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Sexy Female Scientist Video Draws Fire
sciencehabit writes "A new video released by the The European Commission — ostensibly aimed at getting girls interested in science — is drawing widespred condemnation from around the web for its depiction of female scientists as sexy models strutting into the frame in high heels and short skirts. A male scientist watching them from behind his microscope doesn't seem to mind that none of them are wearing safe lab attire—he just pops his glasses on for a better look. The rest of the video is a mish-mash of heels, nail polish, lipstick, and sexily smoldering Erlenmeyer flasks, arbitrarily punctuated by girly giggles." The Commission denies that the video (since pulled) was a parody, but they've certainly set the bar high for anyone who wanted to make an actual parody.
Whats wrong with sexy female scientists - they have them in movies.
A story where everybody reads the article!
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
I can imagine somebody was trying to address a number one concern of girls: It's not a sexy enough job! And I can't be sexy doing it, either.
... And I'm not even a grrl!
I'll be honest, until I saw the tagline at the end, I thought this was a makeup commercial.
In the sense that people read Playboy magazine for the articles.
vos nescitis quicquam, nec cogitatis quia expedit nobis ut unus moriatur homo pro populo et non tota gens pereat.
As long as we raise them to value glamour, we'll need to show them how science can be glamorous instead of nerdy.
Any woman who doesn't mind that and is so inclined will become a scientist without any prodding. Indeed, you can't keep us away from it, same as the guys who are into it. They just don't have fashion holding them back.
I'm all for this. We need more sex in the workplace. A sexy work environment, is a productive work environment.
I totally agree... they were obviously aiming for a dual-sponsored message.
Science: it's a girl thing
maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline
If you really want to close the gender gap, show girls the video of Ariel Waldman's talk at last year's OSCON. That..was awesome.
Finding God in a Dog
Why do people insist on closing the gender gap just for the sake of closing the gender gap? Is the goal to make more or better science come out of Europe? No, its just to have more female scientists, so that progressives can have a warm fuzzy feeling, but that will never happen, because someone who wants equality of result will never be satisfied.
Judging by the 'tweets', what seems to be the original has been made 'private', i.e. taken-down. (I'm assuming that was the official YouTube posting - I can't find anything more official looking.)
As well as the mirror linked in the summary, we have a Youtube mirror, and another non-Youtube mirror.
Why would they bother? Do they really not realise that if you release something high-profile on the web, it's out for good?
Why would anyone want to recruit people who are easily influenced by superficial things into a profession where the superficial must to be ignored in order to gain new knowledge? Where the makers of the film hoping that people suddenly change their personalities when presented by the wonders of science?
I don't know about American labs, but this is how we roll in Europe. Especially, Biology labs...
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Perhaps you're unaware that the modern American chic is 80s and 90s dominated. I was at the Protoman concert last night (with unexpected guest Tenacious D), and everybody was there wearing 80s style clothing. Including my wife, who has a PhD in Chemistry, and does theoretical chemistry research at Vanderbilt.
That said, while she was dressed up for the concert, she wears professional attire at work. In other words, science is a job like any other.
However, having heard her rant about things like this, she'll probably be more amused at the "piles of random glassware, all with large amounts of colored chemicals, putting out visible fumes". Ever notice there's never a hood or tiny desk in these kinds of presentations?
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Why does anybody want to advertise this way?
Does science career needs THIS type or any type of advertising?
People who go to science and people who science need to go into science, have completely different channels of getting into science, being highborn for example (science is one of the most hereditary professions in the world).
Science does not need extra people, science does not need advertising.
If science had a want in people, postdocs won't be living on meager 50K a year salary, grown 35 old men with beards and wives.
Why don't European commission advertise food serving industry, the situation seems quite deplorable there?
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
Next stop - stirring more male interest in the nursing profession by making an ad with fast cars in a hospital.
I'm just glad that it was the Europeans that did this.
Imagine what a Japanese one would have looked like. Probably too weird to compute. I'm thinking exploding android head like in I, Mudd.
I had a sucky sig.
Why did no one complain that they used a sexy male model for a scientist too?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Because after we fill girls' head with garbage about needing to be tall and thin, needing to wear high heels and makeup and the rest of it; getting them to follow celebrities who do the above... THIS is a problem.
