A more upbeat thing I found on the internet

[rmd]

This had me quite literally squeeing in my house as I watched this video of the SCIENCE CHEERLEADERS. Darlene Cavalier used to be a professional cheerleader, and is now a science writer and all around nerd-enabler. She started Science Cheerleaders, a group of former pro-cheerleaders who have gone on to careers in science and engineering.

Breaking down stereotypes about scientists *and* cheerleaders?

Fuck yeah.

Comments

[dpolicar]

As I was reading this, I parsed "science cheerleaders" as [people who encourage and express enthusiasm for science], and was being really tickled by the idea that there were literal cheerleaders doing this. And then I got to the second half and realized what you actually meant, and cheered.

[pale-chartreuse.livejournal.com]

Well, they seem like good candidates for a blogging topic on Lady Ada Day in March.

[lil-brown-bat.livejournal.com]

That's fantastic. Thanks for posting it!

That's awesome

[drwex]

The one who was like, a scientist AND a lawyer AND a doctor? Reminded me of the girl on Real Genius - when does she manage to _sleep_?

Also, why doesn't she own the world already?

Re: That's awesome

[rmd.livejournal.com]

good lord, yes. it's been a while since i encountered something that made me feel like *such* a giant unambitious slacker.

[coraline]

wow, heLLO prejudices in my brain i wasn't really aware of!
i don't even have any history of being treated poorly by people who looked/acted like that, and i'm sure individually i'd find each of them lovely, but... the conglomerate of all of them together just makes me twitchy.
i want to squee, i expected my first reaction would be squeeing, and it just totally wasn't.

it's always fascinating to come up against things one didn't know was lurking in one's head :)

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

SCIENCE CHEERLEADERS!

You have made my day with this!

[rmd.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I noticed a huge bias like that in my head. I had read a bit about it before seeing the video, which may have let me have the initial squee. :)

There are lots of instances of people trying to get the message out that "smart people can be hot" -- nude calendars populated by oncologists, stuff like that.

The thing that I find *utterly* fabulous about this is that it's also sending the complementary message: "hot people can be smart". That right there is awesome. It's breaking down expectations in *both* directions.

I mean, the stereotype of "cheerleader," particularly "*professional* cheerleader" is not an intellectual powerhouse. I sort of assume they generally have a background in dance and maybe gymnastics, so they're categorized in that athletic-not-nerdy part of my first-impression human taxonomy. (It used to be more like "fuck you, pretty girls, you are like the people that didn't like me and i bet you're really dumb", but I've substantially moved past that unless I'm having an internal back-in-highschool moment of some sort.)

The woman who founded this group also did "citizens for science" and some other similarly cool stuff, so she's clearly all about making science accessible and increasing scientific literacy. yay!

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Woohooo!!! I love this. Thank you.

[muffyjo]

I was talking with a professor from my college last week and she pointed out that this generation of College kids were engaged in an "and" kind of world. You can be a nerd AND do sports. You can like opera AND like hard rock. The things you and I defined ourselves with in our youth are no longer contentious the way they were then.

I'm so loving this! I was always an "and" kind of gal which made me feel like i was on the outside of everything, even though I was connected with all my interests. I'm very glad for a world like this where people can be cheerleaders as well as scientists.