Look to your right at the "blog of the day" thingy.....

[Martorana]

.......AIBU to be annoyed that the picture uses such a tired stereotype of a child interested in science? Big glasses, bow tie.........

It's like when kids dress up as scientists and they all have Einstein mad hair. It's hard enough to get them interested in science anyway without reinforcing the nerdy, geeky image,

...and it's a boy.

You'd hope MN would have a bit more imagination, sad, isn't it?

Absolutely right. The scientific stereotype is a huge issues when it comes to encouraging teenager, particularly girls, to choose a science; in particular physics, chemistry and maths.

Only 50% of state schools in the Uk have any girls studying for a Physics A-level - that is shocking.

Sadly, it's generally thought of a a a "bit of fun", but it's not, it's reinforcing a completely incorrect and damaging stereotype.

Would love to here MNHQ justification......

YANBU

YANBU but...
Please do offer suggestions as to how they would get over the image of a clever child in a picture?

Raskova - why does a child who is interested in science have to look different from any other child?

That's the point!

If MN want to show the child is asking questions related to science I'm sure a little imagination could come up with something .... A test tube, a globe, a blackboard with some maths on it?

The whole point is that the scientist should be represented as the same as everyone else - just like any other child who has an interest in something.

Raskova- oh, I don't know- jeans and a sweatshirt? A summer dress? Shorts and a T shirt?

Just clothes.

It is a tricky one. As a female scientist who has been always interested in science since I was tiny, it DOES feel as though representatives of science are very often male. The majority of my colleagues at my level of experience and above ARE male (although it's starting to level out a bit in the entry levels, which is great) but we are by no means all male (not the last time I checked, anyway). I try not to get too huffy on this issue, as they have to pick something for a picture, but it's incessant. They always seem to depict a geeky person, and as Poppadom said, it's reinforcing quite a stereotype.

I have to say, I love Bernadette on The Big Bang Theory, because she is really quite normal - she's extremely clever, but doesn't really fit into a TV stereotype. Intelligent women on television are usually ridiculously attractive, sassy "babe" characters, or geeks who have seven cats. Bernadette is reasonably attractive and isn't socially awkward, but can still hold her own against the boys, and then some. I think it's really important, especially for young girls, that the only portrayals of scientists in the media are not the stereotypical "geeky" scientist. I don't think she's perfect as a depiction, but then people aren't perfect.

Yes a normal looking person is, in my experience, what all science lovers look like but to portray that in a picture where the observer instantly thinks 'oh that's a science lover' wouldn't work.

I'd have thought a test tube/scale model of the plants/white coat would have done it myself. Just wanted to see other peoples ideas.

Hello!
Just wanted to let you know that we have seen this and will come back with a proper response soon. But yes, of course we agree generally about the importance of not reinforcing damaging gender stereotypes.
Good to hear everyone's thoughts and alternative ideas though.

Mumsnet HQ

Hi all, Lucy from Bloggers here.

Thanks for your comments. Just to explain our thinking on this - we're always after an image that will be both eye-catching and illustrative of the post, which, in this case, was about the blogger's son. We completely agree re the importance of not reinforcing gender stereotypes - but in this case, because the post is about a boy, we went with a pic of a boy.

Thanks though for all your thoughts - we'll definitely keep them in mind if something similar arises again.

But you chose a pic of a fairly eccentric looking boy...one that does not reflect most boys at all.

Eccentricity has long been associated with Scientists and that (imo) is what puts a lot of children off of being interested in it.

Intelligent children don't look a 'certain way', just as adults don't.

And the blackboard behind him is probably enough to illustrate the complexity of Science.

Not that they use blackboards in schools any more

Thanks for your reply. My original poiint was not abut gender stereotyping- but about science stereotyping! It was the big glasses and the bow tie that bothered me- a classic geeky look. As if you have to be a geek to be interested in science.

I completely agree, and I bet he wasn't wearing big red glasses and a bow tie when he asked his bedtime questions. Or standing in front of a blackboard with equations. The whole point of her blog is that he asks about ordinary things in an extraordinary, interesting, way.

I don't think the image was "eyecatching" I think it's lazy. I have kids that are science mad - a magnifying glass & a microscope surely would have conveyed the idea behind the blog.

What a great thread about a point I hadn't even thought about till now.

And annoying that MNHQ completely missed the point about it being science stereotyping, rather than gender stereotyping.

This is why I love mumsnet, it opens my eyes. And on a Monday morning.

Agree with all the above - the problem is the science stereotyping!

Any further comment mumsnet - or do stand by your apparent perception that all scientists are a bit eccentric and need to kept from too much sunlight?

What a great thread about a point I hadn't even thought about till now.

This is so true. Scientists are always portrayed as geeky looking. It's a bit like advertising nursing with a picture of Barbara Windsor in Carry on Nurse!

Great thread OP. Not so great a response from MN though ...totally failing to address the point ...

oh yes, I glimpsed this yesterday. Not gender problem, MNHQ, but the ongoing issue of science=unattractive geek with glasses that you don't really want to be seen with.

don't you know about these people?

Alice Roberts
Brian Cox
Suzie Sheehy (google her, I went to a lecture she gave and she is brilliant, and she also has a great blog on the subject of women and science)

or even this lot who are real scientists, not just talking heads:

www.dfmanagement.tv/category/science-presenters

I agree - it's the bow tie and glasses which strike me as wrong too. OK it's a photo to make a point, but that could have been made just as well by any child against a sciency backdrop wearing normal clothes (and if bespectacled, the sort of glasses that children actually wear). Maybe something like a boy and girl in school uniform and lab goggles doing something with liquids in a chemistry beaker over a Bunsen burner?

I honestly don't mind it just being a boy- the blog is about a boy. But I would like MNHQ's thoughts on my original point.

Nice total non-apology for perpetuating stereotypes about people who are interested in science being odd and geeky.

The blog link

motheringfrights.wordpress.com/2014/05/15/the-birth-of-all-existence-before-8-45am-on-a-weekday/

And picture:

www.mumsnet.com/bloggers/blog-of-the-day

I agree it was a very lazy choice of photo

You might not think these things matter but they do