Baby steps.
I'm sure every single girl wants to look like an unattractive female scientist wearing a labcoat and geeky safety equipment and looking plain. Especially after the garbage everyone else is throwing into their head.
that video i just watched just had 3 bimbos who werent sexy in the place of 3 sexy girls in miniskirts
Please take a look at how things work in Denmark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZ8_81Qy9kg&feature=BFa&list=UU3B_-v8-6-_6Px0FwBcLTrw Not at all related to the subject but also funny - and from just across the lawn: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOzwpMs-5bM&feature=BFa&list=UU3B_-v8-6-_6Px0FwBcLTrw
Well, why not? The advertising industry has been using the trappings of science for decades to push their wares. Why shouldn't science do the same back to them?
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
Not to sound like a hippy... but there are large portions of this planet where life is cheap, blood soaks the streets, children are forced into war AND people starve to death. How about we look at those real problems first before we get our panties in a bunch over something so trivial?
What a horrible bunch of stereotypes and role models for young girls. Everyone know that to be smart you have to bug ugly or fat.
For Science.
I was one of them. When I was 12 I wanted to get a PhD in astrophysics and work for NASA. It wasn't the lack of sexy in science that made me change majors in undergrad, it was calc based physics at 8AM my first semester of college, followed by honors calculus with theory at noon. Bad scheduling on the part of the university did far more to kill my interest in STEM than the lack of female mentoring. I'd probably have had my PhD in physics just in time for NASA to start shutting down if it wasn't for my inadequate alarm clock!
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3eZQHwGQE0&feature=g-u-u
I agree with Dr. Meghan Gray. She is spot on.
For those not familiar with Brady (the interviewer and editor of the videos), don't take too much offense. He commonly takes an antagonistic view to help draw out a more in-depth response.
"Condemnation"? Isn't that a bit strong for what at most deserves a "that's silly"?
We have completely devalued outrage to the point where it has almost no meaning left at all.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Because he was hot. It's like they screwed up and made an ad appealing to men instead of women. They should have had a bunch of attractive male scientists strutting around a pretty but not-too-pretty female scientist.
Don't make a big deal about gender, just matter of factly show that there are women out there doing interesting jobs like this: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?all_videos&id=960#fragment-5
Related: exciting video, "Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8
Was the alien wearing a lab coat?
What would have been nice was if the advert had women talking about cool and interesting things they'd done with science. Science is usually a means to end I.E. solves a problem or provides understanding. Lab work is the grunt part. Nobody shows off programming with sexy videos of people typing away on their IDE, they show of the results like fancy web pages and cool applications. That is how you generate interest. This director should get in contact with Maybelline...
I mean common, the video clearly shows that for every 3 female scientists theres only ONE Male scientist. I mean common, we all know the glass ceiling for male scientists exists AND they now the have to stereo type that they are all ruggedly hansom males with chiseled jaws? I mean how much more sexist can you get?
On the other hand if we do expect to live past the impending nuclear doomsday, we must bring this ratio up to a more prodigious ratio of 10 to 1. to facilitate the proper breeding rate to bring back that to the present Gross National Product within say, twenty years. And of course the females would all need to be selected on factors from youth, health, sexual fertility, intelligence, and a cross-section of necessary skills....
Just Sayin....
End Transmission....
I swear this is just someone launching a new line of makeup. I mean the colors, the beakers, the models classic Makeup stuff. Don't let that little blip at the end fool you.
Presto! Someo calls Benny Benassi to make a suitable music for this video!
Why should a sexy male be offensive? What makes this video offensive isn't directly related to who is or isn't physically attractive.
The truly offensive aspect of the video is the assumption that the only concept women respond to is fashion commercials. The inclusion of attractive men is common in ads for women's products, and is part of the overall stereotype demonstrated by this commercial.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
"Hey boys, there are hot girls in science!" ? ....
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
I can confirm this based on real life experience that spans 10 years and 4 countries
Major FAIL!
This looks like its going to interest guys more than anything. Want to attract women into science? Get some Abercrombie & Fitch male models in lab coats into your promotional videos.
Have gnu, will travel.
Now, they did wear proper 'lab' gear when at work, but outside of the lab, they wore whatever they wanted .. and if they wanted to look hot ... they did.
