Analysis 1
The characters I decide to analyze is Penny and Amy in a situation comedy: The Big Bang Theory(TBBT). TBBT airs on CBS and was created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. The sitcom premiered in 2007 and will begin its 6th season this fall.
TBBT shows the life of several scientists who have high IQ, which is centered on five characters: roommates Sheldon and Leonard, Penny, Raj and Howard. The sitcom brings lots of fun to the audience due to the main characters’ identity, which is scientist.
TBBT is a very popular show not only in the US but also all over the world such as in China. The characters in TBBT show several gender stereotype including blonde and female Ph.D. Penny and Amy are two important female characters in TBBT. They are two person who are totally different from each other. Penny is a blonde who is not well educated and had many boyfriends in the past, while Amy is a Ph.D. and know little about how to get together with people. Penny is a normal pretty girl in the US, however, she is really special in TBBT because all other characters are well and highly educated. On the contrary, Amy is similar to other character is TBBT, however she is not that normal compared to ‘normal’ US girls.
I choose the last two episodes of season 5 and first episodes of season 6 (the latest season) as my content to conduct the analysis. Each episode lasts about half an hour. In the two hours I’ve watched, Penny and Amy are good friends and they have common friends such as Sheldon and Bernadette.
Penny shows up as Leonard’s girlfriends while Amy is Sheldon’s girlfriend. The two characters of the sitcom showed up in different ways. Penny comes from a small town. She is a blonde who lives across the hall from Sheldon and Leonard and is in a romantic relationship with Leonard. At the beginning of Season 5 episode 23, Penny offer to have sex with Leonard when kissing each other since she thinks that “You know how we’ve been taking things slow”.
In the next plot, Sheldon and Amy are going to have a date at Amy’s home. The topic they are talking about are totally different from Penny and Leonard. In other word, they do not seem like the normal couple. They love to talk about issues in a professional way. For instance, Amy says that “With our friends moving forward in their relationships, I have decided that we should make progress in ours as well.” Or “I’ve designed an experiment that I believe will increase your feelings for me.” These words are weird during couples.
After watching the two hours of the show, it could be figured out that Penny and Amy are two different person. Linking them with Lotz’s studying of “post feminism” would be interesting. According to Lotz (2001),post feminism refers to “a retreat from feminist ideas challenging women’s traditional role in the family, and instead marks an increasing openness toward traditional notions of femininity and feminine roles.” Penny and Amy are not traditional women. They are not the typical “new woman” who are capable of balancing a successful career and conventional family life which liberal feminism indicates. Penny doesn’t have a successful career and Amy doesn’t seem to have a conventional family life with Sheldon. However, they can illustrate Lotz’s view of post feminism. Even though totally different, low educated and high educated; beautiful and boring, Penny and Amy are honest to express what they want in terms of love or sex, which build them another kind of new woman.
In another article, Marcellus(2011) looks at office machine and office wife. According to her, woman are often seen as office machine in offices. They are considered no thoughts and can only do machine work. However, television shows today are breaking this type of stereotype. In TBBT, although Penny is only a waitress working in the Cheesecake Factory, she is still perusing her dream which is becoming an actress. She is independent, optimistic and attractive. Penny has her own view of love and sex, knowing what she wants and don’t want. As a new woman, she wants to make love with her boyfriend and refuse to marry Leonard just because she doesn’t want. In other words, women are no longer being passive.
Amy is not an office machine at all. As an female Ph.D., Amy has professional knowledge and is doing a good job in her field. She thinks independently, although kind of different from others.
Setting up the two different stereotypes, TBBT well illustrate how post feminism is and how woman differently seen compared to earlier time. Women are free today regardless of their job or education level. They are free to do what they want.
Imre’s article gives the audience more connection between feminism and television. According to Imre (2009), television, as an industry and as an object of study, has been gendered from the start. Today, feminism is not only an academic approach, it also becomes a social movement, which makes us live in a post feminism era. Thus television programs are becoming feminism inevitably. However, recent scholarly and industrial efforts to resurrect television as a distinct medium and object of study tend to disavow its gendered aesthetic and the feminist grounding of television studies. (Imre, 2009). Thus, Imre introduces the term “quality television” and points out that both television studies and the television industry requires “remasculinizing” the medium by disavowing its “feminine.”
