I reached out to two potential "homes" for the piece, but one wanted it twice as long with a load more theory, while the second said I needed to incorporate the newest season in my analysis before they'd work with it.
I'm not pursuing either of those routes, as A) I'm bored with the subject, B) I have no interest in watching the new season and C) I have twin three year olds, a professorship, and half a dozen new projects on the horizon. Who has time??
Penny for Your Thoughts: The Anti-Feminist Punchline in The Big Bang Theory
When The Big Bang Theory premiered in 2007, Chuck Lorre introduced a winning formula of lovable nerds, a sexy blonde neighbor, and occasional snippets of scientific theory. It has been celebrated for spoon feeding us doses of academic and nerd culture (with guest stars ranging from Stephen Hawking to the late Leonard Nimoy). Yet, few acknowledge the problematic gender paradox of casting our nerd heroes (who face their high school bullies, travel to space, and tackle questions of universal design) alongside a troubled, over-sexualized, would-be actress named Penny.
Penny is the show’s “straight man,” raising her eyebrows at Sheldon’s flatulent vocabulary and Leonard’s unnecessarily in-depth explanations of physics, adding to the comedic formula. But Penny also reflects the most misogynistic aspects of American popular culture: she prides herself on using her sexuality for financial gain—she proudly recounts “spilling an entire tray of drinks on myself” which led to a “soaking wet shirt” and “the biggest tip of my life” (S6:E24)—she depends on her suitors and male friends for financial support (including nightly meals, occasional rent coverage, and ultimately a car), and especially concerning are the laugh tracks that accompany her drunken escapades, masked as the antics of the indefatigable party girl; most episodes feature Penny with a drink in hand and flippant jokes about her rampant alcohol consumption. While female scientists Amy and Bernadette represent the growing presence of women in the field, they defer to Penny as the feminine ideal, and as Alexis J. Leon reminds us in her article “Cinderella Scientists,” their “work is never celebrated in the way their male colleagues’ is” and they see themselves as “women first, and scientists second” (6). Thus, the show’s central and most influential female character is a self-exploiting, male-dependent binge-drinker marketed as the beautiful, Midwestern girl-next-door. Penny embodies multiple female archetypes—the bombshell, the party girl, and the popular girl—each one promoting female objectification and undermining ideologies of gender equality.
PART I: THE BOMBSHELL
The term bombshell originated during World War II when American pilots painted pin-up girls on their airplane bombs. Blonde actresses such as Jean Harlow, Betty Grable, and Marilyn Monroe cemented the archetype as a platinum-haired, young woman with curves and sex appeal. In Jessica Hope Jordan’s book, The Sex Goddess in American Film, she writes that bombshells, also known as “sex goddesses,” have a magnetic pull on both men and women and “through their hyper-femininity, and with their seductive power, [they] exert control … over their targets” (2). The Big Bang series’ flirtatious Penny, with her carefully made up face, cascading blonde hair, and strategically revealed toned legs and full bosom, fulfills this longstanding American cinematic ideal.
In the series pilot, it is immediately established that Penny is keenly aware of the value others place on her physical appearance and she unapologetically uses it to manipulate those around her. Leonard and Sheldon first meet her when she is standing in the doorway of her new apartment, wearing a clinging blue T-shirt and revealing denim shorts. After Leonard invites her into their apartment, Sheldon protests when she sits in his proclaimed “spot” on the couch. Instead of moving, she seductively rubs the middle cushion, flashes him a smile, and playfully says, “Sit next to me,” only to be baffled by his refusal. By the pilot’s conclusion, she has shared in her neighbors’ Indian take-out, used their shower, and sent Leonard and Sheldon to reclaim her TV from her hulking X-boyfriend Kirk, who responds by sending the two scientists home without their pants.
The Big Bang’s pliable nerds are not the only victims of Penny’s sexual manipulation. During a power outage in Season Five, Penny bursts into the guys’ apartment and breathes a sigh of relief that their lights are out as well, and thus her power hasn’t been shut off. She admits, “last month I sent the electric company a Starbucks gift card, an apology note, and a few snapshots of me in a bra” (S5:E15). Similarly, in “The Cruciferous Vegetable Amplification” a baffled Leonard asks how she can survive walking around without money. She flatly responds, “I’m cute. I get by” (S4:E2). Both of these admissions are greeted with laughter, because the audience is in on the joke: as a culture we not only accept this behavior from beautiful, young women, we encourage it. Her ability to extort electricity for racy photos and obtain goods and services simply because she is attractive exposes the show’s complicity in the culture assumption that a young and traditionally beautiful woman is the triumph of her gender and should be rewarded as such.