If you want a video of hot female scientists, just find some, do some real interviews with them and splice the pieces together. Not only will you have hot babes talking about science, you'll probably have something that real girls will listen to.
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Forensic "science"... isn't.
Thank you, Edward Snowden.
"Arguments from authority are worthless." —Carl Sagan
Also, with regard to the national institute I'm at, I tell people I haven't seen this many pregnant women since high school, but that's probably because they're getting to a certain age.
I'm not sure if that says something about your institute... or something about your high school.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Time was, the only "acceptable" professions for women were teachers and nurses. Hence part of the reason they still dominate there. However since we've gotten over that, one area women have flocked to is veterinary medicine. My vet (a fairly sizable animal hospital) is ALL women. All the vets, all the vet techs, all the receptionists, everyone.
This isn't because there's some massive push to get women in to it, it is because they want to do it. My mother's theory is that it is the nurturing nature of the work that appeals to many women, combined with being fairly well paid and skilled. For that matter, mom would have very much liked to be a vet, had it been an option to her (her parents were very much the "You can be whatever you want, a nurse or a teacher," type).
A copy of the video is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g032MPrSjFA
Just so you can see it's every bit as bad as the summary says.
(Posting anon to avoid karma-whoring)
There are beautiful female scientists! See Neri Oxman: http://science.slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=Neri+Oxman
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
...just opened up a dead LCD monitor, and replaced 4 capacitors, and it's good as new. That was HOT (in the figurative and literal sense, since there was soldering involved). She wasn't wearing heels or make-up while doing it, however. And it wasn't really science, I guess, since the electronics is a bit of a sideline for her, but anyway...
There's nothing wrong with sexy scientists, but if you're trying to show sexy scientists, you should try to show how doing the "STEM" (wow, I hate that abbreviation) is sexy itself.
Just adding my voice to those that are already here. Seriously, 80's look with random high school symbols of science splashed over a lipstick commercial. I don't think the creators know what science is, nor that women are nothing like the bimbos shown in the video (nothing personal against the actors).
Lets put it this way, the stereotypical women depicted in the video couldn't get past grade school math let along drop into science. The Ad ends with "It's a girl thing" but that is NOT what science is (for those close to high BP, it's not a guy thing either). Science is science, and the rest of the Ad is what society "appears" to want girls to be like. All the Ad did was support the negative later!
Please, depending on the age group you are targeting, pay some experts in the field to get your message across like: Disney, Vogue, Glamour, Victoria Secret, or even Target! Don't buy rejected lipstick Ads on the cheap and throw a guy & some beakers into it.
I'll bite. "women are nothing like the bimbos shown", really? I've met women who do like to flaunt their sensuality in certain appropriate circumstance, much more so than what was displayed. Furthermore, "bimbos", really? Did they do anything approaching noncommittal sexual relations, or was that your imagination?
Lipstick: Lots of science goes into making cosmetics. Who better to formulate cosmetic chemicals than those who typically wear them?
Assumption that models are ignorant of "grade school math" & science: Oh, now you're just being even more of a completely sexist cheauvanistic douchbag. Five of the six models I've met were putting themselves through college with their looks, wouldn't you if you could? The sixth had a degree in art. They ALL have passed grade school level math & science -- who doesn't these days? (DAMN YOU'RE A DICK).
I agree science isn't sexually discriminant, however, I disagree. Science IS a "Girl Thing", just as much as it is a "Guy Thing", it's non exclusive, ergo it's both.
As one who uses a microscope, and wears glasses for farsightedness, ANYONE approaching me while examining a slide would warrant the donning of my glasses...
Look, I agree the ad was over sexed a bit, but you're just an asshole. Fuck you.
I saw the video of pinkness the other day, and I thought that it completely failed to sensibly attract girls to science, and made a mockery of science itself.
Then I saw Prometheus that night. In retrospect, the science in that promo clip wasn't _that_ bad...
Your preconceptions are quite horrible. Why wouldn't a pretty girl be able to pass grade school math? Quite a few of the PhDs I've met were pretty women. Perhaps a bit less glamorous than the ad, but not by miles.
