Dating Amy Farrah Fowler: Essentializing Femininity and Othering Women in STEM

Abstract

Amy Farrah Fowler is one of the standout female characters of The Big Bang Theory. Amy is a dedicated neuroscientist and is often characterized as being the female equivalent to Sheldon’s presentation of male geekiness. She is an interesting character for illustrating the problems that women’s representation in geek media. Amy is often portrayed as being as smart as Sheldon in an area that is just as hard a science. But when we see her as a character one of her defining traits has been her lack of female friends and the “real” experiences of womanhood.

In the discussion of why there aren’t more women game designers in the #1ReasonWhy twitter discussion multiple women in technology reported that others have said they can’t actually be women or are so weird their experiences are discounted. Women in STEM fields are strongly othered by the group whose interests they share and also told they can’t identify or fit in with other women by those same people (Beede, 2011).