Woman Loves Science, Astounds Facebook

[chadachada123]

I wonder what Maddox has to say about this, after he bashed [http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=youre_not_a_nerd] that Facebook group not too long ago.

Probably something along the lines of "Well that explains a lot".

Blarg, this is just getting depressing.

While I agree with Maddox's post as it was written, it was clearly written quite a while ago, since a significant portion of I Fucking Love Science's Facebook posts now actually are scientific in nature. It's no longer just a bunch of pretty pictures and Neil DeGrasse Tyson. The vast majority of it is strictly science, with only a couple of funny pictures tangentially related to science. Some 25-50% of the posts are breaking news articles from a variety of scientific fields showing the advances humanity is making, which is outright fascinating.

He is right, though, that many of the people that like the page know NOTHING about science, and are only in it for fad purposes. Luckily, most posts now are no longer geared towards those simpletons.

OT: I've been following IFLS for awhile, and I've known for awhile that she was female. Granted, I didn't know that she was an attractive female, but that's irrelevant. At least several of the posts about the page itself have included comments by people that know her personally, and a few of these have "she" or "her" in them.

Can't see how it could be a big deal, though I imagine many of the shocked posts aren't shocked because of some revulsion, but just surprised. Those that ARE revolted have clearly never been to a university, where chemistry and biology classes have no shortage of females.

 

[danon]

People are stupid on the internet stop the presses. Wait you say this happens every second okay then it's kind of pointless to make a article about it oh wait.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Like... 90% of the "I Fucking Love Science" shares that show up on my Facebook Feed are from women... What I really find strange is that people find it so strange that women can "fucking love science"...

 

[frobalt]

I saw that post on my news feed about her twitter. Hadn't actually occurred to me that it's a woman that ran the page, purely cos I don't think it matters at all.

 

[vid87]

Did...did she not have her profile pic up before people found this out? Have they been completely clueless while her face has been plastered on every post? Are we...really that stupid?

 

[Chicago Ted]

I'm surprised...

I thought that something like that would be run by more than a single person. Say something like a group of 2-6 people who look for content, ask someone else about it before posting it, and then putting it up. The people wouldn't even have to see each other or anything as something like this could be run online by a few friends from different areas. The fact that only one person is doing this and looking and judging all the content on their own does surprise me a little.

 

[luvd1]

Thank you again Internet for reminding me of the collective stupidity of people. I don't know what's worst, that some people thought she was a male, that some people were shocked she wasn't a male or that people felt they had to post their shock that she was not a male.

And if Yahtzee told everyone he is actually a lady people would not be shocked at all right?
If you use a name that is predominantly used by one gender people will take that as a given, and if their reality gets shattered down the line they might be a little shocked by it.

But hey when the sexism flamewars need fuel might as well chuck it on the pile.

Andew is a surname as well as a first name.

 

[Legion]

This is twitter/the internet, since when has this kind of stupidity been surprising?

I remember when I first started visiting this site. It was pretty much "These sites are not worth getting worked up about, they are full of idiots" or "Get a thicker skin". Now the prevalent attitude seems to be "What kind of world are we living in?!".

People seem to be getting incredibly worked up about pretty much everything nowadays.

 

[maxben]

Thank you again Internet for reminding me of the collective stupidity of people. I don't know what's worst, that some people thought she was a male, that some people were shocked she wasn't a male or that people felt they had to post their shock that she was not a male.

And if Yahtzee told everyone he is actually a lady people would not be shocked at all right?
If you use a name that is predominantly used by one gender people will take that as a given, and if their reality gets shattered down the line they might be a little shocked by it.

But hey when the sexism flamewars need fuel might as well chuck it on the pile.

That is such bull.
Yahtzee is not even a name, the only reason why we think he is male is because we have heard his voice and have seen his picture. If all he did was write articles under the name Yahtzee none of us would have been surprised if he turned out to be a lady. But then, he would also have to escape using male pronouns in reference to himself.
Now what about guys named Ashley from England where that's not abnormal? They need to change their names because in America its a girl's name? The whole point is, even if you are surprised, to make a big deal of it is ridiculous

 

[Legion]

I gotta be honest. This really isn't a news story and more just about promoting the acts of an attention whore. No really cause I'm not seeing her do anything aside from saying that there is "sexism" and pushing the fact that she is a woman and making it a big deal like she is somehow a gift from the heavens.

