Wednesday, June 8, 2016

BIG AND A BANG: Debating the popular image of scientists

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.

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