How a dentist and a corrupt French Commissioner are responsible for weird science and Kill Bill videos. There’s no easy, single answer. I work in a competitor to Emakina and Tipik, and used to work in another, and I can tell you that both companies have done excellent work for the EC, and at least one has done cr*p wrk for the EC. And you can probably say that for just about any company in the sector. How can this be? How can the same company have such different outputs, working for the same client? The short answer is that there is no such thing as “the EC”, at least in this context. These comms projects, moreover, can be enormously diverse – from campaigns like the one that prompted this post, to projects which are fundamental to implementing EC programmes and policy. In such an environment there cannot be “one” explanation, or even 3.
But after many years in this biz, I personally have never seen evidence of – or at least, have never benefited from – the power of connections. Are you a hot BABE in heels and a short skirt? SCIENCE is for YOU. High performance access to file storage Updated The EU have clearly acknowledged that there is a problem with getting women into areas like science and technology. Issues such as educational bias, the lack of role-models and certain sorts of institutional sexism have all been cited as problems in the past, and at national level the topic has been discussed at conferences such as the Westminster Education forum last week.
However this Women In Science campaign funded by the EU Commission is hardly going to help. The site - titled: 'Science it's a Girl Thing' - juxtaposes things from science such as bunsen burners and fibre optic cables with items they've obviously found in a selection of women's magazines: lipstick and shoes. They released a video* yesterday: Many irate viewers of the vid are erroneously blaming a comparatively inoffensive American campaign of the same name funded by the US National Science Foundation, via the Americans' Facebook page. Comment 1. 2. Let's play Stereotype Bingo with the European Commission! - Milena Popova. Apparently, science is a "girl thing". Thank you for that enlightenment, European Commission! As a female astrophysicist friend put it, the EU's brand new initiative to attract more women into science is offensive to both men and women - and frankly to scientists.
So looking at the teaser video (above) and other content on the site, let's play Stereotype Bingo! Let's start from the top, shall we? Women want to know about work-life balance as much as about the job Looking at the profiles of women in science videos, nearly half the time in each video is dedicated to what these amazing women do in their free time, be it play football, go shopping or look after the kids. Women are naturally caring In Six reasons why science needs you, we are told about scientific careers in healthcare (healing); food security (feeding); transport, energy and climate action (fixing our broken planet); and "innovative and secure societies" (keeping everyone safe).
Women like pink! Make-up! It's a "girl thing". Why “Pinkifying” Science Does More Harm Than Good. It’s a tough fight, trying to keep girls and women interested in and doing science. So it’s extremely sad when a well meaning campaign makes the entire scientific community sick to its collective stomach. I present to you: “Science, it’s a Girl Thing!” And here is the teaser video, in all its glory… Elyse sums it up quite nicely if you can’t stand to watch the whole thing: SCIENCE: Where preteen girls can celebrate sexualization by much older men! (UPDATE 16:00 CDT: The video above is now listed as private.
(UPDATE 6/23 10:15 CDT: I’ve mirrored the video for instructional purposes. I don’t say “teaser” lightly, you see. So there’s lots of make-up, sexiness, pop music, typical “girl” things that are so cliche that I can’t even begin to get into it… and… where’s the science? Clearly, they got the image wrong, wrong, wrong. Or, maybe not. A real woman, doing real science. It begins to look like this “teaser” is designed to do the complete opposite of what the creators intended. P.S. P.P.P.S. Science: girl things make you wince - Deep Thoughts and Silliness Blog | Nature Publishing Group. Over at the Scholarly Kitchen, everyone’s favourite source material for winding up OA advocates, Phil Davis asked about something only tangentially related: Do Uninteresting Papers Really Need Peer Review? In it he lays out a view that is perhaps selfish, but understandably so.
He outlines why he only agrees to review few papers, and what sort he will review: For me to accept an invitation to review, a paper has to report novel and interesting results. If it has been circulated as a preprint on arXiv, then I don’t benefit from seeing it a second time as a reviewer. Similarly, the paper must also pique my interest in some way. Reviewing a paper that is reporting well-known facts (like documenting the growth of open access journals, for instance) is just plain boring. Which; I guess, means he’s only interested in reviewing a small percentage of papers that come his way. Davis’ solution to the problem is to suggest that a boring paper doesn’t need to be reviewed fully: Would this help?