And initially, it seems the joke is on the circle of geniuses who will give their food, money, assistance, and even their pants for the mere attention of a beautiful woman. But it soon becomes apparent that Penny’s identity and self-worth begin and end with the value society places on her physical appearance. In the series’ fourth episode, “The Luminous Fish Effect” (S1:E4), Sheldon endeavors to convince Penny that her reckless driving and speeding could end in “death [and] mutilation” by breaking down the mathematics of maximum feasible deceleration. He factors in the car’s weight at 4,000 pounds, his weight at 140, and her weight at 120. She protests:
Penny: “120?!” Sheldon: “Oh, I’m sorry. Did I insult you? Is your body mass somehow tied into your self-worth?
Penny: Well, yeah.
Sheldon: Interesting … That brings us to a total weight of, let’s say 4,400 pounds
Penny: Let’s say 4,390
Sheldon, the only male group member who is un-phased and unaffected by Penny’s sexual wiles, is puzzled by a person defining her self-worth by others’ approximation of her body mass, but the scene’s laugh track suggests that the foolishness is Sheldon’s alone. It is culturally understood that you should never ask a woman questions about her weight. And, as per the series’ estimation, a women’s value and desirability are entirely determined by her physical appearance, making a young woman’s preoccupation with how her physicality is perceived by others an entirely natural phenomenon.
Since their first meeting, Leonard relentlessly pursues Penny as a mate, repeatedly telling his friends, “Our babies would be smart and beautiful.” Before their relationship even begins, Leonard has established why he is attracted to Penny and the beneficial genetic traits she would grant their potential offspring: physical beauty. In the episode “The Bad Fish Paradigm” (S2: E1) the catalyst of Leonard and Penny’s first break-up occurs when Penny, intimidated by the significant difference in their intellects, goads “So it’s fine with you if I’m not smart?” Leonard replies “Absolutely!” Audience laughter accompanies Penny’s slamming of her apartment door, presumably finding humor in Leonard’s sheer ineptitude with women. However, truth underlies his impulse response. His infatuation with Penny is entirely based on her face and her figure, with no consideration of her intellect or her personality.
After the pair has officially re-coupled, Leonard, Sheldon, and Raj are competing for a newly opened line of tenure in “The Tenure Turbulence” (S6: E20). The opening is created by the death of Professor Tupperman, and each hopeful CalTech scientist plans to schmooze with the tenure committee during the impending funeral. When Penny offers to attend the service with Leonard, he responds, “That’s nice, but it’s just going to be a room of boring old men, and I’m not sure how much help you would be.” Penny responds, “Okay, I’m just going to tie my shoe while you think about that,” and as she bends over the camera closes in on her taught derriere. Leonard promptly exclaims, “No, that would be a great help!” Penny responds with a proud grin.
Each hopeful scientist arrives at the funeral with his significant other. Sheldon’s girlfriend Amy is a noted neuro-biologist and Howard’s fiancée Bernadette is a microbiologist with a lucrative job at a pharmaceutical company: each professional woman arrives ready to “talk shop” with the tenure committee in order to further her partner’s cause. Thus, when Penny arrives on Leonard’s arm, Sheldon aptly inquires, “What are you going to do? Take these people’s drink orders and get them wrong?” Leonard looks at Penny and then says, “Do it.” She whips off her trench coat to reveal a skimpy black dress which strategically exaggerates her ample cleavage.
Sheldon: Did she do it yet?
Amy: She plans on flirting with members of the tenure committee to further Leonard’s cause.
Sheldon: Well that’s a fine how-do-you-do! Don’t just stand there [Amy]! Take your breasts out!
The show’s vision of academia (and the woman’s place therein) is made clear; the placeholders in the science department are old men who are more likely to grant favor to younger male scientists who arrive with “eye candy,” than those accompanied by women of equal intellect. Thus, while an intelligent woman is an acceptable mate, the ideal woman, the most influential woman, is a young, attractive bombshell.
