Hit programs cheat the intelligent
Popular television shows offer no place for the smart girl
By: Megan Yodzis
Issue date: 1/26/06 Section: Campus
Popularity.
This is an interchangeable term that means something different for everyone. For one person it can mean being the best at everything - being the skinniest, having the best clothes, hair and makeup. For others it can mean just simply having the most friends.
With all these aspects that make up popularity for our generation of females, where does intelligence fit in? Obviously not on television, according to a presentation yesterday by Cindy Conaway about "Smart Girls on Television."
Ever since the days of Beverly Hills 90210 the smart girls haven't gotten much screen time, Conaway said. Now television shows focus on sex appeal, and who can get the hottest guy or girl.
In the presentation, part of the Brown Bag Luncheon series, Conaway focused on five popular shows from the past decade. These included Beverly Hills 90210, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life.
For each of the five shows she cited specific scenarios where the "smart girl" was left waiting in the cold while the male characters always favored the more "beautiful" girls.
In the popular television hit, Gilmore Girls, the main character Rory is seen as the smart, cute, girl-next door type in the beginning. Peer pressure and the influence of seeing other more popular girls began to change her.
In the show Rory drops out of Yale, her dream college, and no longer talks to her mother. Seeing an example such as this never showed the consequences of what happened because Rory decided to be a rebel. So girls who watch it will think it is okay to act like that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, another teen drama that was also a big hit, also had a character who progressively changed. A quiet, reserved girl on the show named Willow changed completely when she was introduced to Buffy.
Willow was picked on in high school and had a crush on a guy who saw her as merely a tutor. When she met Buffy, her life, along with her clothes, makeup and hair all began to change.
This is an interchangeable term that means something different for everyone. For one person it can mean being the best at everything - being the skinniest, having the best clothes, hair and makeup. For others it can mean just simply having the most friends.
With all these aspects that make up popularity for our generation of females, where does intelligence fit in? Obviously not on television, according to a presentation yesterday by Cindy Conaway about "Smart Girls on Television."
Ever since the days of Beverly Hills 90210 the smart girls haven't gotten much screen time, Conaway said. Now television shows focus on sex appeal, and who can get the hottest guy or girl.
In the presentation, part of the Brown Bag Luncheon series, Conaway focused on five popular shows from the past decade. These included Beverly Hills 90210, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks and My So Called Life.
For each of the five shows she cited specific scenarios where the "smart girl" was left waiting in the cold while the male characters always favored the more "beautiful" girls.
In the popular television hit, Gilmore Girls, the main character Rory is seen as the smart, cute, girl-next door type in the beginning. Peer pressure and the influence of seeing other more popular girls began to change her.
In the show Rory drops out of Yale, her dream college, and no longer talks to her mother. Seeing an example such as this never showed the consequences of what happened because Rory decided to be a rebel. So girls who watch it will think it is okay to act like that.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, another teen drama that was also a big hit, also had a character who progressively changed. A quiet, reserved girl on the show named Willow changed completely when she was introduced to Buffy.
Willow was picked on in high school and had a crush on a guy who saw her as merely a tutor. When she met Buffy, her life, along with her clothes, makeup and hair all began to change.
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