When Nobel Laureate Tim Hunt made his infamous “trouble with girls” remark, we learned two things:
- The Nobel Prizes are really super important, guys.
- Seriously, people will go to all lengths to defend the owner of one.
As the the conversation around Hunt’s remarks in the greater context of sexism in science rose, Hunt’s supporters did the truly classy thing of shooting the messenger. Connie St. Louis, director of the science journalism at City College London, found her credibility resume called into question by such esteemed publications like the DailyMail and Breitbart.
Seemingly ignoring the fact that Hunt went on the air to say he was serious about women being disruptive to science, his defenders claim his comments were made in jest. Something we all already knew. Something that we already said wasn’t funny. As such, “It’s just a joke” has become the rallying cry of a whole population of people who have missed the point.
But going back to the Nobel Prizes, I may have some upsetting news:
- The Nobel Prizes are bad, and you should feel bad.
- Nobel Prize winners are just people, and it doesn’t excuse them from criticism. If anything, they have a greater responsibility towards setting the bar higher than before.
So don’t write to me saying I don’t care about science because a poor guy tarnished his own gold star by making a bad, sexist joke and got called out on it. Instead, ask yourself how much you care about science that you’ve allowed the past to supersede the future. Take a long look at the choices that led you to put science before people. Instead of blindly defending an old man with a medal, try to listen and reflect upon yourself and the society that led you to defend him in the first place.
Special thanks to Matthew R. Francis, Rachel Feltman for making me bust laughing at a future line of GREAT MAN OF SCIENCE products. Also to Matt Lubchansky, who set up the most fun-to-draw precedent for portraying internet randos jumping into your mentions.