And the point of 'what society "appears" to want girls to be like' is lost on me. Girls WANT to be like that, at least a bit. It might be because of our society, although I doubt that explains it 100%, but that doesn't change the fact.
So, while you lead the revolution that makes society impose less demands on female looks, let these girls choose a science career.
Looking at the video and some of the responses I just keep thinking that if they just wanted to start a buzz they succeeded. If you want someone to notice something they have to notice it. It is now noticed. Exactly what it says is nowhere near as important as imbedding the idea in the mind. Time and again it has been shown that annoying ads work as well as pleasant ones.
They have linked the two ideas: Girls, and sexy girls at that, and Science, and cut through and differentiated the issue. We are arguing a very different issue then we were yesterday. That is a good thing.
I am going to respond to you cause the other guy was just simply uncivilized and doesn't merit one. You got me wrong. I know a few people who actually got out of research and IT consulting to pursue a career in modeling cause that paid more. Of course that also meant that they were very attractive. So pretty has little to nothing to do with smarts and education. I understand the concept well. As I stated, I had nothing against the actors, I meant it.
I was criticizing the Ad. Ads are all about symbolism and stereotypes. And the vibe I got from the Ad was that of stereotypical 80's brightly colored comedy relief that tags along with the heroes in movies (think the reverse of Austin Powers, as it was making fun of the 80's hero and propped up the females) aka: 80's bimbo. My personal opinion was that, symbolically speaking, mixing what is an intellectual concept (beakers & lab) with an air head concept (lipstick, fashion, babes posing in various stances) was the wrong way to go. You may say equating beakers to intellect and lipstick to air head is wrong... and I completely agree. But that is what our society has equated them to be... just look at any recent movie... or even in the last 40 years. Even the tough heroines utilize lipstick and such to catch the bad guys off guard. Ask yourself what our society says & thinks about that symbol?
I don't think girls want to make it their goal to become models. I think that is a concept that gets environmentally influenced on them conscientiously and sub-conscientiously from the minute they realize that there are "boys" and "girls". It's a reality that we face. My problem was that rather than utilizing that reality to show pretty & intellectual babes, they choose to go the "posing models" route. Which although not true, doesn't symbolically come off as "intellectual"... just for a lack of a better word... bimbos.
On that point why was only a LAB taken as the symbol science? That is a very 80's boring, nerdy symbol. Why didn't they show astronomy, nanotechnology, or robotics? The message shouldn't have been, "Lipstick, poses, & pretty smiles work in a geeky lab too!" but rather "Women are just as beautiful and sexy _working_ in any of these fields!" (which is very true).
So, I am not leading some revolution on society, I am just saying ... that was NOT the way to use society's symbolic representations. For me, the Ad almost felt satirical. If it wasn't for the source, I wouldn't have taken it seriously and have assumed as such. If you want girls to get interested in science... go ask Disney or Victoria Secret for advice. Those guys are experts in getting their customer's attention and guiding it which ever way they intend.
Yep, that's how I remember science lessons!
I didn't see any immigrants, as far as I could tell they all look European to me.
Pamela Stephenson - in the "Not the Nine O'Clock News" comedy series, one of the Superman movies and for many years a psychologist and author. She may be married to Billy Connelly but that's a relevant as Richard Dawkins being married to Lalla Ward (2nd Romana in Dr Who).
It seems that on the other side of the pond you still can not invite a female colleague for dinner without having the fear of it being called sexual harassment, call a black guy black, a Phillipino Phillipino and so on. Lately, a video mixing a science subject and high heels is a no-go zone. Whatever! (and yes my gf agrees, so this is not an isolated one-man view). So, attempt to suspect there might even be good intentions, some times. Give it a try.
Disclaimer preface: I'm all for gender equality, I'm against feminism (which started out right, then took a wrong turn somewhere and by now is pure discrimination against men).
So with that in mind, I fail to see what the fuss is all about. Sure there may be better ways, then again this is marketing, advertisement. You can probably find more offensive stuff in every evening ad break on TV if you want to.
Many girls agree with me when we talk about it, few admit it on the Internet or somewhere else they can be quoted, but it is not automatically disrespectful to display women as sexy, you know? In fact, objectively speaking, lots of women go to great lengths to be seen as sexy, from make up to choice of clothes and beyond.
