#distractinglysexy

[Angry Floof]

Lady scientists have inundated the interwebs with the #distractinglysexy hashtag in response to Nobel winner Tim Hunt's 1950s-era chauvanistic comments about women in labs.

A Nobel-winning biochemist's announcement that he has "trouble with girls" in labs because they either cause romantic sparks or start crying when criticized sparked wide condemnation. And as a barrage of tweets shows, the responses of many female scientists are neither silent nor unfunny.

I haven't been so entertained by a hashtag since #IAmARepublican.

 

[RavenSky]

I've been laughing my butt off reading these on Twitter

 

[credoconsolans]

Just goes to show, you can be a book smart Nobel Prize winner, but still not smart enough to know when to keep your mouth shut.

 

[fromderinside]

-nm

 

[credoconsolans]

Looks like the guy was forced to resign

http://news.yahoo.com/nobel-prize-winning-scientist-says-forced-resign-125443022.html

 

[RavenSky]

That's actually too bad. He certainly deserved the ribbing he got from Twitter for his comments, but I don't think he deserved to lose his job for it. From all reports, he never behaved in a sexist manner towards the women he worked with over the years.

Kinda weird that this man should be forced to resign so quickly after so little while others *cough* Richard Dawkins *cough * are like teflon

 

[Angry Floof]

Looks like the guy was forced to resign

http://news.yahoo.com/nobel-prize-winning-scientist-says-forced-resign-125443022.html

BOOOOOO! For fuck's sake, the guy just said some words.

Related note: Maybe this is the most useful difference between a feminist and a feminazi zealot: The stupid idea that he should be punished for expressing an outdated cartoon of an ideology. He's hurt no one.

OK, so he wasn't actually punished. He quit.

The comments caused an instant Twitter storm that quickly led to Hunt, 72, leaving his posts even as he apologized. He has said he had been trying to make a joke, but nevertheless stood by his comment that love affairs in the lab are disruptive to science.

But still, I'm sure a minority of women (and men) have pretty much shit on him in words, which is stupid and says more about those people than about this guy. You might say that's punishment. But that only hurts him as much as he lets it, just like it goes the other way.

Objecting to old views that no longer serve us (if they ever did) is not the same as shitting on someone who doesn't have a huge sphere of ideological influence, regardless of how suddenly famous he is right now. Save that shit for Fox News and the like.

I found his comments funny in the same way that I find Harry Harrison's equally chauvanistic and even funnier Stainless Steel Rat novels, and that is while fully aware that the books' sexist view may not be strictly satire in the author's mind. That I also find that simplistic, misognynist worldview to be an ideological disease - with centuries of women suffering as a consequence - doesn't inspire me light the torches over someone who expressed his views and nothing more.

Twitter and lady scientists made it quite clear that women can handle this shit with humor (read: unforgiving ridicule :devil-smiley-029 and without having to make threats or attacks on the person, just his views. (Show me where he's actually discriminated or abused a woman and I'd object loudly to him personally, too.)

Edit: What Ravensky said.

 

[credoconsolans]

Well, his attitude is pretty much inline with some Muslim clerics.

If women come into the mix, it's THEIR fault that there is a distraction.

I suppose he'd be OK with women being around the lab if they wore bourkhas and didn't speak to any men not their relatives.

 

[Angry Floof]

Well, his attitude is pretty much inline with some Muslim clerics.

If women come into the mix, it's THEIR fault that there is a distraction.

I suppose he'd be OK with women being around the lab if they wore bourkhas and didn't speak to any men not their relatives.

That's a very good point and it's the crux of pretty much all objection to attitudes and beliefs that vilify women for humanity's problems, but the point some of us are making is that he hasn't actually done anything unfair to women as far as we know right now, and there's no reason to assume he ever will.

 

[credoconsolans]

Well, his attitude is pretty much inline with some Muslim clerics.

If women come into the mix, it's THEIR fault that there is a distraction.

I suppose he'd be OK with women being around the lab if they wore bourkhas and didn't speak to any men not their relatives.

That's a very good point and it's the crux of pretty much all objection to attitudes and beliefs that vilify women for humanity's problems, but the point some of us are making is that he hasn't actually done anything unfair to women as far as we know right now, and there's no reason to assume he ever will.

He has not, that we're aware of, but considering he stood by his comments leads me to believe that he can't really see women as equals, which is problematic if he's still teaching in grading and giving assignments and recommendations for any students or junior colleagues.

 

[Angry Floof]

That's a very good point and it's the crux of pretty much all objection to attitudes and beliefs that vilify women for humanity's problems, but the point some of us are making is that he hasn't actually done anything unfair to women as far as we know right now, and there's no reason to assume he ever will.

He has not, that we're aware of, but considering he stood by his comments leads me to believe that he can't really see women as equals, which is problematic if he's still teaching in grading and giving assignments and recommendations for any students or junior colleagues.

Definitely worth paying attention to, if you're inclined to do that. I agree. And now his new level of fame will probably spark more than a few comments from like-minded old men and whoever else might think as they do.

I'm cool with focusing on the funnier and more light hearted aspects of this story, though. Even though you can say that all women suffer or are at some level of risk that men don't deal with when world views like his are supported or excused, I think it's just as useful, if not more so, to focus on the women who are just fine in spite of the level of garbage about them in the culture.

 

[skepticalbip]

This seems to be another example demonstrating that political correctness trumps freedom of expression.

I was rather enjoying the free exchange where he made a somewhat humorous observation about females in the lab and female scientists were rebutting with humorous jabs at him. Unfortunately, political correctness will not allow for such "insensitive" comments, they distract from the message of victimhood.

 

[Perspicuo]

BOOOOOO! For fuck's sake, the guy just said some words.

It's actually good for science that men are made afraid of losing their jobs if they disrespect or otherwise make their female peers feel uncomfortable enough to prefer some other line of work. If the next Marie Curie doing her doc grad work may want to leave because she feels harassed by "fuck sake... words", then go ahead and fire the doggam ass off the idiot using bar/pub language in a lab instead of lab language. If "We're letting you go" is what it takes to stop chauvinists, by Jove, what are we waiting for?

It's a workplace. Use workplace language and workplace respect and workplace political correctness. How adolescential must one be not to understand what one's behavior should be in such a place? Women should be treated like royalty in a research facility, just like all of us. It's simply basic.

 

[laughing dog]

The man quit his job. Does anyone have any evidence that he was literally forced to resign? If not, then this has nothing to do with political correctness.

 

[skepticalbip]

The man quit his job. Does anyone have any evidence that he was literally forced to resign? If not, then this has nothing to do with political correctness.

Universities don't "fire" Nobel laureates. They "strongly suggest" then offer noncommittal statements to the public.

From The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/11/nobel-laureate-sir-tim-hunt-resigns-trouble-with-girls-comments
.......
In a statement published on its website UCL said that it could confirm that Hunt had resigned on Wednesday from his position as honorary professor with the UCL Faculty of Life Sciences, “following comments he made about women in science at the World Conference of Science Journalists on 9 June”.

It added: “UCL was the first university in England to admit women students on equal terms to men, and the university believes that this outcome is compatible with our commitment to gender equality.” ........

 

[beero1000]

It was an honorary professorship - not really an actual 'job'. I can't imagine any reason he'd actually resign without serious pressure from the administration.

 

[C_Mucius_Scaevola]

Lady scientists have inundated the interwebs with the #distractinglysexy hashtag in response to Nobel winner Tim Hunt's 1950s-era chauvanistic comments about women in labs.

A Nobel-winning biochemist's announcement that he has "trouble with girls" in labs because they either cause romantic sparks or start crying when criticized sparked wide condemnation. And as a barrage of tweets shows, the responses of many female scientists are neither silent nor unfunny.

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I haven't been so entertained by a hashtag since #IAmARepublican.

In the spirit of Rule 34, you can just bet that there are websites dedicated to women with their butts sticking out of holes in the ground and/or wearing filter masks. Distractingly sexy for some, distractingly fetishy for others.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In the spirit of Rule 34, you can just bet that there are websites dedicated to women with their butts sticking out of holes in the ground and/or wearing filter masks. Distractingly sexy for some, distractingly fetishy for others.

I was about to post a comment about her ass sticking up.

 

[skepticalbip]

BOOOOOO! For fuck's sake, the guy just said some words.

Not only that but what he said is a valid observation of humans in the workplace. It was a little exaggerated but exaggeration is a technique used in humor and it was supposedly a humorous comment to open his address to a group of reporters. In workplaces where men and women are working together, romances frequently arise. If those romances go sour then it isn't uncommon for the man to sit in a bar and cry over his beer and the woman to cry to her friend.

What he actually said:

"Let me tell you about my trouble with girls," said Hunt. "Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry."

Related note: Maybe this is the most useful difference between a feminist and a feminazi zealot: The stupid idea that he should be punished for expressing an outdated cartoon of an ideology. He's hurt no one.

Agreed. Most of the responders seemed to be having a good time and treating it with humor, as they should - giving jabs in fun like the original statement was. Those with a stick up their arse over it don't seem to enjoy or to understand normal human interactions.

 

[Angry Floof]

The main problem with what he said was that he was making it an issue of women in the workplace and not just workplace. If there were no men in labs, none of that would happen, either.

But I imagine someone of his mentality would then just blame gays and lesbians.

The objections are not at all baseless, but the reactions definitely overblown.