Pretentious, unsympathetic, socially awkward or downright asocial… TV and cinema have often painted an unflattering portrait of people considered to be intelligent. Even at school, stereotypes related to intelligence seem to die hard.
Posted yesterday at 12:30 p.m.
Examples of intelligent characters abound, on both the small and the big screen. But the first that comes to mind is inevitably that of Ross, in the series Friendsadmits Stéfany Boisvert, professor at the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM): an academic “clumsy, not comfortable courting women”.
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The character of Ross Geller, played by David Schwimmer, in the series Friends
The situation comedy The Big Bang Theorywhich aired from 2007 to 2019, was hugely successful following the tribulations of four extremely brilliant physicist friends, but who caused hilarity with their social incompetence.
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The band of friends from the series The Big Bang Theory
And what about the character of Christian Bégin in Guysa pretentious university professor, notes Stéfany Boisvert, or even the communications specialist in the series Epidemicwho plays with a “slightly forced” accent to show his superior level of education and who appears to be completely disconnected from reality?
Mainstream television and cinema, particularly comedy productions and advertising, have often made their mark on this type of character with a high level of education and so-called above-average intelligence.
I think it goes with a fairly conformist vision that creators have of their target audience. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the audience they are addressing necessarily always agrees with such a stereotypical vision, but it does mean that they think that this vision risks satisfying them.
Stéfany Boisvert, professor at the UQAM School of Media
And among the vast majority of this audience, precisely, there are few viewers with graduate degrees, if we rely on statistics and ratings, adds the professor.
A double stereotype?
Stéfany Boisvert also observes a gender stereotype associated with intelligence, the figure of the university intellectual being more often associated with men than with women. And when portraying an intelligent woman, she will often be “very clumsy, with very questionable taste in fashion, and perceived as undesirable from the perspective of cultural norms of beauty.”
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The character of Laney Boggs, played by Rachael Leigh Cook, in the film She’s All That
“The best example is the teen movie She’s All That, illustrates the professor, with this reversal of the situation where the young girl, who was presented as hyper shy, clumsy, but very intelligent, has this Cinderella moment where she is metamorphosed, and the main character realizes how much she is pretty and desirable. »
From fiction to reality
But it’s not just on TV that stereotypes persist. Carl Beaudoin, education researcher and lecturer at the University of Sherbrooke and the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières (UQTR), focused in his doctoral thesis, in 2020, on the stereotypes to which the secondary school teachers and students, particularly with regard to intelligence. His research shows in particular that even today, girls are expected to be more gifted in French than in mathematics or science, areas where boys are deemed to have more ease.
This type of stereotyping, he points out, can go so far as to influence students’ sense of competence and lead to what is called a self-fulfilling prophecy. “If boys tell themselves, for example, that this discipline is associated with girls, they will be less successful; it is self-fulfilling, in a way, because of the question of gender identification. »
Even the personality of teenagers can align with all these stereotypes associated with intelligence.
In a somewhat unconscious way, the student will seek to correspond to this identity that is affixed to him. It can quickly become like a prison […] ; he integrates it and it becomes his identity.
Katia Bissonnette, psychologist
Deconstruct stereotypes
Stereotypes are, however, a completely normal way for the brain to “classify things” to facilitate our perception of the world and our environment, nuances the psychologist. “It’s like a way of simplifying reality. Categories are formed automatically, and the main ones are almost all made by the age of 7 or 8. It becomes kinds of beliefs. »
It is when we begin to make negative value judgments about an entire category – assuming, for example, that a person is antisocial because they are very bright – that these stereotypes become prejudices that can potentially lead to discrimination, points out the psychologist – like excluding someone who is brilliant in class from your sports team. This is why, to deconstruct stereotypes and generalizations, it is necessary to encourage mixtures between “groups” so that individual contact is established, believes Katia Bissonnette.
Carl Beaudoin also remarks that students from less economically viable backgrounds will tend to adhere more to certain stereotypes, due to a lack of knowledge and information. Hence the importance, according to him, of having strong role models in society.
PHOTO KARENE-ISABELLE JEAN-BAPTISTE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION ARCHIVES
Farah Alibay, engineer at NASA
“There is a lot of talk about NASA engineer Farah Alibay. It will probably help a lot of young girls get interested in science and maybe even have a career as an engineer,” he believes.
“Young people are very sensitive to role models and testimonials,” adds psychologist Katia Bissonnette. What they see on TV and at the stars, it touches them a lot. Just knowing that it’s possible to be different and to make your place in the adult world in a different way opens the doors to something else. »