Later, in Season Seven, Leonard joins Stephen Hawking’s team’s expedition to the North Sea to study hydrodynamic simulations of black holes. In the episode “The Hoffstader Insufficiency” (S7: E1), it comes to light that upon moving to California, Penny starred in a low budget film about a killer gorilla in which she appears topless in the shower. Penny’s extensive efforts to keep this knowledge from her friends reflect her obvious regret and embarrassment about the part; yet, the episode concludes with Leonard playing the topless scene for his colleagues aboard the ship while triumphantly screaming “That is my girlfriend! I swear to God!” His male and female colleagues respond by chanting “Leonard! Leonard!” This reaffirms the show’s message that despite collaborating with the great Stephen Hawking, Leonard’s most notable achievement is not scientific, but rather the sexual possession of a beautiful woman.
PART II: THE PROMISCUOUS PARTY GIRL
In her memoir best-selling memoir Smashed, Koren Zailckas defines the cultural figure of the party girl as one who “has always existed, and it appears … will simply never go away, particularly in the era of tabloid television shows in which cameraman stalk Los Angeles nightclubs in the hope of provoking a shitfaced starlet to flash the finger” (185). She adds, “The byword has always suggested not only that women’s fun exists solely for the fun of men, but that it can’t exist at all without the active gaze of …some … pervert to confirm it” (184). In her book, Zailckas partially blames her college alcoholism on her inability to live up to this ideal. She binge-drank to perform the role of the fun and sexually uninhibited sorority girl that her peers expected her to embrace.
While Penny’s bombshell persona gains her male attention, it becomes clear that she has to remain lighthearted, uncomplicated, and sexually available to retain male attention and favors. When Penny and Sheldon head to dinner alone in “The Anything Can Happen Recurrence,” she not so subtly informs him that he will be paying when the check arrives. He asks, “Have you ever paid for a meal?” to which she quips, “not with money” (S7:E21). This virtual prostitution is thinly veiled through her carefully crafted role of the unflagging party girl. Often hung over, and rarely appearing without a drink in hand, it seems Penny too must drink to adopt and maintain this persona.
In Season Four’s Episode “The Robotic Manipulation,” Penny provides transportation to (and therefore attends) Sheldon and Amy’s first date. During the dinner, the scientists decide to estimate Penny’s number of dates, and then her number of sexual partners (S4: E1). Sheldon estimates:
Based on the number of awkward encounters I’ve had with strange men leaving her apartment in the morning, plus the number of times I’ve seen her return home wearing the same clothes she wore the night before … we multiply 193 minus 21 men before the loss of virginity, so 172 times 0.18 gives us 30 sexual partners. Let’s round that up to 31.
Penny responds, “I need a drink.” Penny is not proud of her sexual exploits; she drinks to numb her mortification when she realizes her frequency of new sexual partners is common knowledge. In a moment of schadenfreude, the audience laughs at her momentary discomfort, but something far more nefarious is taking place. After Penny and Leonard’s first sexual encounter proves disappointing, she recommends alcohol as a cure-all to loosen their inhibitions and “try again.” At the end of the episode, they fail to make it to bedroom as both are camped out in the bathroom while Leonard vomits into the toilet and Penny into the sink (S3:2). For Penny, alcohol and sex are inextricable, and the more pressure she feels to live up to the fantasy of the sex bomb-party girl, the more she drinks.
In Season Four’s finale, Penny is drinking with Rain an effort to quell her regrets about breaking up with Leonard, who is now in a relationship with Raj’s successful sister Priya. The two friend’s wake up in Leonard’s bed together, naked, clutching their foreheads.
Penny is humiliated, when she, in wrinkled clothing, and Raj, wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet, encounter the rest of the group in the apartment’s living room. At the opening of Season Four, a humiliated Penny is desperate to be soothed by another drink, only to find all of her dishes are dirty. She pours wine into an available measuring cup before answering her door. Her guest Amy quips, “Keeping accurate track of your alcohol intake. Smart move considering how trampy you get when you’ve had a few” (S5:E1).
Penny is humiliated, when she, in wrinkled clothing, and Raj, wrapped in nothing but a bed sheet, encounter the rest of the group in the apartment’s living room. At the opening of Season Four, a humiliated Penny is desperate to be soothed by another drink, only to find all of her dishes are dirty. She pours wine into an available measuring cup before answering her door. Her guest Amy quips, “Keeping accurate track of your alcohol intake. Smart move considering how trampy you get when you’ve had a few” (S5:E1).