The journal article interests me for its linking with Lotz’s concept “post feminism” and “new woman”. According to the author, current scholarly discussions of postfeminist culture and its central figure, the “new woman” are not as important as in earlier times. On the contrary, the author uses the term “quality television” to identify current television shows. He points out that both masculine and feminism are need to make the show more quality. Feminism should not be paid much more attention.
For me, TBBT is a quality television because it is nither masculine or feminism. Male characters are funny although kind of weird in the show, and female characters are pleasing such as Penny and Bernadette. All the people in the sitcom is equal and make the audience feel comfortable. Although having no high IQ and education, the female characters in TBBT are not looked down.
Overall, Penny and Amy are two important characters in TBBT, which fulfill the sitcom and help it more “quality” in a post feminism way.
Reference:
Lotz, Amanda. (2001). Postfeminist television criticism: Rehabilitating critical terms and identifying postfeminist attributes. Feminist Media Studies, 1(1), 105-121.
Marcellus, Jane. (2011). Business girls and two-job wives: Emerging stereotypes of employed women. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. (Ch. 3 office machine, office wife)
Imre, A. (2009). Gender and quality television. Feminist Media Studies, 9(4), 391-407.
The first paragraph gives significance to the show, but I would just suggestion to expand more in one or two sentences as to why you chose to analyze Penny and Amy from “The Big Bang Theory”. Also, I would suggest omitting information that does not support your own ideas such as “TBBT is a very popular show not only in the US but all over the world such as in China” or “After watching two hours of the show..” because it is not relevant to the context of the show and the episodes you are analyzing. By omitting sentences like these, it could save room to type in more relevant information for you paper such as expanding more on the action or plot of the show. Another suggestion would to be specific and give details. For example, Chenny states that Penny and Amy are not tradition women, but why aren’t they? Furthermore, Chenny introduces her third article as “Imre’s article..” but what is the title. I believe including the title at the beginning of the paragraph will give the readers an idea of the topic of the article chosen.
The description of the show is very clear, and I had an idea of who these characters were, and what their roles are on the show, especially because Penny and Amy are so different. Comparing and contrasting two female characters that were the opposite of each is a merit because it can give the writer an opportunity to clearly display the differences between the two, which is what Chenny did correctly. I learned that Penny and Amy are post-feminist’s and are not viewed as secretaries because they are independent, hardworking women that break the stereotype of a traditional woman.
Chenny has a clear understanding of the characters that both Amy and Penny portray on the show The Big Bang Theory. Your paper was very clear, concise and cut straight to the point. You do a great job linking the characters to two in class readings and the one peer-journal. One shortcoming I noticed is at the end of the first page you mention that these women are not the typical “new woman”, however at the top of the second page you discuss how Penny is independent, optimistic, perusing her dreams and knows what she wants. You then refer to her as a new woman in the following sentence. I believe these two discussions contradict one another. I leaned about the idea of “quality television”. I find it interesting that while this theory proposes both masculine and feminine ideologies be incorporated into a television show, you also mention that feminism should not be paid as much attention to. While you did a great job explaining the personalities of both characters, I think you could have focused a bit more on how each character is different in regards their feminist / postfeminist views. You touched upon it in your presentation but there is no real mention of it in your paper. All in all, job well done!
Since we analyze the same character—-Penny from The Big Bang Theory, I think I can learn how you constructed this character differently from my analysis after reading your analysis paper. And I found out that you have a really clear understanding of the whole drama, especially the two characters—Penny and Amy. Through your explaining, I know the differences and similarities of these two female characters from the view of post feminism. As I concern, contrasting these two totally different women are a great way to illustrate the traits of “new, new women”. By introducing Imre’s article, you brought in a new concept that TBBT is a quality television because it is neither masculine nor feminism. Your description make me have a general idea of Imre’s article.
But there is a point that you mentioned in the article makes me feel a little bit confused, at first you argued that Penny and Amy are not typical “new, new women” because Penny doesn’t have a successful career and Amy doesn’t have conventional family life. Then by claiming that they are independent, optimistic and attractive, and have their own view of love and sex, you argued that they are “new, new women”. So these two contrasting points don’t really make sense. And you also need to pay more attention on grammar and spelling.
All in all, you did a great job.