0 comment Friday, May 16, 2014 | admin
Girly-girls are too girly to be taken seriously as intellectuals and scientists...and other women think so too. Seriously!?!?!? Are we not past that yet people?Sorry, I'll back up a minute...Dr. Isis is taking a lot of flak for being a girly-scientist. Seems that there are a few women out there who really don't like her promoting a feminine caricature because apparently this threatens their validity as scientists. Seriously!?!?! I call bullshit on all these people. I myself am not a particularly girly girl (I'm much more the jeans and t-shirt, camping on the weekends type), but I do see my more girly colleagues struggle to be taken seriously as scientists. I have refrained on several occasions from advising friends to not speak in a high-pitched voice or wear such youthful effeminate clothes when presenting their research. My first impulse is to say these things because I know that the perception of these very competent female scientists is sometimes compromised in the eyes of others due to these stereotypes. But it shouldn't be, so I shut my mouth and all those people who weren't expecting cute little grad student in a skirt to blow their narrow little minds with some kick-ass science - I say to you, prepare for a paradigm shift cuz ya got one coming to ya.I was not prepared to see such blatant woman-bashing from another woman. Renee says in the comments: But here's the thing; I don't actually hate women- I hate female culture. And I think this is what most people mean when they say that they hate this or that group. There are male and female cultures. There are black cultures. There are Hispanic cultures. I don't like most black people not because of their skin color, but because I don't like hip-hop and dancing. I don't like most women because I don't like shopping and romantic comedies. I do have female and black friends, however, because they don't belong to those cultures; they belong to my culture, which involves sci-fi, anime, and board games. Simply put, adding female culture to your blog alienates people who don't belong to/appreciate that culture. Obviously it's a matter of taste. Should that reflect on you as a person/scientist? Honestly? I think female culture also looks down on math and science, much the way that black culture does. The kind of girls I went to high school with that would post pictures of shoes on their blogs definitely looked down on me, that's for sure. So if you add female culture to a post, for me, it makes me take you less seriously, simply because of that association. Sorry. Deal. For the most part, the judgment is accurate (people use top-down processing for a reason; it's effective). If you add geek culture to a post, I'm 10x more likely to take you seriously- partially because geeks have a reputation for being smart, and partially because I am one. Wowzers. I hate people who are not like me. I tried to respond to this but I am so angry at this unabashed display of hate toward women (not to mention black people), that I am incapable of composing a rational response at the moment. Maybe later when I've calmed down. In the meantime, ScientistMother says it best.
Labels: Science