A few weeks ago Pascale Lane from over at Golden Thoughts told me about GQ Magazine's new Rock Stars of Science campaign.
Figure 1: An image from the Rock Stars of Science campaign.
At the time she lamented that there were no female scientists included, apparently at the request of the campaign's sponsor, men's clothing manufacturer Geoffery Beane. I noted the lack of scientists of color. Still, I wasn't surprised at the time. Today, out of curiosity, and because I was feeling far too happy about the world, I did a Creative Commons search for images using the search term "scientist" and downloaded the first pictures of male and female scientists I found.
Figure 2: I like the girl on the right. She's probably pretty smart and I would kill to have abs like that post-Little Isis. I only worry for her safety. I know from personal and unfortunate experience that my Victoria's Secret 36D Ipex Bra is flammable. Don't ask. We now only have hot plates in our laboratory, though.
It all felt like being Charlie Brown and seeing Lucy holding the football. You know what the outcome is before you even look at the pictures. Why get excited, knowing that you'll probably end up getting knocked on your ass? I'd have been more surprised if Pascale sent it too me and said, "Look at all the pictures of all these hot science broads!" Then I would have poured us both a drink, cut some brownies, and rejoiced. Alas, rejoicing was not to be.
It flew off my radar pretty quickly.
Then this morning I opened up my Twitter feed and saw that former ScienceBlogs intern Arikia Millikan, now of The Millikan Daily (which is hilarious) was tweeting about the Rocks Stars of Science. She had linked to a post written by Chris Mooney over at Sheril Kirschenbaum's blog The Intersection. Chris references a post he wrote for Science Progress and notes:
I am not nearly snooty enough to pooh-pooh this kind of initiative. Rather, I applaud it. For after all, I've long felt that when it comes to the cultural standing of science in America, our problem is a lot bigger than a poor educational system, bad test scores, or rampant scientific illiteracy. It is at least as troubling that very few Americans can name Fauci, Varmus, or Francis Collins, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute--and that very few American kids want to be them. A scientific research career, if you can get it, is a pretty good life--one could set one's sights far, far lower. But it's not clear that as a culture today, we recognize this.
And so my conclusion-if we want to pair science with celebrity, this is just the beginning:
Next stop for Geoffrey Beene: In the pages of Sports Illustrated, I want to see young, athletic scientists catching passes from Peyton and Eli Manning. [Bold added a la Isis for important emphasis-type things]
In this one case, I know you will all be shocked, I am not going to get all feminist-y up on your bitch asses. Yes, I would love to see more women and men and women of color in popular representations of science, but this is what we have to work with and I don't particularly care for this ad campaign as it is.
I don't know that I have anything really negative to say about the scientists featured in the ad. They are brilliant men doing brilliant research. I think that, as a scientific community, we should applaud their accomplishments. What does leave me feeling kind of squeemy is the way these pictures are staged. The point of the campaign is to show people that science is hip, and cool, and sexy, and [insert other adjective here], but in each shot the scientists are fawning over the musicians. The message this photo campaign sends is, "Yeah, being a scientist cool but, if I could be, I would really want to be [insert rock star name here]." Thus, people looking at this campaign aspire to also be rockstars. Not scientists.
That would be totally clutch.
[UPDATE]: Within moments of me posting this, the BlogFather of ScienceBlogs tweeted me to tell me that he wrote about this exact same topic, albeit in a different context, a few years ago. He's right. He did. You know, when I was, like, twelve years old.
I adore Coturnix. I am convinced that man reads the entire internet every day.
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Your last paragraph is exactly what I thought needed to be done. Putting these "famous" people in a lab, and show them what is really able to be done. Wow them by showing what you can see under a microscope, teach them something cool. Us science types know all sort of fun things, too!
Posted by: sciencegoddess | June 12, 2009 10:57 AM
Alternatively, you could also take pictures of many of the scientists I know that ARE musicians, or do something else considered cool. But I think Peyton Manning learning western blotting would be pretty awesome...
Posted by: Scicurious | June 12, 2009 11:02 AM
I remember my second platform presentation (my first is a blur of nausea and sweat, but I digress). After my concluding slide and a couple of questions, I was stoked. I wanted to dance in the endzone and spike the football, damn the "excessive celebration" penalty.
Every time I find something that clicks, that makes the picture in the jigsaw puzzle that is my current project clearer, I feel like a rock star/quarterback/whatever. That intellectual satisfaction is what is missing from many depictions of scientists. Sure, we don't have a million fans watching us or buying our jerseys (note to self: possible business venture?) but we are in an exciting, creative field.
Now what do we have to do to get the message out there?