Characters like Samantha Jones (portrayed by Kim Catrall) of Sex and the City and Phoebe Buffet (portrayed by Lisa Kudrow) of Friends are presented as liberated, sensual women with unapologetic sexual appetites. In contrast, Penny appears shameful when confronted with her exploits and often requires inhibition-lowering doses of alcohol to perform them. Penny is trapped in a vicious cycle: to execute the part of the fun-loving party girl, she needs to drink. When she drinks, she takes part in sexual encounters she later regrets, and then she drinks to numb these misgivings and retain her party girl persona. In the “Locomotive Manipulation” (S7:15), Leonard and Penny pass on the group’s upcoming Valentine’s Day excursion to Napa Valley. Leonard playfully remarks, “I'm not sure it's a good idea to take Penny to where wine comes from. … It’s a joke! … I wear dorky glasses, you might have a problem, it’s all for laughs.” While the passive audience laughs at her party girl antics, critical thinking viewers know that alcoholism is not comical, and Penny’s internal conflict is not funny.
PART III: THE POPULAR GIRL
In American pop culture, the popular girl, also known as the Queen Bee, can be defined as the most admired, revered, and sought after female in a given social group. She is typically attractive, superficial, and often catty. A recent Wiki post, troublingly titled “How to be a Popular Girl,” suggests an aspiring “popular girl” should project confidence, be outgoing, flirtatious, stylish, and pay close attention to her appearance, particularly in terms of maintaining a fit physique and a careful make-up regiment.[i] It also suggests that the sexual attention she receives from males will earn her the respect and admiration of other females.
We see this phenomenon take hold of neuroscientist Amy Farrah-Fowler in Season Four of The Big Bang Theory. Raj and Howard arrange Amy and Sheldon’s first meeting after determining them to be a match on an online dating site. When Amy first appears on the show, she is much like Sheldon: unapologetically socially awkward, condescending, brilliant, career driven, and seemingly asexual. Amy immediately informs Sheldon: “Now, before this goes any further, you should know that all forms of physical contact up to and including coitus are off the table” to which the like-minded Sheldon responds “May I buy you a beverage?” (S3:23) The two briefly dissolve their friendship when the confident Amy claims that the contributions of neuroscience supersede those of theoretical physics. Sheldon huffs, “Are you suggesting the work of a neurobiologist like Babinski could ever rise to the significance of a physicist like Clarke-Maxwell or Dirac?” Amy definitely responds: “I’m stating it outright. Babinski eats Durac for breakfast and defecates Clarke-Maxwell.” Amy, rigid in both her behaviors and her opinions, opts to temporarily sever the relationship rather than compromise her scientific principles.
Yet, Amy’s unemotional, scientific mindset is rewired after one “girls’ night” with Penny and Bernadette (S4: E8). After an evening of “girl talk,” a game of truth or dare, and repeatedly witnessing the broader social group’s repeated deference to Penny, Amy’s personality and priorities are entirely rearranged. In “The Wildebeest Implementation” (S4: E22), Leonard encounters a limping Amy in the hallway. When he inquires if she’s “okay,” she responds, “Just breaking in new shoes. … Did you know that women wear high heels to make the buttocks and breasts more prominent? Look!” She makes an awkward attempt to strike a seductive posture. When she mentions an upcoming double-date including Leonard and Priya, and Howard and Bernadette, Leonard asks how she knows about it. She responds, “I heard it at the mall when I was shopping with my girlfriends, ‘cause you know, that’s kind of my life now. Have a good night. Try not to ogle my caboose as I walk away.” Partaking in seemingly superficial and juvenile female rituals (such as makeovers, shopping for shoes, going to the bathroom in groups, and gossiping over wine) is now the most important aspects of Amy’s new life, her career coming in a distant second. Her efforts are focused on cultivating her relationship with her newfound female circle, and a sudden interest in sexually pursuing her disinterested boyfriend. Amy enthusiastically embraces her new life as “one of the girls” and openly and enthusiastically declares her idealization of Penny, the group’s popular girl.
Amy, who was bullied in school for her intellect and social awkwardness, eventually learns that Penny has gone her entire life without any telling her to her face that they hate her; Amy says, “I’d say it to you right now, but look at those cheekbones.” On other occasions, Amy refers to Penny’s hair as “a waterfall of liquid gold” (S5: E1) and after telling her that her “skin is like alabaster” asks “do you even have pores? (S5: E8). Because Penny’s bombshell appearance has marked her as the most valuable female in the eyes of the male scientists, and broader American culture, Bernadette, and especially Amy, hold her in the position of the popular girl and bend themselves to her whims.
