Without her more feminine qualities, Bernadette would not appeal to Howard, though without her intelligence and career, he could not be cared for as well as he is.

Situation comedies reflect the front edge of progressiveness in responding to so-cial changes, while at the same time re-inforcing the social norms pushing up behind them.

Since her intelligence poses a potential threat to Howard’s masculin-ity, Bernadette subsumes it in order to preserve gender expectations

roles are thrust upon her, she resists. Furthermore, she assumes a more traditional masculine role in that she is the breadwinner and the financial manager, which suggests her power in the relationship.

Though, she, too, retains an awkardness related to intelligence, she still attempts to normalize Sheldon into a more traditional, masculine role

Sheldon, whose intelligence frequently becomes his excuse for his social awkwardness

Howard con-sistently expects her during their court-ship and engagement to take over roles his mother performed for him

men exercised the power over the family, while women catered to supporting men’s needs.

Her naïvete is revealed through her mistakes in the lab, which border on potentially dangerous outcomes (such as crossing viruses) or on careless prac-tices (such as celebrating with contami-nated beakers). The comments evoke laughter about these mistakes, but an awkwardness about them remains.

Bernadette’s career and achievements only get spo-ken of, and even then, those mentions usually bear some comedic implication

One, these “comedic strategies” highlight social issues (Dow, “Femininity” 147). Two, while these strategies possess the potential to appear subversive or pro-gressive,

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).

Children’s programming further features scientists, such as Bill Nye The Science Guy. Steinke et. al ex-amined middle-schoolers’ responses to the scientists in these and other shows using traits such as “intelligence, domi-nance, alone, and respected”

The Big Bang Theory offers a unique moment to explore the representations of female scientists within the situa-tion comedy

Still, this bringing forward of intel-ligence as a character type into fiction television makes for an interesting break with cultural attitudes toward intelli-gence in the United States

The Big Bang Theory follows the expectations set up within other studies of female scientists in that neither Amy nor Bernadette bring together profes-sional and gender roles alongside their intelligence in empowered and progres-sive ways.

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

The Big Bang Theory. While Bernadette remains inept in her job, she enjoys a somewhat more successful relationship with Howard

For the gender roles, the intelligence as-sumes different functions for each one but toward the same end, ultimately

For the professional, the intelligence offers some explana-tion for their achievements. In Berna-dette’s case, that intelligence becomes a question mark in part because even though she earns a high degree and gains a high-paying job, she rarely dem-onstrates any competence

She also finds creative solutions to certain problems, such as using an electric toothbrush for handling sexual urges.

Since Amy becomes a mirror to Sheldon, she must be intelligent, but her showings of this intelligence can be awkward. F

The concept cuts across identity categories, and it cuts across both professional and gender roles. Frequently, it becomes a point of humor, particularly when one character exercises it at the expense of another character, such as Sheldon over Penny or, perhaps more amusingly, such as anyone else over Sheldon.

smart female characters “are celebrated for their intelligence and career success yet condemned for how they depart from traditional gender roles in their private lives” (122).

An intelligent female character never quite appears as a normal or wholly accepted part of the social scenes within a show, and her in-telligence, possibly with other qualities, prevents that acceptance.

Intelligent charac-ters exhibit similar characteristics, such as possessing multiple degrees, spout-ing obscure facts, announcing their intellects, exhibiting social awkward-ness or aversion, and even overusing logic

For both Amy and Bernadette the gender role expectations occur outside work and within the domestic spaces of the various characters on the show

Amy is expected to take care of Sheldon,

Less traditionally, the two establish a formal “boyfriend-girlfriend” relation-ship that is bound by a “relationship agreement,” which outlines the param-eters of their behaviors and expectations of each other. The agreement generally favors Sheldon

. She makes a special dinner just for Sheldon

Amy desires a more traditional relationship t

Bernadette also assumes a care-taker role, though the role sometimes becomes a competition with his mother.

she is the breadwinner,

The basis for her argu-ment comes back to her earning more money than Howard does

ernadette reveals her disgust of children when she helps Howard with a magic show, and Howard actu-ally questions whether her dislike is a deal-breaker. Bernadette’s solution to the problem of child is an interesting one. She proposes Howard stay home and pull cereal out of noses and watch children’s television while she works and “has conversations with adults and enjoys her life.”

e reveals his expectations of Bernadette quickly: doing his laundry, shopping for string cheese and detergent, and taking him to the dentist.

On the one hand, the show represents four friends with careers, but on the other hand, the show features these women looking for long-term relationships

men were cast as the breadwinners and women as the homemakers.

Amy finds ways to undercut that superiority.

Bernadette’s and Amy’s scientific careers set them up as suitable partners for their accomplished boyfriends, but these careers become fodder for the developments of their relationships.

Her knowledge validates gendered behavior, but her achievements become catalysts for her own gendered behavior.

Amy’s career and achievements are more serious and carry more weight in that she appears in a lab setting,

Sheldon continues to assert the importance of followers on Twitter while he ignores Amy’s accomplishment

Her achievement, however, becomes a comedic catalyst for the episode’s remaining scenes.

Amy shares that her single-author study has been accepted as the cover article in the key publication for her field—no small achievement in that it validates her work as a scientist.

Both Bernadette and Amy earn rec-ognition for their achievements in their fields.

ven though Sheldon asserts his expertise in science and even in bi-ology, Amy quickly shows the gaps in his knowledge and abilities and asserts not only her expertise, but also her con-fidence in her work

Within this space she engages in activities related to scientific inquiry, such as slicing through brain specimens before examining them under a micro-scope. Sheldon critiques her brain slic-ing in “

Throughout the entire series, Bernadette never appears in her own lab

Amy suggests that Bernadette’s catty responses are “hard wired” and cites studies that note how “flinging waste” is suitable behav-ior against a potential threat

Bernadette misses a key event because she remains under quarantine for possible yellow fe-ver because of drinking out of contami-nated petri dishes.

When Howard questions her about the wisdom of doing so, she smiles hugely and de-nies it. The “scientific” explanations for her notable absences also become points of humor.

At the same time, though, the hegemonic un-derpinnings suggest a development and reinforcement of these female scientists not as professionals but as through their expected gender roles.

the situation comedy offers the opportunity to push the boundaries of these repre-sentations in terms of female scientists through their professional roles, their gender roles, and their intelligence.

scientists were more likely to be male than female and were more likely to be white than of other ethnic groups

fe-male scientists are represented as attrac-tive, stylish, and fashionable (39). What the the naïve expert lacks in knowledge she makes up for in appearance (Flicker 312). Among

Female scientists also struggle to engage in romantic relation-ships. Flicker refers to the lonely hero-ine, or the woman who exhibits extreme competence in her work yet still suffers from the lack of recognition or romance (315–16). In the end, though, a female scientist only can succeed at home life or work life, but not both

female scientists strug-gle to find equilibrium (Long et al. 359). These characters frequently fall in love with and marry male characters,

female scientists’ capabilities get downplayed while their ineptitude gets played up in professional settings, sometimes highlighting their lack of skills

awkwardness,

characters still failed to become as popular

exhibited features of intelligence but overall re-mained less attractive, sociable, or warm when compared to other television char-acters

shows using traits such as “intelligence, domi-nance, alone, and respected”

Within nonfiction program-ming, scientists often appear for their expertise, but not all programs or audi-ences respect that expertise.

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

Starting with the third and fourth sea-sons, The Big Bang Theory introduced more regular female characters as love interests for the main characters.

UNLIKE SCIENCE FICTION AND POLICE PROCEDURALS,the situation comedy genre historically has offered few, if any, represen-tations of female scientists.