Posted by: Pascale | June 12, 2009 11:16 AM
Does anyone remember the General Electric ads for kitchen appliances from about 4 or 5 years ago? I remember seeing them all throughout my House Beautiful type magazines. They would feature a Bill-Gates-type guy and a hot girl and the message was that their appliances were a marriage of smarts and beauty. I think there were also some homely-smart-girl-in-a-labcoat with a hunky jock version of the ad as well. I found the ads really annoying. I emailed someone at GE to say that I thought they sent the wrong message to young women. I got a reply back - he said focus groups really liked the ads.
Posted by: Female Engineering Professor | June 12, 2009 11:24 AM
YES! Dr. Isis! Yes!
(This next comment may be stemming from my excitement over the Saved By The Bell 20 year reunion on the Jimmy Fallon show http://www.hulu.com/watch/76560/late-night-with-jimmy-fallon-saved-by-the-bell-reunion-update-3):
Instead of a cardboard Kelly Kapowski on remote control, celebrities could have a cardboard scientist on remote control that they can pine over whenever the mood strikes them. Just hit a button and maker of hot science can just drop out of the ceiling, allowing celebrity to gaze lovingly at their own representative of the wonderful work being done in the world by all scientists.
I think the allergy medicine may have gone straight to my head...
Posted by: seeree, PhD | June 12, 2009 12:03 PM
Actually, only the first picture with Sheryl Crow truly looks fawning. And I might fawn over her a little. Moreso than the others at any rate (srsly, Perry?? They couldn't get Tyler for this?)
And Josh Grobin got it right ("It's like being in the middle of a genius sandwich").
Posted by: becca | June 12, 2009 12:32 PM
Let me think, let me think (yeah that always difficult) if I could be a rock star or could be a world famous scientist, which would I choose? Difficult choice, not. Rock star it is. Unfortunately, I have no musical talent and cannot even dance (well actually I can dance, but other people have told me what I call dancing isn't). Thus science it is, but I would rather be the rock star.
Posted by: Danimal | June 12, 2009 12:41 PM
As always there is a slightly larger context if you step back from just your one perspective. While I totally agree with the fact that ad campaign would be vastly improved (from a science perspective) had it featured more diversity of the scientists, featured at least a few of the musicians doing "sciencey" things, if you actually read the messages you may also notice something else. All of the scientists featured, in addition to being white and male, are also from the medial/health fields. Given President Obama's rhetoric and actions in restoring science to its rightful place in the decision making process, and the push on health care reform and universal coverage, what this ad campaign also implies, is that GB is jumping on this bandwagon, as it were, and may even be supportive of the administration's efforts on health care. At the same time, as I commented at the Intersection, GB is not the only company to feature scientists in its ads - Intel came out with a new campaign a month ago, "our rock stars aren't like yours". Here's the link to an interesting article from the Oregonian awhile back where you can also watch the clip: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/05/intel_ad_campaign_remakes_rese.html
Perhaps this is reading a bit too much into it (ya think?), but nonetheless this is the larger context in which these GB ads appear.
Posted by: callinectes | June 12, 2009 12:55 PM
Toaster will gladly step up!
With my trusty axe* in one hand and a pipette in the other, I will send the message loud and clear that science is rock 'n roll!!! Shit, I'll even learn to play bass with a pipette if it's necessary. I will splice together my amp and a SEM rig and rock everyone out until the nature of bipolarity in organic molecules merges with throwing up rock horns into one effervescent mosh pit of intellectual badassness!
I will, however, require backup dancers to distract the audience from my awkward compulsive shuffling. Any takers?
*For the squares among you who don't know, "axe" in this context refers to my sweet bass guitar, not a wood-chopping, Lizzie Borden-type device.
Posted by: Toaster | June 12, 2009 1:18 PM
BZZZZZT!!!!!! There are no female and/or non-white leading scientists in the medical/health fields? Nice try, dumbass.
Posted by: Comrade PhysioProf | June 12, 2009 1:32 PM
CPP, come on, really now. Of course you are right (I am a woman, btw).
What I was attempting to point out is that in this case, I think the scientists seem to have been selected because of their professional field.
Posted by: CAllinectes | June 12, 2009 2:00 PM
Ok, wait a minute. I seem to have misinterpreted the direction of your attack, CPP. You have totally misinterpreted my initial comment. I should have articulated a bit better that in response to a question from Mooney's original post at the Intersection of "what do you automatically notice?" that in addition to the fact that the scientists are all white men, they also are from the medical/health fields. I certainly do not believe that there are not any women or non-whites in those fields.
I would have jumped all over any jackass I thought was saying this, too.
Posted by: Callinectes | June 12, 2009 2:07 PM
I'm disappointed that they didn't inlcude Brian May. Now there's a real example of a rock star aspiring to be a scientist.
Posted by: Hannah | June 12, 2009 2:11 PM
They're all from medical/health fields (with an emphasis on Alzheimer's) because that's the cause GQ is donating to for it's PR-warm-fuzzies.
