Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls And Cha Divas By Jennifer Pozner

Media has an influence on society like no other. In the world today media basically controls everything and informs people of all that is going on. Media does, however, create stereotypes in society in many different ways which makes people believe and think about cultures or a certain groups of people and how they act differently. Jennifer Pozner the author of “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls and Cha Cha Divas” talks about the harmful ways of stereotyping in reality television. In Pozner’s essay she focuses on how badly the society is taking its course. The course in the show being that changing a person to look a certain way against their will is good but in reality to viewers it seems like a horrible thing to do. Media has been most of the the

blame for these societal differences, in terms of people being told that they have to do something even though they do not want to, because of the shows they have on today. For example, the Big Bang Theory stereotypes, the dumb blonde, the smart nerd and the , Jewish son who is depicted as jewish for punch lines, which emphasizes their stereotypical identities, like living with one’s mother, obtaining a PhD by the age of 16, and being a dumb blond.
The Big Bang Theory reinforces stereotypes with the characters Penny, the dumb blonde, Howard, “the Jewish Prince,”and Sheldon and Leonard, Caltech Physicists. Penny lives across the hall in the same apartment building and from two of the show’s “nerdy scientists” and is portrayed as “the dumb blonde,” who falls in love with one of the two scientist, Lenorad. She is a waitress trying to make is big as a movie star. In the show she is stereotypically stupid, but has some redeeming characteristics such as she has a kind heart and tries to understand her nerdy friends. She is also portrayed as “easy.” Pozner states, “Latina top model hopefuls have been consistently typecast as promiscuous sluts,” (Pozner 399). Although not Latina, Penny fits the stereotype of a model hopeful or promising movie star. In the show ANTM it depicts stereotypes according to how a person looks. In the show The Big Bang Theory it likes to depict how a person looks also. Penny always refers to all the men she has slept with, and is portrayed as the “typical” farm girl who goes to California to make it big in the movie industry.
In this show, Penny is presented as “the typical dumb blonde” who also is portrayed as the pretty one and not that smart because she really does not understand most of what her smart friends talk about.

This show uses stereotypes against Penny by making it seem as though she is not as smart as the rest of the cast in the television show. The quote by Sheldon, "Women who are scientists are sorta ugly and wear glasses and are not blond and are socially maladjusted and don’t care about their appearance and – if they do have sex – they are kinda slutty about it and sleep around.” This quote demonstrates the stereotype that a girl technically can either be smart or pretty, never both. Due to Penny being attractive and blonde, this gives her the look of not being that well educated and not as intelligent as the other characters of the show; therefore, she is often doubted when it comes to her bringing up any ideas or points she is trying to make. The other people in the cast are viewed as some of the smartest people on earth. The writers thought otherwise when creating Penny for the show because that is what the viewers expect of a “dumb blonde.” She is ditz, out of it, and very gullible; for example, she does not pay her bills and has her electricity turned off, and she tries to emulate Sheldon and Leonard sometimes, but alway gets the meaning of the words wrong. According to Pozner, “ Most of the rest of us learn to navigate the everyday struggles of adolescence--body image insecurities, emerging sexuality, interpersonal relationships, and personal identity--from our friends, family, and community…” (Pozner 406). The sexy, dumb blonde stereotype is everything that Penny is because she really has never outgrown her self-image since adolescence, and in the show the writer does a very good job of reinforcing this stereotype. For example, Penny is depicted as a waitress at The Cheesecake Factory because she has only attended community college and never finished to

graduate. In the show, Penny as the dumb blonde, is not the only stereotype in the show; the other major stereotype is the smart, awkward nerd. The Big Bang Theory has stereotypes from dumb blondes to the extreme nerds of this world.
Besides Penny, the other main characters, Shledon, and Howard are extremely brilliant scientists, who endured all the injustices of being nerds. All these characters have gone to the best ivy league schools in the entire country from Harvard to Princeton to MIT. The typical stereotypes in life for a nerd are usually the kids who are very smart, weird, do not have many friends, get bullied, and are teachers’ pets. In the beginning of the show, all these characters are shown as sexually ineffective and afraid of women. In this specific episode Sheldon talks about him growing up and what it was like He said “Growing up was not always easy, being the smartest kid around and not having many friends to hangout with was always hard for me.” Sheldon discusses this because in the episode Sheldon and his friends were sitting on the couch talking about how they all grew up when they were younger. The writers created these nerds with these characteristics because that is what the audience expects. This stereotyping advocates Pozner’s premise that the media perpetuates people’s views of certain types of people: “Viewers tend to believe that the caricatures they’ve seen…regardless of the truth or falseness of that person’s portrayal ( Pozner 402). Howard is an aerospace engineer and cowardly astronaut. Besides the nerd stereotype, Howard is also a Jewish son, who still lives with his mother and is an engineer at CalTech Howard in the show is depicted as a Jewish character mainly because it is easy to get some punch lines. For an example in this same episode Howard and his friend were out eating at a restaurant and Howard was supposed to be helping his mother move. When asked about why he is not there helping with the move he responds with “You know, I’m Jewish, and technically we’re not supposed to drive or carry anything on the Sabbath, so this one’s on God.” They then carry on with conversation and it gets to a point where Howard also comments “Well, religion’s kinda loosey-goosey. Basically as long as you got your schmeckel clipped and you don’t wear a cross, you’re good.” This is taking shots at what is supposed to be a very sacred religion and Howard is taking shots at it like it is not that big of a deal. In the show Sheldon has Asperger's and is the smartest character on the show, but also the weirdest. Sheldon is a full blown nerd who was bullied growing up and earned his first PhD when he was 16 and started to build free energy for his hometown in Texas, but it was shut down by the government. Sheldon accomplished these feats which added more to the stereotype of a nerd. Sheldon always has comments on how smart he is. Sheldon in this same episode was standing in the kitchen when his friends were sitting on the couch and they were all talking about what makes them sad. Everyone was going around saying something that was quite normal when Sheldon stuck his head up and added this comment “That's no reason to cry. One cries because one is sad. For example, I cry because others are stupid, and that makes me sad” Sheldon was talking to Penny at the time and she was sad because she said she was “stupid.” Sheldon was essentially taking shots at Penny, but it is a SitCom. Pozner relates to this in many different ways. Pozne talks about how a black woman is convinced she is an “ugly ape” just like how just because Penny is blonde means that she is “stupid.” The Big Bang Theory fortifies the stereotypes which most viewers are familiar with.
Viewers do not realize their own prejudices when watching a show such as The Big Bang Theory. Stereotyping happens more than just the average person really understands because he or she does not realize the injustices of stereotyping. As a result from the dumb blonde to the brainy nerds The Big Bang Theory portrays stereotyping as something that is really normal in society. Even though The Big Bang Theory is not a reality show but a sitcom, it realistically shows society’s judgment of those who do not “fit in.” With Penny who possibly fits every stereotype of a dumb blonde and the nerds basically representing every category that is labeled nerd in this society, The Big Bang Theory illustrates society’s indifference to those who are deemed different. This is a good thing even though some people may find it offensive, but it also awakens the consciousness of its viewers. Sheldon, Howard and Penny represent the stereotypes that society has labeled as the smart nerd or the “dumb blonde.” The Big Bang Theory is not supposed to be taken seriously though; it is a comedy, which, unfortunately, is based on reality.