I've been working on a blog post about, but haven't had the energy to finalize it. Here's my take.
TLDR- I used to think Sheldon was good thing for the Aspie community, a character who's "one of us," on a major show can't be bad can it. Now he seems more like a hurtful caricature. Less like Eddie Murphy breaking new ground and more like Al Jolson in black face capering about the stage.
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[Top of post would have 3 pictures in a row. John Inman as Mr. Humphries, Sheldon Cooper, and Al Jolson in black face.]
Draw a circle about the two characters above that are the most similar. Until recently, I would have thought this a easy one. Al Jolson's blackface character is a vile and damaging racial stereotype, made to lampoon an entire segment of society.
You might think the same about Mr. Humphries. The character from *Are You Being Served* was effeminate, flamboyant, catty, and mincing; every bit the stereotype of a homosexual man that existed in the middle of the 20th century. You'd think that the then-nascent LGBT movement would hold him up as a damaging caricature, but instead, he was adopted as one of their own. To be fair, Mr. Humphries' sexuality is never clearly revealed on the show, but there is much nudging and winking throughout the series. What set him apart from a black-faced character was that he was funny outside of his stereotype, able to make one liners about other characters. He was a stereotype, but he was also sympathetic.
One thing you have to keep in mind is that for at least 20 years before Mr. Humphries there were stereotypic gay portrails in TV and movies, but they were all villains. To be effeminate was automatically paired with being untrustworthy, cruel, and simpering. Mr. Humphries could be catty, but he could also be compassionate. What he turned out to be was the thin end of the wedge. If you had to play to stereotypes to get a gay(ish) man on television, so be it. Maybe people will get used to it and you can start sneaking in more realistic characters, and show them to be ordinary people.
Recently, I started to see Sheldon Cooper as the Aspie's version of Mr. Humphries. When it comes to stereotypes, he ticks all the boxes.
* He's awkward socially. He's both demonstrated and admitted that he doesn't pick up on facial, voice, or body language cues.
* He has a strict routine, and is resistant to change.
* While not explicitly stated, his sensory issues come out in his slavish instance of sitting in the same seat, or the way he sleeps in bed, and his selection of clothes.
* He has a *special interest* in trains, and can discuss them for hours.
Like Mr. Humphries, Sheldon's status is never clearly stated. There is always at least a tiny bit of plausible deniability for the writers and producers, but we can look knowingly at each other and think "Who do they think they're kidding?"
Until recently, I would have paired Sheldon with Mr Humphries without hesitation. After the last episode, I'm less sure. He's dumped, and becomes what many women would consider a stalker. His behavior is understandable from his viewpoint of hurt and confusion, but that's never addressed. By the end of the episode, he goes on a misogynistic rant. There's even a joke about Marie Curie being an "honorary man," because of her contributions to science, implying that real women couldn't make a contribution.
This was the point when I started to see less of Mr. Humphries, and more of *Little Black Sambo*. He capers about the sound stage being irascible and inappropriate, and we all laugh. Meanwhile, our brains adapt to the assurance the anxiety and social isolation many Aspies suffer are all their fault. Sheldon's a mysogonist, self-centered jerk, with little consideration for others. It's amazing he has the friends he has. There are times when the writers seem to be saying "Oh, those Aspies. What a bunch of losers, but it's fun to watch them try."
I guess I'll wait to see. Is Sheldon going to continue to be a walking source of self-centered, unsympathetic, cutting one-liners, or are we going to start to see a person in there? The writers need to learn that empathy and compassion are two different things. Aspies often lack one. Hollywood writers lack the other. It's too bad. They'd be even funnier of they had it.
27 Sep 2015, 7:54 pm
