Let’s rewind. Amy makes her debut during an online date with Sheldon Cooper (played by Jim Parsons), who shares her social awkwardness. They appear perfectly matched, largely because neither is particularly interested in dating. Yet, they develop an unexpected romantic relationship, surprising their friends, including Sheldon’s roommate Leonard (Johnny Galecki), neighbor Penny (Kaley Cuoco), and close friends Howard Wolowitz and Raj Koothrappali (Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar), as well as Howard’s future wife, Bernadette (Melissa Rauch). So, what happens to Amy’s career?

Here’s the situation: over the course of “The Big Bang Theory,” Amy transitions from being a successful neuroscientist with her own career to becoming a supporting figure for Sheldon, culminating in both of them receiving a Nobel Prize. This is more problematic than the show’s frequent belittling of Amy’s natural desires for affection, which I’ll also address. Such treatment is a disservice to the field of neuroscience and to Bialik herself. Let me elaborate.

Casual viewers of the series know that Sheldon Cooper is notoriously rude and condescending, believing himself intellectually superior to everyone. (Am I giving my opinion here? Absolutely, but it’s warranted!) Unfortunately, this attitude extends to Amy, as Sheldon, a theoretical physicist, often dismisses biology as inferior to physics—a sentiment he frequently shares with Amy. Strangely, Sheldon initially respects Amy’s professional achievements, even remarking in a Season 5 episode that she’s too accomplished to date someone like comic book store owner Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman). However, the writers inexplicably shift, allowing Sheldon’s disdain to grow.

In Jessica Radloff’s 2022 book, “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” writers and executive producers Steve Molaro and Steve Holland highlight that Mayim Bialik’s real-life neuroscience background inspired Amy’s character. (Bialik studied neuroscience at UCLA, earning a PhD in the field.) As Holland noted, Amy’s character was essentially built around Bialik’s scientific credentials:

Take, for example, another Season 5 episode called “The Shiny Trinket Manuever.” When Amy finds out her work is going to be published in a prestigious neuroscience journal, she’s understandably mad that Sheldon literally doesn’t care — he’s way more excited about his paltry 100 followers on the site formerly known as Twitter — forcing Penny to step in. Even though Sheldon gets Amy a gift to celebrate both their relationship and her accomplishment, he still tells Penny that he has to fake his excitement, because he doesn’t care about her work. Then, in the subsequent episode “The Vacation Solution,” Sheldon spends time at Amy’s lab during an extended hiatus from his own work but just bashes her profession before trying to slice into a brain, cutting his finger, and passing out. This kind of stuff isn’t just disrespectful to Amy, but to real neuroscientists who deserved better representation.

In Jessica Radloff’s 2022 book “The Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, Inside Story of the Epic Hit Series,” two of the show’s writers and eventual executive producers, Steve Molaro and Steve Holland, specifically cited Mayim Bialik’s real neuroscience career as inspiration for Amy’s portrayal on the show. (Bialik studied neuroscience at UCLA across several years, eventually earning a PhD in the field.) As Holland put it, the character of Amy was basically crafted around Bialik’s career:

“I think Amy only turned into a neuroscientist because we cast Mayim and she was a neuroscientist in real life. In fact, in the episode where we first meet her, I don’t think we ever say what she does. It just became a matter of writing to those characters’ strengths. As [creator Chuck Lorre] has always said, we have to treat these characters like human beings first and foremost. The jokes will come later.”

As for Molaro, he revealed that Kate Micucci, who went on to play a love interest for Raj, also auditioned for the role of Amy … but Bialik’s real-life experience won out. “Because Mayim could bring an authenticity to the science and to the intelligence of the character, Chuck was like, ‘I think that’s so cool. Let’s go with her,’” Molaro recalled.

Okay, this is all well and good, but what was the point of any of it if they were just going to throw Amy’s career in the trash? I suppose the jokes do “write themselves,” because by the end of “The Big Bang Theory,” that’s precisely what Amy’s career in neuroscience was: a joke.

Even though Sheldon and Amy work together on a neurobiology project in the Season 10 episode “The Collaboration Fluctuation,” the tide eventually turns entirely toward Sheldon’s extensive work in the field of physics … because Amy just pivots with little to no explanation of how she can change scientific fields at the drop of a hat. This all comes to a head in the Season 11 installment “The Bow Tie Asymmetry,” which just so happens to be the episode where Sheldon and Amy get married.

As Sheldon struggles with his titular bowtie, Amy notes that it actually looks pretty good if it’s just ever-so-slightly off-kilter, leading Sheldon to come up with a new line of thinking regarding his work in string theory. Together, Sheldon and Amy start working on a study involving super asymmetry (which, by the way, is a fictional concept created by the series) to the point where it delays their wedding, and they tie the knot glowing with the realization that they may have concocted something very special.

This sounds nice, and I’ll be the very first to admit that I don’t know jack about complex scientific fields. What I at least suspect is that a hard pivot from neuroscience to string theory sounds pretty nonsensical, and it gets even worse … because the two win one of the biggest scientific prizes in existence for physics. For the millionth time, Sheldon is a physicist and Amy is a neuroscientist, but her entire field gets shoved to the side.

In the penultimate episode of “The Big Bang Theory” — titled “The Change Constant” — Amy and Sheldon definitively learn that they’ve won the Nobel Prize in Physics, and in the subsequent series finale “The Stockholm Syndrome,” the whole gang flies to Sweden to celebrate the couple’s massive victory. Still, my entire hang-up about this comes down to the fact that Amy gave up her own career aspirations to be Sheldon’s sidekick.

Plus, Amy gets disrespected by Sheldon all the time. As their relationship proceeds at a snail’s pace and Amy seeks physical intimacy with Sheldon, the show doesn’t let him gently tell her that he has fears and boundaries so they need to take things slow. Instead, he just mocks her for having any interest in kissing her boyfriend and treats her like she’s some sort of freak. This is a throughline on the series that continues for, if we’re all being honest, an embarrassingly long amount of time. Still, the most egregious thing is the professional shake-up, because Amy was always really proud of her success in the field of neuroscience.

When Amy gives her “part” of their acceptance speech — she’s really just opening for Sheldon — she says, “I would just like to take this moment to say to all the young girls out there who dream about science as a profession: go for it! It is the greatest job in the world, and if anybody tells you you can’t, don’t listen.” That’s such a nice thought, but it’s empty now that Amy has abandoned her career goals for a boy who’s not always that nice to her.