American anti-intellectualism and the female genius in the work of Aaron Sorkin

Abstract

Anti-intellectualism in America not only has a long and established history but has seen an increasing rise in recent years. The figure of the ‘genius’ archetype on popular television has frequently been presented through a lens of anti-intellectualism, leading intellectualism to be read as an illness or disorder. The works of Aaron Sorkin have taken a different position, and, rather than distancing the audience from these geniuses by presenting their differences as traits that need to be corrected, the genius in works such as The Newsroom (2012‐14) is held up as the ideal for society at large. Although genius has been predominately presented as a male characteristic, in popular culture there has been an increasing number of female geniuses and Sorkin’s writing foregrounds this as an important revision because the images that we see in popular culture influence the way we view the world around us. In this article, I consider the history and continued relevance of anti-intellectualism as notably examined by Richard Hofstadter, Jack Nachbar and Kevin Lause and Daniel Rigney. I also explore the rise of the genius on-screen, as closely examined in the writing of Ashley Lynn Carlson and David Sidore. I examine the way that Sorkin’s works actively counters anti-intellectualism and through exemplary Sorkin characters such as Sloan Sabbith (Olivia Munn) in The Newsroom and Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain) in Molly’s Game (2017), wherein he opens up the traditionally masculine space of the genius to his female protagonists.