Comments on: A Woman Can be Anything, as Long as She’s Hot

By: Collette

Collette — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 22:41:31 +0000

This kind of stuff (the “Nerd Girls”) is what initially turned me away from science and math professions when I was a teenage girl. I always aspired to try to be intelligent, but then I’d see female science and math students that were intentionally acting like stupid girly-girls, and it made me think that this was everything that I wanted to stay away from, and that people in these professions actually weren’t as intelligent as they wanted you to believe. They were perpetuating the stereotype that women only do “manly” things (engineering) in order to be attractive to men, or that women in a “manly” profession have to work hard to prove that they’re feminine. I didn’t want to be part of their culture. I hated these girls, and they also made me think less of engineering, because they were so in-your-face about being over-the-top feminine. The problem with this is that many stereotypically feminine characteristics are undeniably impractical and stupid. Wearing high heels? Terrible for your feet and legs, you’ll get neuromas, tilt your uterus, etc. Plus, they leave you helpless if you have to actually walk somewhere. Wearing makeup? It’s full of carcinogens, it clogs your pores and grows bacteria, and it upsets your skin’s natural ph balance. Hairstyling products? They contribute to lung cancer by causing you to inhale toxic aerosols. Did you know that it’s primarily women that get non-tobacco related lung cancer? That’s from makeup and hairstyling products. Anyway, if *these* are what female engineers look like, I have no respect for the profession. It looks like anyone can be an engineer if bimbos that are willing to sacrifice their health for their appearance can do it. I would respect women more if they used their superior brain power and focused on the important things in life, not being sexually appealing to the low-level men that are turned on by something as frivolous as high heels.

By: Casey

Casey — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:45:36 +0000

Ben, that’s the point.

We know that girls can be smart too, but the way they are presenting that obvious fact is what is so ridiculous and irritating.

Let’s say you’re in a math class and a black kid solves a math problem and everyone is like, WOW BLACK PEOPLE CAN DO IT TOO! AMAZING!

Having to go out of your way to say the way something can be suggests that the norm is the opposite, at least in the eyes of society, a predominately male point of view.

Are you getting where we’re coming from?

By: kung fu lola

kung fu lola — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:09:08 +0000

In the real world, what I have found is that the message people take away from stuff like this is not the truly liberating, stereotype-smashing one you describe, but just a reassurance that beauty privilege can extend to people in lab coats. A woman CAN be anything, as long as she is hot. Us uglies are SOL, unless we are lucky enough to have specialized skills which are in high demand. Even then, those skills will get us monetary rewards, but no social ones, like acceptance or belonging or love. Those things are for hot chicks.

By: dottywine

dottywine — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:59:54 +0000

I haven’t experienced what they experience. People who say “wow” to me being an engineer is the same kind of wow they would give to any one who is attractive. I feel like engineering in general is something for “ugly smart people who no one wants to be with now, but in a few years they will rule”.

I’ve never met someone who was intimidated by it.

And I think these girls are trying to show that you can be the average girl as well as an engineer. Though I find that most of my engineering peers do not really care about that stuff. They are trying to attract more girls.

By: dottywine

dottywine — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:55:49 +0000

I always felt that this… being brainy and sexy at the same time… is to remove the streotype that it is unattractive to be brainy. Or that girls who do X,Y,Zmannish things in fact LOOK like men. Or are boring.

By: A Collection of Items on Gender and Science/Tech Topics » Sociological Images

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 15:26:32 +0000

[...] better a seductress than a scientist, geek gender hierarchies, and nerdy girls are cool…as long as they’re hot, Leave a Comment Tags: celebrity, deviance, dorks/geeks/nerds, gender, humor, [...]

By: Dehka

Dehka — Sat, 09 May 2009 18:18:22 +0000

I love how after “Stop the Stupidity” they spell concept wrong.

Or is it really supposed to read concent? Singing harmoniously?
Help.

By: Ben Zvan

Ben Zvan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 02:28:05 +0000

Anything that gets more girls into science and engineering is good by me. As you’ve pointed out on this site many times, girls are under a lot of pressure to be cute and that often means acting dumb to allow boys to be dominant because boys are under pressure to be powerful. This video shows girls that being smart is an option too.

By: Sociological Images » SKIN LIGHTENER SOLD WITH “WESTERN” “FEMINIST” IDEOLOGY?

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 06:11:00 +0000

[...] need to look good while doing it (according to normative standards of beauty). See, for example, the nerd girls and this recent clip about [...]

By: Sociological Images » “WOMEN WANT TO BE HER, MEN WANT TO MATE WITH HER”

Tue, 09 Sep 2008 01:38:47 +0000

[...] Also in women can be anything they want as long as they’re hot: The Nerd Girls. [...]

By: Liv

Liv — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 20:30:27 +0000

I am so glad someone else got this impression from this show, especially seeing as I’m a female engineering student. I watched it with a (female) friend with the same major, and our reaction was something along the lines of “what does looking good and impressing boys have to do with efficient design?”

By: Sociological Images » WOMEN SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD

Sociological Images » WOMEN SHOULD BE SEEN AND NOT HEARD — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:28:21 +0000

[...] mentions that women are often told to let their appearance “do the talking.” And, in another post, we’ve talked about how women are encouraged to do anything, as long as they look good doing [...]