It really is reports like this that just make me cringe cause it really doesn't accomplish anything. Hell even soft news stories involve some sort of actual interaction like the Donkey Kong hack. This? She is just making a big deal because she is a woman who pursued or landed a career in science. Something a lot of women do everyday. Science cares not for your gender and it shouldn't be the part you should be pushing compared to what you are actually working towards for the betterment of mankind.

I think it is supposed to be about how people are so surprised that she is a woman. That people either automatically assumed she was a man beforehand, or that they are all telling her how hot she is, or hot it is that she is a scientist.

The argument being that nobody would be behaving like this if she was a male.

Then again, a year ago we never got topics such as this. Ever since the Tomb Raider/Hitman controversies, sexism seems to have become the current hot topic.

 

[Bolwing]

1. It shouldn't matter whether she's a woman or not.
2. Her Facebook page is rather crappy.
3. It's stupid pepole being stupid pepole. Nothin' new here.

Off-topic:

Damn, first Vault101, now Katatori-kun? Vault banned for... I dunno, posting a picture of a crying baby, and Katatori-kun banned for unintentionally insulting McDonalds employees, even AFTER correcting himself and stating that he didn't do it on purpose? Who next? Fappy? DoPo? Sad times, sad times indeed.

 

[Defenestra]

The page's recent content has, as mentioned by some of the folk above, been mostly updates on new and interesting discoveries. And y'know what? Maddox is so incredibly full of himself. And entirely wrong. Spectacularly wrong.

See, there's not a damn thing wrong with finding amusement in the periphery of science, or beauty in some of the images that we've gotten as a consequence of space or deep-sea exploration. And I get that he doesn't like seeing poliical things mixed in with science, but guess what? Science has a political bias. It's toward the pursuit of truth, and if your political stance clashes badly with science, you should carefully consider whether it also clashes badly with reality.

There's an old joke about scientists changing their minds if they get new information, and politicians not liking that.

And for what it's worth, I wasn't surprised. I'm also not surprised that some people were. Some people are kind of dumb. That said, encouraging people to appreciate the best tools in humanity's intellectual toolbox does kinda help with that.

 

[Zeldias]

Isn't it more likely that the name 'Andrew' is a boy name and so the assumption that Andrews is male a natural one to make?

I'd always assumed the page was run by multiple people. More surprised that it's controlled by one person than that it's a woman.

Would be, except Andrews is clearly a surname because of the S at the end. Like, I've never met anyone with the first name Michaels or Reynolds or whatever; the S almost always denotes a surname.

I did assume it was multiple people too, though. Give the seemingly endless barrage of images, I'd figured there was a company of the motherfuckers working round the clock.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Isn't it more likely that the name 'Andrew' is a boy name and so the assumption that Andrews is male a natural one to make?

I'd always assumed the page was run by multiple people. More surprised that it's controlled by one person than that it's a woman.

Would be, except Andrews is clearly a surname because of the S at the end. Like, I've never met anyone with the first name Michaels or Reynolds or whatever; the S almost always denotes a surname.

I did assume it was multiple people too, though. Give the seemingly endless barrage of images, I'd figured there was a company of the motherfuckers working round the clock.

...except it isn't Andrews. It's Andrew.

 

[xPixelatedx]

I am not surprised that people are surprised, how many intelligent women are allowed their 15 minutes of fame or even have voices to be heard in most media? There is a big gender bias that deludes the masses. In this current decade when you hear about a woman doing something significant, and her gender is emphasized at all, chances are it's a story like this:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.403861-Adria-Richards-Gets-Two-People-Fired-Over-Dongle-Joke-At-Tech-Conference

I blame everyone for this though, not just the media. It's both the media and people in general that eat this crap up with a spoon.

 

[Piorn]

Breaking news! Woman on the internet sighted!
Hold the presses, everyone!

(Seriously, am I missing the joke? What's this really about?)