Hello Nerds!
You may have seen a little show called The Big Bang Theory on CBS, and on that show there are several friends who love to be nerdy, one is Dr. Sheldon Cooper, who is one of the stars, who is made fun of a lot by the others on the show. All of the cast of that show (minus Penny) are also nerds, and I find the show hilarious and a good show to watch when you have nothing better to watch on most nights, but I just wanted to talk a little bit about how this might change our view of nerds.
A common misconception is that ALL nerds are engineers, and ALL engineers do strange and socially unacceptable things. When you think about Sheldon, we all think about the socially inappropriate ass (of the Donkey variety) who doesn’t know anything about interacting with other sentient life forms as he might describe them (though primitively at that). And I know that none of us think that he’s your common breed nerd, but still it’s a little dangerous for some people who don’t know this, and mock nerds based on a gross over exaggerated character.
Many of us like Lenard, too, but he’s another stereotype. He’s had a bad history with the ladies, is a shut in shackled by video games, fearful of change, and only goes out of the apartment for movies, work, or comic books. He is a competent scientist, but not many see him as such, they see him as just the nerd.
Wolowitz, an engineer on the show, is another member of the stereotype club, and his also revolves around women also (well… I suppose that could be said for all of them on the show), who is often scrutinized (by Sheldon) for only having a master’s degree on the show (albeit from Cal Tech). I have to side with Wolowitz, I mean a master’s in engineering! That’s at least four for a bachelor’s, and another two to four years to get the program! That’s eight years of working your butt off! Doctors usually stay in med school that long.
Raj is of an Indian origin, who on the show can’t talk to women unless he’s drunk, which goes along still with the whole nerds are funny because they don’t fit in. This isn’t cool. That’s like placing a mentally or physically handicapped person on the show, and making fun of him, which no one would ever do! This means that it shouldn’t be done with nerds.
I know I’ve wrapped pretty hard on the show’s flaws, but in all honesty I love the show, and I do understand that if they didn’t do most of listed above it would be a bland show, without any humor and nobody would watch it. So CBS if you’re watching this don’t take any offence. I love your show, and mean no harm to you.
Resistance is Futile
Word Count: 494
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