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Brilliant, Beautiful & (Hardly Ever) Seen on TV
The Dumbing Down of Pretty Young Female Leads & How an 80s Sitcom Went Against the Grain
Where are all the smart, pretty female lead characters on television sitcoms? As a woman, and as a woman of colour, and as an intelligent woman of colour, that’s something I always wanted to know. I begin this with a disclaimer, I’ve not watched everything on television (I mean, I did have a life). All I know I know is what I’ve seen and what I grew up with. And I know I didn’t like it.
Why? Let me tell you. I didn’t see me. I saw the hot girls, the pretty girls. They weren’t me. Not even close. I saw the smart kids, the nerds, the geeks. Also not me.
The dumbing down of pretty girls is as old as time itself. Or at least as long as the time I can measure. I grew up in the 70s and 80s and I watched shows that reflected that time. Young women were either pretty and popular, or smart. Don’t believe me, let’s look deeper. I challenge you, name one, just one young female lead character back then that was stunningly beautiful and unabashedly brilliant.
You can name some that maybe were what I call “sneaky smart,” Genie was smarter than Major Nelson, but she had to use her “feminine mystique” to make that point. She didn’t just wear her brains and…