Foto's van James Monk Venn diagram. #sciencegirlthing: the PR guy's take. FINAL UPDATE AND THEN (MAYBE) I'LL LET THIS GO: It's great that the science/science comms community is stepping up with some references to role models, as the EC asked. As important as that is, however, it's not the only thing we should do. We have to remember that the primary audience for this campaign is not scientists, it's girls in the EU ages 7 to 13. If I were a smart science person, I'd start reaching out to the advertising community - I'm a fan of my pal Liz Gumbinner, though (and this is a plug for my colleagues) the amazing team at Strawberry Frog would probably rock on this. They focus on cultural movements, and that's exactly what we need here.UPDATE II: An official word from the EC science comms spokesman: #sciencegirlthing aims to attract women to science. This is a good move. OK scientists, we've heard you and we want to keep hearing you: Help us build a list of #realwomeninscience: twitter.com/#!
This video should be pulled immediately. This stuff isn't hard, people. Friday Sprog Blogging: You’ve made it clear “it’s a girl thing,” but is “it” science? | Adventures in Ethics and Science. If your Tweeps have been hashtagging about the same things mine have today, there's a good chance you've already seen this video from the European Union: Ummm ... yeah. As science outreach, this would never have worked on a younger time-slice of me. But maybe I'm not the target audience. In the interest of generating empirical data from the two possible members of the actual target audience to whom I have access, I showed the video to each of the Free-Ride offspring (both daughters, as related in my newly-published story at Story Collider) separately, then asked for their reactions, which I've transcribed below: From the elder Free-Ride offspring, almost 13 years old: I didn't really see those women doing science.
Me: Did you find any of the visuals engaging? Some of the sprays of orbs were cool. Me: How about the glassware? Sort of. Based on this teaser, I would not watch the full music video. Or whatever. No. The only clear scientist in that video was the man. Science: It’s a girl thing | The Pleistocene Scene – A.P. Van Arsdale Blog. The Science Catalyst: Science: “a girl thing”? A young male scientist is hard at work at a microscope - that is until he notices a gang of ladies tottering onto the scene – so he puts on his glasses to get a better look. Taking in the short dresses, high heels and sultry looks – his mild confusion betrays disbelief that there are now women in science who ... don’t look like scientists at all. This awkward scene is the brain child of the European Commission’s new campaign to encourage young girls to take up scientific careers. With the gimmicky name of “Science: It’s a girl thing!” , the campaign aims to portray science in a light which will resonate with the interests of 13 to 17 year old girls.
Replacing the “i” in “Science” with lipstick in the campaign’s logo, makes it clear as to how gender stereotypes are reinforced by the campaign. That said, the campaign’s Facebook page does feature a range of short clips that follow the lives of real female scientists who describe their experiences. Science: It’s a girl thing (or “How to patronise women and alienate your audience”) | bakingbiologist. My morning has begun with rage. This week the EU Commission launched a new campaign designed to encourage teenaged girls to go into science (apparently by breaking down stereotypes…) It’s called Science: It’s a girl thing.
The campaign so far is basically a series of short, fairly-bland-but-inoffensive youtube clips introducing female scientists: a kind of ‘This is what a scientist looks like’ campaign, if you will, accompanied by various stats. Overall it sounds like a well-meaning campaign that isn’t going to cost anyone much money, and might have a positive effect in making teenage girls see science as a valid career path for them. But hang on a second. First up, why the three dots have they launched the campaign with a Facebook page that says: “Cosmetics, fashion, music and so much more…” Because that’s all girls are interested in. And then I saw the YouTube ‘Official Teaser’ and died inside. Whoever is responsible for this is gonna lose some skin, one way or another. Like this: Science, a people thing.
On friday, the European Commission released a teaser video for its new campaign to recruit young women into science. As their press release says, they were concerned that stereotypical images of science were putting girls off studying the subject and wanted to show science as “a girl thing”. Shall we just say they didn’t handle it very well? See, for example, coverage of outrage at Wired UK, the Telegraph, Nature, the Washington Post and New Statesman. It’s hard to describe how bad this is. Watch it for yourself: As many people pointed out, they simply replaced some stereotypes about science with a few other more, rather painful ones, surrounding gender. A short video trying to present the whole of science to all European young women was always doomed to crapness. So, if you feel the need to wash your eyes out with soap after watching the science girl thing vid, try watching these instead.