Does that have anything to do with science? Nope. But it does have to do with women. If women want to be sexy (and anyone who claims otherwise ought to have a really good explanation for the profits of the make up, beauty magazine and fashion industries), and you want to get them interested in science, one of the things you need to do is remove the "unsexy" tag. Science is neutral, but scientists can be sexy. Heck, some of the femal scientists with YouTube responses are quite sexy. That doesn't make them one bit less competent as scientists.
I personally belief that the real issue is not with the people who see the sexy human being as well as the scientist, but those very people who are so critical and whose basic argument boils down to the claim that you can't be both sexy and a scientist.
Lots of careers are associated with things that only related marginally if at all. Rockstars are as often associated with groupies, drugs and trashed hotel rooms as with musical skills. Athletes, both male and female, are often admired for their bodies as much as for their records. Politicians are associated with almost everything except the dull bureaucratic and negotiation work they actually do. And let's not even get me started on medical doctors in movies and literature.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I watched the video, I showed it to my sister too, and one of my colleagues who is a reserch scientist with a phd and a woman. Neither of them, or me found the video shocking, or sexist, mostly our general opinion was that it's funny. That's it. Who found this overly sexist or codnemnable just should get a reality check. My sisters reaction to these opinions was that they probably come from prude americans - and she does live in the U.S. so go figure :D
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
I see nothing wrong with this.
It's not so different from a good number of music videos, and those are seen as fine by most young guys and girls alike. Considering who this is targeted at, it seems all good to me!
Does the video advertise to guys more than gals? Perhaps, but it certainly addresses the feeling that science isn't sexy enough amongst the younger generations...
That was kind of the joke. In fact, I only knew 1 or two girls in high school (that I know) have kids, while lots of girls work at my current institute have been pregnant (and often wearing high heels in labcoats, WTF?). This is in stark contrast to undergraduate college where I NEVER saw a pregnant student. Those women always seemed focused on getting that degree at that stage in life and were also not as irresponsible as the high schoolers.
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It's too much to ask of young girls- and this is who this is aimed at- to forgo and deny their innate aspirations to be seen as sexually desirable in all major social contexts in which they may meet a suitable mate, such as their careers.
Men have exactly the same thing with CSI and NUMB#RS and Lie To Me the new Sherlock Holmes etc etc where a deliberate attempt to portray them as BOTH highly intelligent, even intellectual, and sexually powerful and desirable.
We like to pretend we're not sexual in certain contexts, but we're really one horny species, always on the make, always with the radar going.
So this is saying in a way that's too clumsy for some adults- hey girls, being smart is not about giving up your desirability to the opposite (or same) sex. You can have it all! As well they should.
Adults who are getting shitty pants over this need to develop a more realistic model of who and what human beings are, how they conduct themselves and what their persistent, ubiquitous and biologically compelling concerns really are.
Nice contemporary video to promote women in science.
IMHO, it looks like a pretty standard ad for a cosmetics company. Minus the context, I'd have no idea they were trying to pitch science as a career choice for women. That being said, I think the real issue is more about changing the stereotype that all scientists are socially retarded (can I say that?) nerds. Science itself needs to be made more appealing to a culture that throws tons of money and undeserved fame at people like those on The Jersey Shore. By elevating people like that to stardom, you make more people want to be like them. Personally, I'd like to see competitions like FIRST have huge cash awards and slots on the talk show circuit. Treat the winners like rockstars and you will draw more people to science and engineering.
While not a girl I had same issue. Why do universities do that anyway? Is it intentional, or do Arts professors just not like to get up early either?
I mean you could draw a line correlation between how "sciency" a course was and how early the class was (and what day it was on). Seemed like all my Maths were Monday morning, early, after the binge drinking weekend. 8am for Calc, though stats not being as serious was at 10am. Meanwhile all my arts friends were sleeping in til noon for their nice afternoon and evening classes. I think the ONLY science class I had in the evening was Astronomy, and you know that's just cause they HAD to!
Sexy isn't necessarily sexist. This isn't really either.
Video still available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g032MPrSjFA
and
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/06/25/the-e-u-s-breathtakingly-awful-science-video/
Add this one to the pool:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtPGIzLuBVQ