SXSW Interactive - #DistractinglySexy
I participated in SXSW Interactive with fellow awesome scientists, Jen Golbeck and Nicole Cabrera Salazar. Our panel was entitled #DistractinglySexy: Fighting Science Sexism Online. We focused specifically on how Twitter hashtags can be utilized and/or re-appropriated to promote women in science.
Here's just one example of how Twitter has been used to fight science sexism. Tim Hunt, Nobel prize winner, made comments last year that highlighted attitudes many women face in science: "Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. 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." Women scientists took to Twitter in response with the hashtag #distractinglySexy to highlight the serious scientific work they were doing. In this panel, we look at how social media can be used to fight sexism in science, highlight some of the recent viral activities on this front, and discuss why it matters.