Science: It’s a Girl Thing! You’re Kidding Me Right? Right?? | Philosophically Disturbed. At the moment there’s a Youtube video pinging across social media and inboxes right now. It’s not a brilliant video, in fact it is an abomination. Watch it for yourself, (if you suffer from high blood pressure, don’t press play). [FYI]: The original video has since been removed presumably from numerous negative comments or perhaps as part of a viral marketing ploy. If it is the latter, then a whole other discussion needs to be had whether any publicity is good publicity. The description accompanying the video is, was: Science: it’s a girl thing! This video is a summation of why I am involved in science outreach as a scientist. Firstly, there isn’t that much pink in science. Labs also don’t come kitted with a Ken Doll microscope accessory to give wistful looks on cue. Then the women are wearing heavy make up and walking in heels in the lab. What’s my beef with heavy make up?
Let’s get down to the nitty gritty about the roles in science for women. Not central to main campaign. Like this: Science: It’s a sexist thing #sciencegirlthing. The best of non-profit advertising and marketing for social causes Posted by Tom Megginson | 26-06-2012 23:19 | Category: Women's Issues It was the marketing fail heard round the world, and I got a call this morning at my office asking me what the problem was. Sheryl Nadler, from Yahoo! ‘s Shine On blog, found me on a Google search for Canadian social marketers as she researched a post on the European Union’s roundly-bashed video “Science: It’s a Girl Thing”. Sheryl writes, “The video in question, which depicts images of three young women in shirt skirts and stilettos being gawked at by a lab coat-donning young man, transposed with images of makeup powders and lipstick, was meant to appeal to girls between the ages of 13 and 17…” And then came my part.
But their strategy was flawed, says Tom Megginson, creative director at Acart Communications in Ottawa. [more after the break] There was one interesting angle to this that I had not anticipated, however. Advertiser:European UnionSource:Yahoo! Confessions of a science communicator (It's a girl thing? It's a culture thing...) Science: It’s a Girl Thing! The European Commission is trying to get more women involved in science, which is good, except…look at their Science: It’s a Girl Thing campaign.
Jesus wept. Serious man sits at microscope. Fashionable, slender girls slink in on ridiculous high heels and vogue to shots of bubbling flasks, splashes of makeup, twirling skirts, and giggling hot chicks. Seriously, this is not how you get women excited about science, by masquerading it as an exercise shallow catwalking. How do you get people excited about science and science careers? The EU have funded a campaign to make women in science wear shorter skirts. #sciencegirlthing Time and again with these high budget state funded science communication activities, they dumb down, shoot for the mainstream, and miss.
Also, to my vast surprise, for once the youtube comments are actually intelligent. Oh wow, I can’t remember when I last felt this patronised. Please tell me that this is a sad joke. Oh my god. “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” Cross-posted at Ms. Paul (an Irish grad student), Carys G., Zeynep A., Marjan vdW., and one other reader all sent in a link to a new video released by the European Commission. The video, “Science: It’s a Girl Thing!” , is meant to encourage girls to consider careers in the natural and physical sciences, presenting science, as the title suggests, as an area compatible with femininity and other “girl things” — make-up, high heels, and fashion: The video has been roundly criticized (check out the Twitter feed for #sciencegirlthing), both for presenting a stereotyped image of girls and for misrepresenting the scientific workplace (one female scientist Tweeted wondering what will happen to any girls possibly drawn in by this campaign when they learn that in many labs, open-toed heels violate safety codes).
About two years ago, I posted a cartoon that I think is worth reposting here (via Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal): (ljudska) priroda & društvo by Antonija Petričušić. Indeed, science is, inter alia, a girl thing. But that should not be advertized in such a cheap way. The European Commission recently put forward a campaign "Science, It's a Girl Thing" that fosters increase of women in research and innovation. It addresses a gender imbalance in scientific studies and institutions.
The campaign's site presents the data which disclose that girls do as well as boys in science and maths at school but many more boys go on to further study science, technology and engineering. It furthermore invigorates girls’ ideas, inspiration and passion into science. Well, idea is not ungrounded, since there is an evident surplus of interest for humanistic disciplines among youth when it comes to studying in all developed countries. What drew my attention to this campaign is a very tacky video clip, a teaser, in which females are presented in stereotypical and indeed discriminatory way.
The campaign has it official web site as well as the facebook page. Real Women, Real Success Stories. Showthread. Science is a girl thing, just not like this. Science: It’s a PEOPLE thing. Science: It’s a Girl Thing! But what the hell does. Si loin de la cause ‘femmes et science’ Femmes et sciences. Over spekjes- prijzen & zijwieltjes Rosanne Hertzberger. Rosanne Hertzberger @ryhertzberger... Waarom ‘Science, it’s a girl thing’ zo intens fout is dat de campagne toch werkt | Maarten is benieuwd. » Science: Is it a girlthing? Lekkere meisjes voor het lab. The Hollywood gossip: Science Girl Thing.