Professor looks at the beauty of brain

Teenage girls are forced to choose between beauty and brains according to a University of Wollongong Academic.

Associate Professor from the Faculty of Education Wilma Vaille has been studying the way ‘giftedness’ is portrayed in popular culture and how this can effect the way students relate with the world around them.

Looking specifically at television shows The Simpsons and Daria and the Harry Potter series Prof Vaille has been investigating the way pop-culture sees and reflects ‘gifted’ students.

“Basically the gifted person in all three of those texts is female, is studious, is not considered cool and may in some situations be forced to try to choose between friendship and being true to their own abilities, so that’s one of the things that come through,” she said.

She said students in situations especially designed for ‘gifted’ learning are often shown as arrogant, precious or robot-like.

She said the portrayal of ‘gifted’ children as pariahs in popular culture can have real-world ramifications.

“I think there are a couple of ways in which it impacts on (‘gifted’ children),” she said.

“These kinds of images of it being undesirable to be gifted affect not only the way other kids might respond to them but even teachers.”

Prof Vaille said stereotypes are often used to make an intelligent comment about the prejudice or misconceptions surrounding a group, but can still encourage a stereotypical view of a certain kind of person.

She said the texts she has studied give examples of how children might hide their gifts even from their teachers to fit in. “You take Daria for example – Daria’s sister may not be as strong intellectually as Daria but there is certainly indications that she may be very smart as well, however she just gets rid of that for the sake of fitting in,” Prof Vaille said.

Professor Vaille outlined some of the findings of her research to date at the first Uni in the Brewery address in Wollongong last week.