Much-hyped new National Geographic series Genius chronicles the life of Albert Einstein. The first episode premiered last night and right from its opening scene, in which the groundbreaking theoretical physicist has extra-marital sex with his office assistant, we know we’re probably not going to be subjected to long-winded digressions on the theory of relativity.
In common with most other intellectuals, Einstein had a complicated private life. He was married twice and frequently unfaithful. But still it would be a shame if Genius, which stars Johnny Flynn as the cocky young Einstein and Geoffrey Rush as the older equivalent, resulted in Einstein’s domestic arrangements eclipsing the fact that E=mc2.
But when Genius’ Einstein says stuff like “When you’re in bed with a beautiful woman, an hour passes by in a split second- that is relativity!”, the social media outrage machine goes into high gear:
People should really stop holding Einstein to some moral standard. A great scientist but a raging sexist who ended his wife’s career.
— Trystan Lambert (@TrystanSLambert) April 1, 2017
I’m looking forward to Genius.
But have mixed feelings about ad previews re: sexist pig shit re: Einstein. Truth doesn’t mean want to watch.— ReformedDevil😈 (@LuciferArgues) April 19, 2017
Einstein Was a Misogynist. A Womanizer. All Humans Have Value. (Also, a Remarkable Genius.) https://t.co/wXnwsSAgOQ
— James Smothers (@J_K_Smothers) April 2, 2017
unfortunately, Albert Einstein was a misogynist, just like Gandhi sigh
— ° (@shzwnzh) March 4, 2017
There is a show about Einstein, and it’s literally just him having sex with white women. Straight people gotta be stopped.
— Brandon (@brandonlgtaylor) April 15, 2017
Genius, produced by Ron Howard, is said to get more scientific as the series progresses. But for now the status of Yahoo Serious’s 1988 movie Young Einstein—which imagined the scientist as an Australian splitting the atom with a chisel and inventing surfing and rock’n’roll—as the most frivolous biopic out there about Albert is in jeopardy…
