Saturday, December 3, 2011

Impossible Dream

One day someone will employ a female feminist theoretical physicist, and she will be able to work without persecution. People might even talk to her. She will have a real desk, in her own office. She won't be expected to cook, or clean or look after things. She will have a whiteboard to use, with coloured marker pens, plenty of good food to eat, and students whose careers won't be ruined for talking to her.

One day.

13 comments:

  1. My heart is breaking for you, and I don't even know you. I wish this for you; may you have it very, very soon.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kingsrook, if you knew me you would probably think I was an uppity bitch with an overinflated opinion of her abilities.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Consider the demographics of Muslims versus non-Muslims. Consider that Abdus Salam had 2 wives simultaneously. Is the impossible dream likely to become less possible?

    ReplyDelete
  4. No, David. Iran, for example, has a better record in employing female physicists than almost any other country. What you have just done, is bring up point #8 in the MRA checklist for feminist posts, namely the point that no Western woman should ever complain about anything, even regression in human rights, because there are other women who have it worse. Gee, damn, I never knew that!

    Grow a brain, fuckwit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Kea,

    Your problems with getting a job have absolutely nothing to do with your gender. There are many female theorists employed in academia. You are simply using this issue to deflect from the real problem, namely you are a complete crackpot who doesn't really know very much about physics. However, you are so arrogant and stupid, that you think you are a complete genius. It is really you who needs to grow a brain, or fix the one you have.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Why, hello Emperor. Still here? Thank you for concisely noting the standard opinion that any female feminist who wants the chance to do independent research must necessarily be an incompetent crackpot. In fact, I am sure this opinion is held by the vast majority of researchers from leading institutions who just can't help reading my blog, year after year, mesmerised as they are by the horrifying spectacle of such a twisted person expressing an opinion in public.

    So how shall I fix my brain? By becoming an obedient String Theorist, I suppose? Or shutting up. Wouldn't it be great, if every female physicist on The Internet admitted that Strings were Kings, so we could all get along happily ever after!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hang in there, things are tough for women everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Kea,

    Research in physics is not my field, but your blog has been challenging, instructive and entertaining to me for many years.

    My dream is that more people than Mitchell speak up in support of your knowledge, ideas and hard work.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks, all. A growing number of people seem to appreciate that it is not feminists that are a danger to the world. Unfortunately, the average physicist is not amongst them, and they are so sure of their superiority that they will wave away the accusation of misogyny even in the face of mountains of indisputable evidence. Scientists my a__.

    ReplyDelete
  10. "if you knew me you would probably think I was an uppity bitch with an overinflated opinion of her abilities"

    Probably no to the "uppity bitch" and maybe yes to the "overinflated opinion of her abilities". But then, an unrealistic view of self is what keeps us all from depression, and is absolutely essential for a theoretical physicist that wants to put new ideas out there.

    When I've talked to you, you always seemed to have a good grasp of both the physics and the maths (including a lot of maths that most physicists have barely heard of). You also seem to care more about connecting your work to the real world* than most.

    You deserve funding / a position. I really hope you get one soon.

    *And by the real world, I don't mean making iPods and selling cars...

    ReplyDelete
  11. Simon, you don't know me at all.

    Just because you spoke to me on a few brief occasions doesn't give you any idea of my abilities, especially because you don't even work on the same topics. You are quite typical of the ubiquitous misogynist young physics geeks, all of whom believe without any question that they deserve the nice postdocs better than I do, just because they do what they're told, and I don't have the usual background. They always judge me according to their own knowledge, as if everybody is supposed to know exactly the same things. The mathematicians expect me prove theorems, even though no other theoretical physicist ever does this. The physicists expect me to tow the line, even when I know damned well it is wrong. Some of us have integrity.

    You have no idea how much you take for granted. Anyway, your opinion is now on record, thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks Marni.

    I'm sorry if my previous comment came over the wrong way. There was no ill will or disrespect intended.

    I actually believe that you deserve a postdoc more than me. Really. You're really committed to your work, an original thinker and really care about understanding physics. You also have a much broader (and in most areas, probably better) knowledge of both physics and maths than me.

    For the record, I'm neither a string theorist nor a misogynist. I've been stuck in my PhD for too long, I'm out of money and am feeling pretty low about my future in HEP research. I have a non-susy, non-string research project (about some previously unrecognized structures in Feynman diagrams) I'm really interested in working on, but doubtful about getting a position/funding for it.

    Sorry for another long comment, but I felt I had to respond.

    ReplyDelete
  13. All right, Simon, thanks. I understand the harsh position you are in at present, and I apologise for my rudeness. And it's true that no Antipodean physicist is really a String Theorist in the northern hemisphere sense.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.