In the “Infestation Hypothesis,” at the request of Sheldon, Amy urges Penny to get rid of the potentially unsanitary chair she claimed from the curb outside the apartment building. When Penny realizes Amy is working on Sheldon’s behalf, Penny chides, “My God Amy, that’s really crappy of you. … I thought you were my friend. Maybe you should just go.” Amy pleads, “No! No! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I take it all back! Look! I’m sitting in your chair! … It’s a great chair! Please let me continue to be a part of your world!” Amy even attempts to muffle painful whimpers as whatever has infested the chair nips at her backside (S4: 22). For Amy, Penny, the clique’s “popular girl,” is the feminine ideal, one worthy of both adoration and emulation; losing Penny would force Amy to abandon her pursuit of becoming the series’ vision of desirable womanhood, an identity her character inexplicably wishes it inhabit.
In the “Infestation Hypothesis,” at the request of Sheldon, Amy urges Penny to get rid of the potentially unsanitary chair she claimed from the curb outside the apartment building. When Penny realizes Amy is working on Sheldon’s behalf, Penny chides, “My God Amy, that’s really crappy of you. … I thought you were my friend. Maybe you should just go.” Amy pleads, “No! No! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I take it all back! Look! I’m sitting in your chair! … It’s a great chair! Please let me continue to be a part of your world!” Amy even attempts to muffle painful whimpers as whatever has infested the chair nips at her backside (S4: 22). For Amy, Penny, the clique’s “popular girl,” is the feminine ideal, one worthy of both adoration and emulation; losing Penny would force Amy to abandon her pursuit of becoming the series’ vision of desirable womanhood, an identity her character inexplicably wishes it inhabit.
Later, in the “Extract Obliteration,” Penny is desperate to prove to Leonard that she’s capable of succeeding in her community college history class without his help (S6: E6). She ultimately does so by having Amy and Bernadette write her first paper for her, then flaunting her “B-”in her boyfriend’s face. When she triumphantly returns to the girls waiting for her in her apartment, she warns them, “If either of you tell Leonard you helped me rewrite this paper, I will beat you both with a bag of oranges … Now … I think if we put our heads together, next time we can get an ‘A.” The girls explain they wrote a ‘B’ paper to “make it believable,” but when an exasperated Penny angrily asks, “You think I’m not smart?” They respond:
Bernadette: No! No!Amy: You’re smart! You’re smart!
Penny: That’s better!
Amy: I feel like I’m in high school again.
Bernadette: Yeah, doing the prom queen’s homework so she’ll like us.
Amy: Yeah! And it’s finally working!
The compromises, favors, and accommodations that Amy makes for Penny, a bungling waitress, seem demeaning for a 30-something, successful neurobiologist. But Amy, like the male nerds with whom she seeks to ingratiate herself, has determined that a woman’s social status and physical appearance supersede her intellect and professional accomplishments. As a freshly minted “modern woman,” Amy’s new priorities are social acceptance and male attention, and her friendship with Penny is her method in obtaining these accolades.
After her friendship with Penny and Bernadette has been firmly established, Amy weasels her way into the coveted role of maid of honor at Bernadette’s wedding. When Amy and Penny are helping Bernadette prepare party favors for her upcoming nuptials, Amy informs her friends that the term “wed referred to the money and livestock the groom would pay the bride’s father. For example [Bernadette], you’re adorable, intelligent, and a good earner. I could conservatively see you going for two oxen and a goose. Now you,” she adds nodding toward Penny, “You would fetch a unicorn” (S5:16). Amy’s adoption of the female social convention of fawning over the popular girl is complete. She refers to Penny, an orthodoxly beautiful though unsuccessful actress, as worthy of a unicorn, while she condescendingly refers to Bernadette, who has earned both her doctorate and a successful career as a pharmaceutical researcher, as Penny’s “cute in the right light friend” and only worthy of traditional livestock (S5: E8). Amy has readily adopted the chauvinistic ideal that a woman’s outward appearance determines her social value, and therefore Penny’s “specialness” outshines the real-world accomplishments of her professionally remarkable female friends.
