Consciousness Raising Activities In The Lab
I brought I torte in for group meeting yesterday. I'd bought the torte at a local bakery. Came into the meeting and the punters were nibbling away.
"Did you bring this?" someone asked.
"Yes," I replied."
"Did you bake it yourself?" asked Newish Indian Post-Doc. I like NIPD, so we have banter.
"Haha, yeah ..." I said. "Okay, no not really."
"I didn't think so," said NIPD. "You don't look like you know how to bake."
"Fwaaahaa?" I said, gaping. "What does that even mean?"
NIPD tried to play it off like he was totally kidding, when in fact he was only sort of kidding - in that he actually did think that but said it as a joke. Not in a mean way.
"I have many comebacks to that, NIPD; sadly none of them are appropriate to the lab environment." I replied with a jocund gape in all directions.
"Since when has anything been inappropriate for the lab environment?" asked Dirty Canadian MD.
"Good point," said NIPD. "Like what?"
I waved my hand as if to say, If you can't imagine my comeback, O innocent NIPD, I surely cannot corrupt your brian by telling it to you.
"I can cook! I just choose not to. Though not so much with the baking. I'm more a throw-things-into-sauce, never the same way twice cook."
"See, I guessed that," he said.
"You've been looking at my blots, haven't you?"
Then our PI came in so we left it. But I wanted to make sure NIPD knew I wasn't really offended after the meeting. He stammered for a minute that he thought we had banter rights and I said of course we did, and I'm rather hard to offend. Not to mention my husband does the baking in our house. He found this amusing.
"NIPD, why must you tie yourself down with gender roles, hm?"
Then he thought for a moment and said, "But you know, most of the top name chefs are men ... "
"Yeah, NIPD, that's because when a woman cooks she's a cook, but ooooooh when a man cooks, he's a chef!"
He didn't get it. I think NIPD needs his consciousness raised.
Sometimes I am flabbergasted by the level of cultural ignorance evinced by my arguably intelligent colleagues.
"Did you bring this?" someone asked.
"Yes," I replied."
"Did you bake it yourself?" asked Newish Indian Post-Doc. I like NIPD, so we have banter.
"Haha, yeah ..." I said. "Okay, no not really."
"I didn't think so," said NIPD. "You don't look like you know how to bake."
"Fwaaahaa?" I said, gaping. "What does that even mean?"
NIPD tried to play it off like he was totally kidding, when in fact he was only sort of kidding - in that he actually did think that but said it as a joke. Not in a mean way.
"I have many comebacks to that, NIPD; sadly none of them are appropriate to the lab environment." I replied with a jocund gape in all directions.
"Since when has anything been inappropriate for the lab environment?" asked Dirty Canadian MD.
"Good point," said NIPD. "Like what?"
I waved my hand as if to say, If you can't imagine my comeback, O innocent NIPD, I surely cannot corrupt your brian by telling it to you.
"I can cook! I just choose not to. Though not so much with the baking. I'm more a throw-things-into-sauce, never the same way twice cook."
"See, I guessed that," he said.
"You've been looking at my blots, haven't you?"
Then our PI came in so we left it. But I wanted to make sure NIPD knew I wasn't really offended after the meeting. He stammered for a minute that he thought we had banter rights and I said of course we did, and I'm rather hard to offend. Not to mention my husband does the baking in our house. He found this amusing.
"NIPD, why must you tie yourself down with gender roles, hm?"
Then he thought for a moment and said, "But you know, most of the top name chefs are men ... "
"Yeah, NIPD, that's because when a woman cooks she's a cook, but ooooooh when a man cooks, he's a chef!"
He didn't get it. I think NIPD needs his consciousness raised.
Sometimes I am flabbergasted by the level of cultural ignorance evinced by my arguably intelligent colleagues.
posted by Joolya at
9:29 AM
1 Comments:
I just read Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink today. It's about snap judgements, good and bad. One of the BAD things was the pre-judging that we do when our brains are contaminated by stereotypes. And one of his examples was female musicians. Holding blind auditions, where the hiring committee can not see the candidate but can hear them, has quintupled the number of women in professional orchestras. (And that's with just the initial audition blind.) The reason? Of course you know it. People who believe that they are objective judges of skill and talent are influenced by sex, age, race, beauty, nationality, carriage, or other irrelevant factors. Examples are legion. The big science one was the Swedish study a few years ago that found female scientists had to publish about five times as many papers to be considered equal to their male colleagues. As Nellie McClung once said, "A woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be considered half as good. Luckily, that's not difficult!"
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home