Steinke 35). This dominance leads to observations of the lack of female scientists in various media
Claim of lack of female scientists in media. Takeaway: In multiple occupations there is a lack of female characters and even in some of the real occupation itself.
These appearances and audience reac-tions to them vary form genre to genre. Nonfiction programming includes news, talk shows, and children’s educational programs. Within nonfiction program-ming, scientists often appear for their expertise, but not all programs or audi-ences 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 people’s views, instead, as their use in programs increases, the public trust in them de-clines
The way scientists and other occupations are displayed vary depending on the type of media.
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 comedy’s goals to entertain while reinforcing the status quo.
McIntosh overall argument