The sexism comments bother me. They reveal a level of sensitivity to possible stereotypes that itself indicates the power these stereotypes still have. In a way, the comments are a self fulfilling prophecy. If the wife had been portrayed as being ditsy, that would be worse, though I'm not even sure that's necessarily wrong. In any case, I thought that the woman was portrayed as an inquisitive layperson able to absorb new ideas.
Reminds me of this Richard Feynman story:
A few diehard protesters stayed till the end of Feynman’s talk, and complained that they still didn’t like that woman-driver story:
"Why did it have to be a woman driver?" they said.
"You are implying that all women are bad drivers."
"But the woman makes the cop look bad," I said.
"Why aren’t you concerned about the cop?"
"That’s what you expect from cops!" one of the
protesters said. "They’re all pigs!"
"But you should be concerned," I said.
"I forgot to say in the story that the cop was a woman!"
"She gets me going on purpose just so she can see my arms waving and the vein pop out of my head while I'm trying to describe this stuff. I don't think she really pays all that much attention to what I'm actually saying."
My friends do this to me all the time. I know they don't really care but they keep asking questions until I can't resist explaining stuff to them.
Reminds me of this Richard Feynman story:
A few diehard protesters stayed till the end of Feynman’s talk, and complained that they still didn’t like that woman-driver story: