Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
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?
I don't know about American labs, but this is how we roll in Europe. Especially, Biology labs...
This post was generated by a Cadre of Uber Monkeys for Monkey-Man2000 (603495).
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Europeans can be just as bad...remember the performance art cake that was made in protest of female genital mutilation in Africa? You know, the one that screamed when you cut a piece? This is along those same lines.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Because it's a recruiting ad. And we really don't want the average scientist to be as smart as the average consumer.
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.
Yes, this one here.
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).
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).