("*Geoffrey Beene Gives Back® Alzheimer’s
Initiative is one of the marquee collaborators on
HBO’s The Alzheimer’s Project, a pioneering multipart
documentary series, airing this month on HBO
and available to the public at hbo.com/alzheimers.")
They are all male because females have radically more interesting clothing options than Geoffrey Beene.
They are all white because:
1) the target demographic of GB is primarily white (and likely to suffer from Alzheimer's, or at least *some* kind of cognitive problem, if they are wearing GB)
and
2) because of pervasive racial bias in society and science (they did, after all, find some black rockstars, so I think it's more a reflection of science then anything; although obviously stereotypes play out very differently in science vs. music so it can be both).
Isn't that all obvious though?
Posted by: becca | June 12, 2009 2:27 PM
I think we should start taking our own "female scientist" pictures and posting them around so that when someone does google "scientist" you get the real deal.
Posted by: Callinectes | June 12, 2009 2:35 PM
Have you seen the new Intel ads? It's all about "their" rockstars, like the guy who invented the USB key. ( I think there was also one with a woman as the 'rockstar', but with TiVo I didn't catch the whole thing.) Mostly the ads are making fun of people at Intel being nerdy, but they do have a much better representation of women and people of color as technologists, which is mostly science, right?
So it can be done, you just have to try.
Posted by: JustaTech | June 12, 2009 4:47 PM
Pascale at #3 - YES I agree. Clap clap clap. And more applause for expressing yourself so plainly.
What you say is exactly what I feel, and an idea of science I am now trying to convey to 5-yr-olds and 10-yr-olds when I visit schools as a volunteer 'scientist'. The joy of science is working something out in your own head; in finding a little piece of the jigsaw puzzle, as you say. It is not primarily in making a big show with coloured solutions and fizzes and pictures of midriffs that will certainly be exposed to carcinogens, even if the bare skin doesn't get frizzled.
BUT unfortunately, these ideas/emotions that we share are not commonly understood, nor appreciated by others. People like a show accompanied by a 10-second sound grab that gives 'THE ANSWER'. I have always felt as though I came from a different planet in not liking the showy stuff.
How do we encourage those kids like us to feel GOOD about themselves as they are growing up and choosing careers? More importantly, how do we encourage the others to respect these people for what they are, equally as worthy as (in my opinion more worthy than) the showy, sporty types with their focus on instant entertaimnent? A perennial problem. I don't have the 10-second-sound-grab answer to it. Yet.
Posted by: d. | June 12, 2009 7:13 PM
Three words: "Studmuffins of Science".
Posted by: hoolia | June 12, 2009 9:32 PM
...
She had linked to a post written by Chris Mooney over at Sheril Kirschenbaum's blog The Intersection.
I hate to red pencil this but ...you munged the link. It is Discover magazine, not Discovery magazine.
And I thought the blog was co-'owned', co-'wrote', what ever the proper phrasing is, by Chris and Sheril. Maybe I am mistaken there.
...tom...
.
Posted by: ...tom... | June 13, 2009 12:53 AM
I'll bet you can shake it better than Shakira in your Naughty Monkeys
Posted by: Arikia | June 13, 2009 3:55 AM
I saw this one for the first time tonight. I thought it was delightfully hilarious. Especially because it was so unapologetically nerdy; to me, it came off as "we're smart and sciencey and we like it this way", which was refreshing.
Posted by: Juniper Shoemaker | June 13, 2009 5:44 AM
75% of the pictured male scientists are wearing ties.
That is several sigma more than the mean of any lab I've ever worked in. Even the government ones.
Posted by: Lab Lemming | June 13, 2009 7:18 AM
Good point about the ties, Lab Lemming, and I'll bet they are just as flammable as the bra. d.
Posted by: d. | June 13, 2009 7:54 AM
this is a totally kick ass blog post. i hadn't heard of this til i read this - you are so right on. wtf is up with this?! seriously! & the pics that popped up - wow. sad.
Posted by: Wendee Holtcamp | June 14, 2009 12:48 AM
@Lab Lemming: They are wearing ties to point to their penises. Just in case people do not know where it is./humor
Posted by: Danimal | June 14, 2009 7:22 AM
Posted by: Isis the Scientist | June 14, 2009 10:18 AM
@danimal
I personally would rather be a famous scientist than a rock-star. I'd feel more intelligent, more worthwhile, and in all probability get remem bered for far longer. Also, fewer irritating press releases, more formal fancy dinners, greater opportunities to talk with some of the most intelligent minds around.
...
why did you want to be a rock-star?
Posted by: Lab Rat | June 15, 2009 4:41 AM
THIS is why I started reading your blog. Too funny. Burning bras in the lab? ROFLMAO
Posted by: wanderer | June 17, 2009 2:29 PM