Sexy Female Scientist Video Draws Fire

sciencehabit writes "A new video released by the The European Commission — ostensibly aimed at getting girls interested in science — is drawing widespred condemnation from around the web for its depiction of female scientists as sexy models strutting into the frame in high heels and short skirts. A male scientist watching them from behind his microscope doesn't seem to mind that none of them are wearing safe lab attire—he just pops his glasses on for a better look. The rest of the video is a mish-mash of heels, nail polish, lipstick, and sexily smoldering Erlenmeyer flasks, arbitrarily punctuated by girly giggles." The Commission denies that the video (since pulled) was a parody, but they've certainly set the bar high for anyone who wanted to make an actual parody.

Well I was confused

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll be honest, until I saw the tagline at the end, I thought this was a makeup commercial.

Re:Whats the problem

[fahrbot-bot]

Whats wrong with sexy female scientists - they have them in movies.

Or, applying the term "scientist" more liberally, on the Mythbusters - Kari Byron [wikipedia.org] - though technically, she's an artist. (Women, take your pick from the other hosts, I'm sticking with Kari.)

More seriously, I know a few women scientists and I can confirm that in many, many cases, the old adage "Beauty * Brains = Constant" is false. Personally, I think smart girls are sexy - end of story.

Original YouTube posting now made private?

[Wootery]

Judging by the 'tweets', what seems to be the original [youtube.com] has been made 'private', i.e. taken-down. (I'm assuming that was the official YouTube posting - I can't find anything more official looking.)

As well as the mirror [sciencemag.org] linked in the summary, we have a Youtube mirror [youtube.com], and another non-Youtube mirror [telegraph.co.uk].

Why would they bother? Do they really not realise that if you release something high-profile on the web, it's out for good?

Re:Oh God

[Anonymous Coward]

http://arielwaldman.com/2011/07/29/oscon/

Re:Whats the problem

[Pro-feet]

My wife is a sexy scientist. Really. She loves high heels and nail polish. And physics. Believe me, it's true.

Re:Whats the problem

[interkin3tic]

As the summary says, the video was pulled from the website. The video you're probably watching is not the one being discussed. I can't fathom who would be so dumb as to think that removing it from the website would be more effective than lying and saying it WAS a parody, even after saying it wasn't. Anyway, here's the real one. [telegraph.co.uk] The summary was completely accurate.

I'm suspicious that the whole thing is an overly complicated marketing ploy by some nail polish company, bribe some science commission to put an ad up. It could easily be a commercial for cosmetics.