Of (misplaced) Pride and (everlasting) Prejudice

In the kingdom of the blind to science, the one‑eyed scientist might not be king

Guest blog post by Audrey Richard

[Please students, USE THE SURVEY LINK HERE to give us your opinion before reading this post.]

If you are interested in science news, you surely have not missed the big FAIL the European Commission has encountered with the launch of its marketing campaign entitled "Science: It's a girl thing" which aims at encouraging girls to consider committing into scientific careers. If, for some reasons, you have missed it, here is the video that caused "the scandal to break".

I guess it wouldn't be very fair of me to inquire into your reactions without giving you a bit of a context. And rather than paraphrasing or (mis)interpreting the true intentions of the European Commission, here is an extract of the press pack they wrote themselves:

"On 21 June 2012, the European Commission will launch a communication campaign to encourage girls to study science-related subjects and to engage young women in research careers. Women remain largely under-represented in the science, technology and research fields in Europe, which constitutes a huge waste of talent. The campaign will challenge stereotypes on science and show young people, especially girls and young women, that science can be a great opportunity for their future. The campaign will also underline the importance of science and research in finding concrete solutions to our world's problems (food and energy security, environment, healthy ageing etc.). The first phase of the campaign will focus on young people from 13 to 18 years of age. A second phase will target young women."

See, I have already done too much of an interpretation by saying that the campaign aims at "encouraging girls to consider committing into scientific careers" because this is not exactly the intention here. As to girls, it's about making them have an intent look at science and the video, along with the website and the Facebook page dedicated to the whole campaign, was made especially for them. But the day after the launch, there was, all over the Internet, a storm of angry reactions from both male and female scientists, a tsunami of outraged tweets (check the #scienceagirlthing hashtag), a deluge of features and blog posts claiming how awful, offensive and insulting the teaser was (here, here, here or... here). I could go on and on with my bad climatic metaphors poorly building to a climax, but in short: scientists were FU‑RI‑OUS, condemning the whole set of patronizing clichés the video was accused to spread: "This is not what women in science look like and certainly not how they want to be portrayed", they mostly say.

Please also have a look at the feature on the Forbes website and note how people can incidentally become patronizing clichés themselves when it comes to denouncing patronizing clichés. I find there's something Kafkaesque about that. Fascinating, really.

To be honest, the teaser has surely messed with my mind and I'm experiencing a whole bunch of mixed feelings about it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm not even sure it is still relevant to constantly focus on girls and women supposedly not being interested enough in science. But the fact that my field (biology) is not encountering any particular female deficit does not mean, obviously, that the same can be said about other fields, in France or elsewhere in Europe. So let's say that the female deficit in science IS relevant. Then what is my opinion about the teaser? Well, I think it is pretty bad. The music: YERK! The clothes: are you kidding me? The girls' attitudes: you are indeed either kidding me or want me to punch you in the face, right? COME ON, European Commission! Have you actually met a female scientist?

But the thing is that I'm a woman, not a girl, and I don't need to be convinced that I should give science a try, since I'm already into it. So the impact of the video on me is pretty much irrelevant because basically, as tasteless as I find the mise‑en‑scène, it's not meant to please nor convince me. This is totally not about us, women in science. As a matter of fact, the girls are not meant to portray me or any other female scientist, but to play the very target of the campaign: teenage girls, unfamiliar with the world of science (yet) and discovering it. So first, let's get a grip: this does not imply that women working in science are (or should be or are seen as) brain‑dead creatures worshipping Guerlain and Chanel (NB: there can be correlation between a tendency to like nice clothes and cosmetics, and tremendous stupidity, but causation has not been proved yet. Could the horses I am beating be any deader?). Second, though the whole thing may seem caricatural, a lot of teenage girls do care about how they look. At least in France (which is in Europe, so my self‑centered example is not completely off‑topic). Therefore, I shouldn't count out the possibility that girls (maybe you actually) might enjoy the teaser because they would see themselves by proxy in it and that maybe it could make them see science as an enjoyable thing, if by any mischance they haven't already.

