From my other blog life...

...Still thinking about the Hollywoodization of anthropologists, "Bones," in particular. I'm certain that the cult of personality, as manifested in our professional meetings, is partially to blame for my preoccupation. Bones is just Hollywood's version of the cool social scientist that draws a standing room only crowd when he/she gives a presentation at a conference.

And really, who can forget the first graduate student that rushes into one's office excitedly exclaiming "Oh my gosh, I just got back from the .......Association meeting and I got to meet (Fill in the Blank)! He/She was SOOO cool!" Oh, wait a minute...I was that graduate student.

Anyway. I'm presently preoccupied with the question of how Hollywood represents the life of a woman whose profession requires her to represent the lives and identities of others. I took a second look at this question. In talking with graduate students, I often ask them what the "question behind the question is..." As most of us do, I've found that they tend to first create questions for which they already have answers. So...I already knew the answer to the question above. Bones:
Is sexy
Likes to carry a gun and can do pseudo-Karate (a la Steven Seagal)
Relies on a postpositivist ontology (otherwise, how would she ever catch the real murderer?)
Must wear a ballet top and a chunky necklace of unknown ethnic orgin at least once every episodeSo what is the question behind the question? Well...given my burgeoning interest in mobility and a very real desire to stop acting starstruck everytime I meet (insert name here), I think it is this: How do the creators of Bones see (and therefore write) the mobility of a white, female, gun toting, karate-kicking, postpositivist, heterosexual forensic anthropologist? I think the answer might be best addressed through a scene in which Bones goes to a hip hop club (only at the urging of her artsy, exhibitionist friend) in order to get practice at "being social" and "having fun." At the bar, Bones asks if her "costume is all right," after which she and her friend proceed to the dance floor and have this dialogue with four nameless club goers who I imagine might described in the script as "Ghetto Bitch #1," "Ghetto Bitch #2," "Thuggish Black Dude," and "(Smart) Ghetto Bitch #3:"
Bones: I love this music...It's so tribal!
Friend: Don't say tribal sweetie...
Bones: Why--because of all the Black people?
Friend: Sweetie, just for tonight have fun, stop dissecting and take part!
Bones: African Americans aren't the only one with tribal heritage.
GB#1: (Arms crossed, stepping in front of Bones) You sayin' we natives of some tribe?
Bones: Anthropologically speaking, we're all members of tribes!
GB#2: You better shut your mouth!
Bones: No, I just meant hip hop mirrors the direct visceral connection you see in tribal communication...
TBM: WHAT?
Bones: After the Cartesian split in the 17th century we separted our minds from our bodies...the numeros from the animalistic...
GB#1: Are you callin' me an animal, bitch?
SGB#3: No, bitch, she's usin Cartesian philosophy to say she's down with the music.
GB#1: Who you callin a bitch, bitch? (To Bones): Get out my way. (Tries to push Bones aside). Bones: (Pseudo-Karate chops GB#1 and knocks her to the floor)

Of course, I was deeply offended by the absolute racist/classist cheeziness with which this scene has imagined an exchange between African American club goers and Bones. After watching the scene a second time and listening more closely to the dialogue, I'm thinking that each of the GB's probably studied acting at Julliard.
...Okay, I admit it. I was also put off by the way in which Bones was portrayed as so completely uncool.
....And then I remembered the last time I was at a conference and stepped into a club that had been inundated with "real" enebriated social scientists (present company included).
Maybe Bones isn't so bad after all.