Penny and Leonard; The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is a successful sitcom that airs on CBS about a group of comically nerdy guys and their friend Penny, who is portrayed as their more socially competent, common sense, attractive friend. Often times the "nerds" are portrayed as socially awkward, but their intellectual jokes and stereotypically geeky behavior makes them very likable and is probably why the show has earned so much success. While more characters continue to enter the show as it reaches its eighth season, Penny and the main group of nerdy guys continue to be the main focus of the show. One of the narratives of the show, that has lasted since the very first episode, is focused on Penny and Leonard's on-again-off-again relationship. Which, I might add, is currently on as they just got engaged.

Leonard is one of the stereotypical nerds; very smart, intellectual, and happens to be a physicist who earned his PhD when he was 24 years old. This is contrasted with Penny, who, as mentioned earlier, is portrayed as the stereotypical "cool" girl. She is an aspiring actress and a waitress who is just not as smart as the geeks. This is not portrayed as a problem, but rather is part of what makes the show funny, the differences in Leonard and Penny's sociality and intellect are what make them an entertaining and likable couple. And let me tell you: they are a likable couple. At the end of season seven, when they got engaged, tweeters everywhere were ecstatic:

While these are just a couple of examples, many more like these exist in the Twittersphere.

The relationship between Penny and Leonard instantly came to mind when I was reflecting on Jennifer Aubrey and Laramie Taylor's study "The Role of Lad Magazines in Priming Men's Chronic and Temporary Appearance-Related Schemata: An Investigation of Longitudinal and Experimental Findings." In their study, the researchers looked at the effect lad magazines have on male body self-consciousness, confidence in romantic relationships, and appearance anxiety. They operationalized this in an experimental setting by showing heterosexual men stereotypically attractive and beautiful women sitting in suggestive poses and then comparing the mens' baseline confidence and self-consciousness to how they felt after being shown the images. What they found was just what they expected: exposure to these beautiful, provocative women did in fact increase appearance anxiety and body self-consciousness.

However, the third study in their research tested if seeing these same images of attractive females next to photoshopped, black and white images of average looking males with a narrative about how the male and female are in a loving relationship would decrease body self-consciousness and increase beliefs that men are able to date a woman as beautiful as the one shown to them. The researchers hypothesized, "men assigned to images of sexualized females with an average-looking boyfriend would report less body self-consciousness than men assigned to images of sexualized women alone" (Aubrey & Taylor, 2009). Their hypothesis was not supported, the researchers found that men reported not feeling significantly different from the woman-only condition or the neutral condition. In other words, seeing the woman with the boyfriend was not significantly different than seeing the image of the woman alone or not seeing the woman at all. 

The researchers briefly attributed this surprising lack of support to the fact that "the pictures of the Average Joes were too subtle to ameliorate the more overwhelming imagery of the sexually objectified women" (Aubrey & Taylor, 2009). I would like to add here that I believe part of their reasoning encapsulates the fact that the relationship they were trying to portray may just not have looked realistic. Which is where Penny and Leonard come back into the picture; I think a more realistic portrayal of the average Joe getting the beautiful girlfriend would offer more support to their hypothesis. While The Big Bang Theory is a sitcom and is potentially not watched for its portrayals of romantic relationships, actually seeing the average Joe, in this case Leonard, getting the beautiful girlfriend, Penny, could potentially decrease body self-consciousness and increase confidence in obtaining such a relationship. 

While this is all speculation, male and female Twitter fans seem to really support Penny and Leonard's relationship, possibly because they like the idea of the "geek" getting the "beauty" and it makes the idea of such relationships a bigger reality. I think future studies on this topic could turn to video narratives like that of Penny and Leonard's to see how a more realistic relationship portrayal affects male body self-consciousness, appearance anxiety, and confidence in romantic relationships. 

Just some food for thought! 

References:

Aubrey, J. S., & Taylor, L. D. (2009). The role of lad magazines in priming men's chronic and temporary appearance-related schemata: An investigation of longitudinal and experimental findings. Human Communication Research, 35(1), 28-58. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.01337.x