Don't get me wrong: not so deep inside, I wish teenage girls would not "dig" the video either. In a way, I do understand the reactions of my peers and I dislike the idea that perhaps such tricks are indeed required to accomplish the goal. What's so hard to love about science after all? And I too hope that girls are inspired by things more meaningful than clothes and make‑up. Because, OF COURSE, I was SO into Nietzsche and Esope myself when I was 15. And OBVIOUSLY, so were all my women colleagues! Don't you dare consider that we, women scientists, have ever let ourselves fall for "shallow" things! (Alright, ALRIGHT, you got me! I used to enjoy glitters at the age of 12 or so, but I swear they were actual glitters, not the movie with Mariah Carey. So can I keep my PhD degree or am I unworthy?).

Yet, should the European Commission play that kind of game to spread the word? Probably not... Well, actually I don't know. Because let's be realistic just for a minute: it's been a while now that girls and women are told they are under‑represented in scientific careers and if things have not changed yet, MAYBE I, woman in science, am unsuccessful at inspiring younger minds with my own professional fulfillment, and though the Commission might have got it wrong, MAYBE I don't know any better than them.

Anyway, the controversy has been so overwhelming that the European Commission resigned itself on Twitter and removed the video from its Youtube channel. And now, as redemption, they are building a list gathering "Real women in science" in response to the homonym hashtag that scientists have been using profusely since the launch. I usually don't let myself go into big joy eruptions, so please forgive me for this: yay us. But can someone remind me why I should be pleased? Did those who were supposed to be so bad at communicating about women and science actually make it up to us by putting our names on a list? Well, looks like Europeans still have it with women after all! I mean: no doubt that the women listed are great role models. But what's the point of such a list and do we even care? I can't help smelling the typical bouquet of self‑righteousness here and I can't believe that such an initiative can be considered as a win.

Actually, shouldn't we try to figure out what teenage girls actually think about the video and incidentally, us, the "real women in science", instead of laying down what we expect them to think? Is that how we want them to see us, as women jumping to the conclusion that all the girls interested in shallow yet fun things as make‑up or trendy clothes should be ashamed of being their age actually and therefore not encouraged to develop their interest in supposedly "more serious" stuff? What's not judgmental and patronizing about that? In any case, if the mistake the European Commission has perhaps made eventually makes us look at ourselves and think of new, creative ways of inspiring girls, and boys, and people in general with science, then perhaps the whole thing shouldn't be considered such a fail after all.

See, I know I have some nerves somehow to be asking for solutions because I don't have any clue myself and to be fair, I did find some people sharing their opinion about what is or could be done to promote science to young people, and showing this video as proper communication about girls and science (which, in my opinion, is not). Whether those solutions would be efficient or not, I don't know. But at least they are trying to help!

However, if by chance there is somewhere on the Internet some kind of a discussion I missed between the European Commission and scientists as to what bigger picture the "Real women in science" list is actually part of, or its big, unique relevance, please let me know how wrong I am, consider that I am the judgmental one and I'll do a "Being wrong: it's MY thing" video to apologize.

But why did the European Commission not consult any scientist to help them create the campaign in the first place, one can wonder? Well, actually they did. Curt Rice, gender expert, explains on the Guardian website that he was part of an advisory group that "provided recommendations to the commission for this campaign" and that they "formulated [their arguments] accessibly. [So] how could the result be so unrecognizable." If they really did, did the Commission honestly believe the campaign complied with the recommendations or deliberately ignore them? Hard to tell. Anyway, he came to the conclusion that perhaps a campaign directed at teens might be better designed by teens themselves and is therefore organizing a contest for young people to do a better teaser than the European Commission was able to launch. But Curt Rice also says that Imogen and Freya Wadlow, 17‑year old twins running two successful science websites, one for teens and one for kids, are categoric: "Girls who love science [...] hate being labeled geeks" according to the big pile of emails they receive. "Why can't scientists wear make‑up, killer heels and be seen laughing?" they ask. Excellent point: WHY NOT?

I assume that some of you are probably slightly older than the campaign targets, plus you are here, reading SV, implying that you are already likely to enjoy science. But still, I'm desperate to ask all of you what you think of the much talked‑about teaser, but also science in general and researchers. The survey should take you 5 minutes to answer it, maybe 10 to 15 if you want to share further thoughts with me. If you allow it, the results and your opinion will be discussed in another post to come. So, whatever your opinion is, please just take the time to let me know. Especially if you like lipstick and clothes.