Penny's also the one who vomits when she visits Amy at work, despite her gleeful stories about gutting deer and her skill at dissections in biology class. And she seems to have given up football because Leonard doesn't enjoy them and generally feels intimidated by the other guys there. (I'm still not sure why she can't do football parties without him.) But yeah, at the beginning of the series, she certainly got an interesting role in the narrative.
The characters often say that they fail with women but, objectively, Leonard and Sheldon at least don't.
Leonard is never hurting for female companionship - red-headed doctor that he got off of Howard, Penny (multiple times) Priya, Leslie Winkle, that girl at the bar he and Penny go to after their "not a date" movie, Joyce Kim, that scientist who is Sheldon's house guest (the one who wants a gangbang with Leonard, Howard, and Raj), the old lady donator, the woman at the comics shop who Leonard cheats on Priya with, Sheldon's research assistant, and who knows who else because all of those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure that there are others.
Sheldon picks up that red-headed grad student (the one who thinks Penny is her rival) without noticing it. The implication, both by the conversational cues and the fact that he has another date at the end of the episode, is that he dates grad students fairly frequently without realizing that he's doing it. He picks up girls with Raj at a grad student mixer. And of course there's poor Amy. Again, this is off the top of my head, but that's a lot of dating for a guy who professes not to be interested in it.
Raj and Howard certainly seem to do worse, judging by the episodes in which they go bar trawling but, again, Howard is full of interesting dating stories that happened off-screen or between episodes - like being robbed by a pre-op transsexual on J-Date or losing his virginity in the back of a car. They may do poorly but they don't entirely strike out. Even Raj gets to have at least two one night stands before the writers invented a girlfriend for him that is even more socially awkward than he is for him to romance. So yeah, they suck but they don't exactly suffer extreme dating isolation or rejection either.
And, while I certainly agree with you that Penny should dump Leonard and move on to anyone else, the writers have said that "Penny needs to do some hard growing up" before she's "ready to settle down with Leonard." To me, that implies that Leonard and Penny are their endgame. So the writers, at least, don't seem to see a problem with the relationship.
I love Amy in all of her awkward glory! I ship Amy and Sheldon as best friends for life but not romantic partners. I'd rather she date Zach... or Priya... and flummox Sheldon with tales of her wild sexual escapades.
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The characters often say that they fail with women but, objectively, Leonard and Sheldon at least don't.
Leonard is never hurting for female companionship - red-headed doctor that he got off of Howard, Penny (multiple times) Priya, Leslie Winkle, that girl at the bar he and Penny go to after their "not a date" movie, Joyce Kim, that scientist who is Sheldon's house guest (the one who wants a gangbang with Leonard, Howard, and Raj), the old lady donator, the woman at the comics shop who Leonard cheats on Priya with, Sheldon's research assistant, and who knows who else because all of those are just off the top of my head. I'm sure that there are others.
Sheldon picks up that red-headed grad student (the one who thinks Penny is her rival) without noticing it. The implication, both by the conversational cues and the fact that he has another date at the end of the episode, is that he dates grad students fairly frequently without realizing that he's doing it. He picks up girls with Raj at a grad student mixer. And of course there's poor Amy. Again, this is off the top of my head, but that's a lot of dating for a guy who professes not to be interested in it.
Raj and Howard certainly seem to do worse, judging by the episodes in which they go bar trawling but, again, Howard is full of interesting dating stories that happened off-screen or between episodes - like being robbed by a pre-op transsexual on J-Date or losing his virginity in the back of a car. They may do poorly but they don't entirely strike out. Even Raj gets to have at least two one night stands before the writers invented a girlfriend for him that is even more socially awkward than he is for him to romance. So yeah, they suck but they don't exactly suffer extreme dating isolation or rejection either.
And, while I certainly agree with you that Penny should dump Leonard and move on to anyone else, the writers have said that "Penny needs to do some hard growing up" before she's "ready to settle down with Leonard." To me, that implies that Leonard and Penny are their endgame. So the writers, at least, don't seem to see a problem with the relationship.
I love Amy in all of her awkward glory! I ship Amy and Sheldon as best friends for life but not romantic partners. I'd rather she date Zach... or Priya... and flummox Sheldon with tales of her wild sexual escapades.