Perhaps Amy and Bernadette’s deference to Penny is best captured in “The Prom Equivalency” when they gather at Penny’s apartment for another girls’ night. Bernadette announces, “We brought snacks for movie night!” to which Penny responds, “Oh, great. I don’t suppose you also brought napkins, clean bowls, utensils, and a roll of toilet paper?” “Right here!” Bernadette exclaims, holding up a large grocery bag. Instead of addressing the fact that Penny is not only a poor hostess, but a poorly functioning adult, her friends overlook her failings and instead compensate for them. When the guests discover Penny’s old prom dress on the couch, they are impressed to not only learn that Penny attended seven high school proms, but that at one she “made out with the captain of the football team while his date was puking” (S8: E8). More than a decade removed from the gendered social hierarchy of the prototypical American high school, the female scientists still place Penny upon the pedestal of the popular girl, and hope to achieve the social acceptance and male favor they never received in their own adolescence by hovering in her orbit.
PART IV: THE ALMOST 30-SOMETHING
In the show’s most recent seasons, Penny has realized her acting career is not likely to materialize, and as Sheldon aptly puts it, “Despite what it says on her resume, she is no longer 22” (S7:13). After reluctantly agreeing to star in a sequel to her humiliating gorilla film, Penny is promptly fired from the project after arguing with its director. Drunk and depressed, Penny tells Leonard, “I need to start making some smart decisions with my life. … We could get married.” Leonard replies, “So I’m a ‘smart’ decision? … I’m like a bran muffin? The thing in your life you’re choosing because it’s good for you?” “What does it matter?” Penny exclaims. “I’m choosing you!” (S7:23) In that moment Penny makes an economical and rational decision. Her social and societal worth have been entirely determined by her physical appearance, and as Sheldon notes, this value is depreciating with age. Even episodes later, when Penny finds a new career as a pharmaceutical representative, she makes sales by wearing low cut blouses, “waking up the girls” (i.e., her nipples) by running the air conditioner in car before appointments, hiding her engagement ring, and shamelessly flirting with doctors (S8:E7). Though she relishes in the fact that her new career awards her fiscal independence, she is keenly aware that this new arena of her life also depends on men finding her sexually desirable.
In one of the series’ most recent episodes, “The Intimacy Acceleration” (S8:16), Penny and Sheldon embark on a sociological experiment in which they answer a series of intimate questions that will supposedly bring any two people to fall in love. When asked, “If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?” The show’s party girl first suggests “that turning water into wine thing sounds pretty good!” When Sheldon accuses her of deflecting with humor “to avoid vulnerability,” she admits “Honestly, if I could have one quality, I wish I could be as smart as you guys,” to which Sheldon heartily guffaws “Ha! Keep dreaming!” Penny’s brief admission reveals volumes. She has lived by the doctrine embraced by the series’, her social group, and much of American society, one which asserts that the more beautiful and sexy a woman is, the higher her value. But Penny forcibly asks herself, what happens when you’re no longer the “hottest” girl in the room?
To better appreciate Penny’s growing apprehensions about her future, consider Kathy Bates’ memorable role as Bettina (portrayed by Kathy Bates) on Six Feet Under. Bettina is a free-spirited, middle-aged woman who horrifies the tight-laced Ruth with her shoplifting. In response to Ruth’s gasps of disapproval, Bettina responds, "Don't worry. We are females over fifty. We're invisible.” And in keeping with her insight into an American woman’s shelf-life, Bettina is never caught stealing (S3: E3). Presumably, when the rest ofThe Big Bang Theory’s characters enter into their forties and fifties, their value in their respective fields will multiply as they move forward with their research and accumulate professional achievements. Thanks to her provocative wardrobe and flirtatious nature, Penny is currently her company’s third most lucrative pharmaceutical rep, but when she’s twenty years into her career, who will buy drugs from “an invisible woman”?
The show’s writers and cast have committed to three more seasons, so we have yet to see if Penny will be able to resolve her gender paradox and forge an identity separate from the roles of bombshell, party girl, and popular girl. Perhaps, like Friends’ character Rachel Green (portayed by Jennifer Aniston) or the film Legally Blonde’s protagonist Elle Woods (portrayed by Reese Witherspoon), Penny will discover inner talents and pursue a career or a passion that will bring her respect and fulfillment divorced from the praise she receives for her appearance. Or perhaps Chuck Lorre will continue to regurgitate jokes about her drinking and promiscuity, and the series will conclude without ever resolving the hanging question: what happens to the show’s bombshell, party girl, and popular girl when she no longer fits the part?
*I have yet to view the series' most recent season.
*I have yet to view the series' most recent season.
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