Distractingly Sexy

I nipped round to the local micro brewery for a half. I had a private tour there over a year ago before the beer was brewed, but until last night hadn’t tried any. It was nice. I knew some friends were intending to go this evening when the brewery was staying open longer than usual. So with MasterB outside in the garden, and my dinner lining my stomach, off I trotted.

I met two friends. I knew no one else, recognised no one else other than the owner. Now this is odd. The brewery is in the next street. I know lots of people there. If I go to my local pub even if I don’t know everyone, I recognise the vast majority. There were at least three hipsters. We never see hipsters in this neighbourhood. So passé; so Hoxton. Really, I may have to move.

However, the beer I tried tonight which had elderflower was delicious. I suspect it is a *ladies’ beer*, the sort of thing Al Murray in his rôle as the pub landlord would suggest for his female customers. Sexism has been in the news this week after Tim Hunt made a speech to fellow scientists and in front of scientific journalists at Seoul. In case you missed it, here is what he is alleged to have said:

“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 criticise them, they cry.”

While most of us lifted our collective jaws from the ground, women in science did something so much better; they responded with humour and satire. I am indebted to Rebecca Front who drew my attention to this on last night’s edition of the News Quiz on radio 4. She advised us listeners to search tweets with the hashtag distractinglysexy.

Do. It’ll improve your life.

I didn’t get around to it until breakfast this morning, and it made my day. Look here.

Whatever Tim Hunt’s intentions when he made his speech, it seems that women are actually using his words to raise awareness about women in scientific work, and thus suddenly there is a plethora of amazing rôle models for girls and young women wondering if a career in science is for them. If you are too busy to search Twitter yourself, the newspapers have handily done a bit of a round up. I’d give the prize to The Independent. Try here.

I love this <a href="http://

Hot Hashtag: #DistractinglySexy How female scientists are responding to sexist comments. #TimHunt http://t.co/Snh1hWrxqS

— Femi Oke (@FemiOke) June 13, 2015

“>video.

I may have a look at it again to cheer myself after I have checked my Instagram account. I am astonished at the number of young women who use pictures of their cleavages, bottoms, midriffs as their profile picture. They seem to enjoy pictures of MasterB, but I can’t say I enjoy their posts. It’s like a stream of soft porn. Do they see their only value as being a sex object? It’s creepy. It’s depressing. Tim Hunt isn’t the only one who needs to respect women. Women need to respect themselves too.

Remind us please Aretha and Annie.

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