Different attitudes towards women's pursuit (the edition of the blog)

Blog assignment:

The definition of feminism on Wikipedia is "Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women." No matter whether women's status has risen or not, some changes have definitely taken place in the media, especially on television. Women are no longer "just playing the role of the sweet, pliant housewife". They have their jobs and ambitions. But still the old images, or rather, traditional characteristics exist in television series or advertisements. What I will discuss below, is a most conspicuous example, that is, the TV series "The Big Bang Theory", which contains completely reverse attitudes of women in pursuing their life goals.

Penny is the only heroine in the Big Bang Theory who is a waitress at a cheesecake factory. In this video she burst into tears after she talked about her last relationship. The director, by this scene, wants to build a sentimental woman who undergoes a catastrophic relationship and longs for comfort from a man, which exactly matches the standard of "male gaze"--- "By positioning women as nothing more than objects to be looked at, sexualized, and made vulnerable, the male unconscious reassures itself that, really, it has nothing to fear from women" according to Zeisler. Men, in most cases, are in a dominant status and with strength and power, but women are more vulnerable. Thus, some women like to rely on men rather than herself and because they are dependent on the men and do not need to accomplish their ultimate goals in order to prove something, they may gradually forget them as time goes by.

That is the case. Penny does not strive for a successful career, partially because it will take her efforts to do so and the only thing she wants to do is enjoying her life, although she has a dream of writing her own movie. Penny is the kind of women who always keep in fashion. They can spend their life on horoscope, play video games, gossip about which girl has a handsome boyfriend, wear hot clothes and always put their life in mess. For example, in another episode, she can remember the three daughters' name in Brady Bunch but have no interest in any kind of science. This is probably from a male view because men often wants women to be more domestic and less successful in career so that they can keep their dominant status both at work and at home.

On the reverse side are some female geeks. The typical one is Leslie Winkle. She devotes all her life to the research which is her life-long pursuit. She does not care about others comments so she looks kind of erratic, does not wear make-ups, and does sex only to satisfy her biological needs. In the second video, Leslie, who can correct Sheldon's formula, represents independence. She herself is an authority, which equals to men's authority, and has the ability to challenge other men and finally abashes them. She is a sort of superwoman who can make everything she wants with the freedom to reign her own realm. But Sheldon's reaction reflects what most people think about--- a woman should never be so powerful like this.

You can never decide which attitude is correct because different people have different standards, but the trend is that most of people prefer Penny's. So now you may pose a question: why people, men or women, do not like a character, such as Leslie, created with independence and a strong pursuit, which are considered good moral properties, but prefer a girl with only a pretty face and figure and nothing else. It is easy to explain why men like Penny more--- she is more consistent with men's self-esteem. But why is women's attitude same? I believe it is because through thousand-year human development, it is men, who are in a prestigious status due to the strength and the ability to carry out more tough work, that want women to be an affiliate to them. Women are supposed to be gentle and soft, focus on domestic things, show more tenderness than authority. They should care about their appearance, making themselves more attractive, and most importantly, depend on men. As time goes on, women are imbued with such a standard and become proud of meeting this standard. However, the world is changing every day and so is those standards. With the development of feminism, such standards could be replaced by new standards which contain more freedom, independence and authority of women.

1. Zeisler, Andi. “Feminism and Pop Culture” California: Seal Press, 2008

2. "Pilot", Episode 1 of Season 1 of The Big Bang Theory, directed by Burrows, James, written by Lorre, Chuck and Prady, Bill, September 24, 2007.

3. "Leslie Winkle Best Moment Part1", Youtube, , accessed on September 21st 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5zSZIrKx6Y.