This week Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted the following, along with a photograph of suspiciously gendered AP exam study guide covers:
I’m going to take this to mean that Tyson is as big a fan of sociology as I am of astrophysics. Made my day.
Thanks to Jay Livingston for the tip!
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 21
LynneSkysong — February 22, 2013
Is it really gendered or are we just seeing a small sample that happens to be gendered? There's the Chemistry, Physics B, Biology, Computer Science A, and a whole lot of other language, history, and others available for AP testing. I would like to see the covers of at least the four I mentioned above before criticizing the covers.
MPS — February 22, 2013
I'm a physicist who likes sociology and likes to read your blog, even if I usually only comment when I have something critical to say. ;)
LynneSkysong — February 22, 2013
Going on Amazon, I see a lot of different covers and many female pictures on the math and science books as well as male pictures on the humanities. this i is including a couple different versions from the Princeton Review for previous years. I don't have the time to go thru and find every cover for every test for every year they've been making these, but it doesn't at a glance appear to be gendered biased. For example: 2009 Physics C, 2009 Chemistry, 2006 Computer Science, 2007 Calculus and 2010 Biology all have females on the cover. And they aren't all white washed too. This is just a glance, and there may be something to be seen if you compared all the covers from different years, but someone else can do that if you like.
Ted_Howard — February 22, 2013
I doubt this was intentional. I just went to Amazon and looked up "princeton review ap books" and I found that women are featured on the covers of the 2013 editions of AP Chemistry, AP Statistics, AP Economics, subjects which aren't thought of as "feminine." Furthermore, the pre-order 2014 Calculus AB & BC book feature a young woman on the cover and the 2013-2014 SAT Physics Subject test book features a woman. Also, the 2012 and 2011 edition of the AP Physics both feature women and the 2006-2007 AP Calculus books feature a women. Given this, it's hard to argue Tyson's photo above is anything but a coincidence.
Kate Parker Adams — February 22, 2013
Also funny: my teen son is taking only the ones with the girls on them, and avoiding the others like the plague. (and, yes, he noticed the gendering, too and noticed the same issue in the 2012 guides last year!). They need to show a male and a female on all of them - no harm in that, and no foul.
EschewObfuscation — February 22, 2013
Couldn't it easily remedied by having two people on the cover or even a small group of 4 or 5? each photo is a conscious choice on the part of the editors and having to decide woman or man on the cover creates havoc where none has to be.
JackPumpkin — February 22, 2013
I know one thing: That kid with the complicated hair looks way too trendy to be taking the Physics C exam.
Daily Feminist Cheat Sheet — February 22, 2013
[...] Further proof that Neil Degrasse Tyson is great. [...]
Kelsey Chloe Van Tassel — February 22, 2013
Why does there even need to be people on the cover? How about something that better represents the subject covered?
More Gendered Advertising—Sigh — March 4, 2013
[...] Hat tip to Sociological Images. [...]
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