Board index › General Discussion › News and Current Events

Tim Hunt and "the girls"

Page 1 of 1 [ 9 posts ] 

Previous topic | Next topic

androbot01
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Sep 2014
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,746
Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

13 Jun 2015, 10:24 pm

Sir Tim Hunt resigns from university role over girls comment-BBC

Quote:
"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."

Quote:
UCL can confirm that Sir Tim Hunt FRS has resigned from his position as honorary professor with the UCL faculty of life sciences following comments he made about women in science at the World Conference of Science Journalists on 9 June.

Image

Do you think he should have lost his job because of these comments? I do. I found his remarks dismissive of women's contributions to science.



Dillogic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Nov 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,339

13 Jun 2015, 10:53 pm

No

Just call him a sexist pig or something, as that's the appropriate response.



iBlockhead
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 6 Jun 2012
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Posts: 408

14 Jun 2015, 12:54 am

Well, I guess the fourth thing of "you can steal their work and get a Nobel Prize for it" doesn't happen THAT often, so it wasn't said...



androbot01
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Sep 2014
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,746
Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

14 Jun 2015, 3:16 am

The Atlantic

Quote:
"I did mean the part about having trouble with girls. It's terribly important that you can criticize people’s ideas without criticizing them and if they burst into tears, it means that you tend to hold back from getting at the absolute truth. Science is about nothing but getting at the truth.”


Hunt seems to think that men and women can't work together without degrading the science. This is a prejudiced view and has no place in an academic setting.



Magneto
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Jun 2009
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,086
Location: Blighty

14 Jun 2015, 5:33 am

Well, if it's a problem, it's a problem. It doesn't disappear because you think acknowledging it is somehow sexist. "What is true is true, owning up to it doesn't make it worse, ignoring it doesn't make it go away"...

So, is it a problem? Do we need to conduct observations of men and women conducting research, to investigate their different behaviours? Isn't conducting research on people conducting research somewhat meta?



cyberdad
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Feb 2011
Age: 57
Gender: Male
Posts: 36,036

14 Jun 2015, 5:38 am

androbot01 wrote:
Do you think he should have lost his job because of these comments? I do. I found his remarks dismissive of women's contributions to science.


He resigned which would indicate he knew his comments were entirely inappropriate.



androbot01
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 17 Sep 2014
Age: 54
Gender: Female
Posts: 6,746
Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

14 Jun 2015, 6:18 am

Magneto wrote:
Well, if it's a problem, it's a problem. It doesn't disappear because you think acknowledging it is somehow sexist. "What is true is true, owning up to it doesn't make it worse, ignoring it doesn't make it go away"...

I think his resignation sends a message that sexism is not okay. This could effect the behaviour of others.

cyberdad wrote:
He resigned which would indicate he knew his comments were entirely inappropriate.


Quote:
“I’m really sorry I said what I said. It was a very stupid thing to do in the presence of all those journalists,” he said. “What was intended is a light-hearted ironic comment. Apparently it was interpreted deadly seriously by my audience.”[


I don't think he gets why his comments are offensive.



Dillogic
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 24 Nov 2011
Gender: Male
Posts: 9,339

14 Jun 2015, 9:22 am

cyberdad wrote:
He resigned which would indicate he knew his comments were entirely inappropriate.


You know that's pretty much never the reason why people resign nowadays when there's a media backlash.



ooOoOoOAnaOoOoOoo
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Jun 2008
Gender: Female
Posts: 12,265

14 Jun 2015, 10:36 am

androbot01 wrote:
Do you think he should have lost his job because of these comments? I do. I found his remarks dismissive of women's contributions to science.

I find it so weird they do and say stuff like this and then they resign. Sounds like he is projecting his own fantasies onto the women he works with and he sounds a bit sado for saying they cry. What, does he try to make them cry? Wouldn't surprise me if he did.

He lost his job because he resigned. They didn't fire him. People that do stuff like this seem to have serious issues that need addressing in the psychiatric realm but because they have power they never really get the help they need.