The portrayal of scientists in film and
television sometimes has been of a person with nerdy glasses, cardigans and
unstylish comfortable shoes. The role that scientist play in popular culture varies;
sometimes scientists are treated as protagonist or an action hero, sometimes
they are portrayed as evil villain set to destroy the world until some hero
saves the day and sometimes as romantic heroes who overcomes space and time
just to be united with his love. Nevertheless, most of the time, scientists are
portrayed as eccentric and socially secluded people. The popular perception of
scientists remains stereotypical, it has been observed that even among young
pupils the image of scientist is stereotypical- someone with messy hair,
awkward nature and white coat. It is hard to analyse what reinforces such
stereotypes. However, in the recent decade these stereotypes have been
challenged through various films and television series which depict scientists
as charming and cool. It is worth noting that society may have its
stereotypical images of scientist, but at the same it does not fail to
acknowledge the importance of scientist in solving socio-economic problems.
The
Big Bang Theory meets the Big Bang!
Remember the days when the nerdy kid was
bullied and beaten up by the strong kid, then came a virtuous guy who rescued
him, which made him the hero and which ultimately gave him the ticket to the
heart of the most popular girl in the school. But then things change, the
beautiful lady with whom he does not have a chance ultimately falls for him for
his philanthropic heart and a problem solving mind. Well the beautiful lady
falling for the nerdy guy cannot be the barometer of his coolness, but trophication
of the female protagonist cannot be ignored. Anyway, defining and redefining
what cool consists of, it is not the smoker, drinker, biker kind of cool. It is
not the bad guy with toned body who takes all the girl, that cliché story needs
an editing. And that’s when the popular culture meets science. Talking about
nerds and the queen? The Big Bang Theory,
one of the coolest sitcoms of the
21st Century made the nerds and geeks
feel so popular. There are many fans appreciating one or the other character of
that sitcom. The characters are not one of those elderly scientists with messy
hair and dirty white coat, they are gentleman in their 30s (as played in the
sitcom) who are funny and weird but cool in their own way. They have a woman by
their side who irrespective of their peculiar habits falls for them in most
absurd way possible.
Women scientist on the other hand has
not been free from stereotyping. In the popular culture there has been two
types of women scientist, the hot secretary look and the sixty year old librarian
look. In both the cases, they wear glasses, but in the former it is accompanied
by high pony tail, big boobs with peep show of cleavage and heels (well the
difference between a cooperate secretary and a female scientist becomes difficult),
whereas, in the latter, off coloured cardigan, brogue shoes and in worse case,
braces and awkward walking style. And this sixty year old librarian look does
not score well to be laid until and unless she throws away her eyeglasses and
gets an image makeover, not forgetting the heels. Well in actual case there has
been tremendous pressure to produce outcomes cutting out some real social time.
The real deal for me is why the popular culture cannot create female scientist like
Marie Curie or Maria Goeppert Mayer or Rachel Carson or Valentina Tereshkova,
these and many more, who were hardworking, intelligent and unconventionally beautiful.
Not forgetting the fact that even in the field of science, women never got the
recognition they deserved.
To find the reason for such stereotyping
and reinforcement is not easy, and to be honest we have not found an answer to
it. Maybe to know the reason there are things which needs to be addressed first.
But, before that we should be in a position to unsettle the settled
assumptions.
Some
months ago, I came across an online article which rated the sexiest scientist
in the world according to the number of publications they produced per year,
the title was held by one of the scientist from the East Asian countries, don’t
remember exactly. Do some extend rating hotness with hard work and intelligence makes perfect sense.
*Actually, this article was written for an academic conference last year, it got selected, but due to shortage of funds I could not make it to the conference. This is a short and nonacademic version of it for my blog readers.
