The European Space Agency managed to land a probe on the surface of a comet.
That’s pretty cool! Must have been loads of people talking about it on Twitter.
Well, one of the scientists also chose to wear a shirt covered in images of half-dressed women. Plus he described the mission as “sexy, but I never said she was easy.” Although most people seem more interested in the shirt than what he said. It’s generated something of a #shirtstorm.
Hmm. That’s sounds like a strange sartorial choice. But why is everyone so excited?
It’s not so much a strange choice as an inappropriate one. This was broadcast all over the world, maybe even to schools. Just imagine the impression it gives to people!
Well ok, but it doesn’t seem that important. It was just a shirt! Does he deserve all this criticism?
You’re right that it actually isn’t that important by itself, but that’s true of most cases of unthinking sexism. By themselves they don’t matter much, but the cumulative effect can be quite potent and if you want to live in a decent society you need to care about these cumulative effects, because that’s what people experience.
He has had some criticism, but, in my limited sampling, it has been reasonably even tempered. And some criticism is deserved, after all. That said, I’d be astonished if none of the comments crossed the line. It’s too easy to want to drag him over hot coals when, on the evidence of his apology, it was just a silly, thoughtless mistake. We all make silly mistakes all the time and, as long as someone is willing to accept their mistake, we should be charitable in response.
Many of his defenders have also behaved decently, but, with depressing inevitability, there have been occasional rape threats against his critics.
Well, that’s obviously unacceptable! But I have one little question….
Yes.
You just mentioned the importance of cumulative effects. Is there not a risk that many criticisms on a platform like Twitter cumulatively add up to something unacceptable?
Indeed there is. And it risks leading to an unfortunate online culture. It’s difficult because people treat it as a way of talking to their friends when it is clearly a way of broadcasting views. There is a big difference between directing comments at the individual concerned and simply broadcasting them to the world, but, however they direct their comments, I do believe people should carefully consider whether joining in a Twitter storm is a helpful thing to do.
It’s become common to call such storms “bullying”, but that’s probably an inappropriate term. Perhaps we should call it “scapegoating” instead as it has similarities with the group ganging up against one person. No one likes to think that their small actions might be “scapegoating” or “bullying”, but no one likes to think that their small actions are especially sexist either.
If no one likes to think of their actions as sexist is it helpful to describe him as sexist?
This is a tricky one and the answer isn’t obvious, because any strong criticism can push people away rather than make them understand why what they did was wrong. Plus, I’d say that being a sexist person means more than doing one sexist thing. You can only really call someone sexist on the basis of a pattern of behaviour.
Ok, but let’s be honest, they’d landed a probe on a comet! Surely we should be concentrating on that.
I don’t know about you, but I’m quite capable of seeing the same event in several ways. The same national celebration can be an impressively organised piece of pageantry and an expression of an outdated monarchical system. A work of art can be beautiful and horrific at the same time. This extraordinary achievement can be both a spectacular example of human ingenuity and an unfortunate exemplar of how silly mistakes can hurt.
The worst examples of this are those people (I’m looking at you Dawkins!) who intimate that you have no place commenting on his shirt unless you are also capable of doing something impressive. This is daft. What most people actually have no place commenting on is the comet mission. They don’t even really understand how impressive it is, because they don’t have any idea what is involved. But they do understand how shirts and daft comments can offend.
There are far worse examples of sexism. Why are we all making a fuss about this one?
Just because there is a worse example available does not imply that we should not criticise this one. There is always something worse. The idea that we should always only concentrate on the worst thing is without any sensible foundation. We’d live in a very strange society!
Is the objection that it is being blown out of proportion? Well, maybe it is. Like I said, in itself it isn’t terribly important, but it is deserving of criticism.
Does this tell us something about sexism in the scientific community?
It may look like that. It could, for instance, put off young girls considering a scientific career. Really, though, it doesn’t tell us anything and commentators saying that it does are reading their own views of the scientific community into this one event.
That’s a bold statement!
Not at all. One incident very rarely tells you much about how a community functions. Why would anyone ever imagine that it did? You need to observe patterns over a period of time. You may get an odd snippet of information. I think all this event can tell us about the European Space Agency is that they don’t have robust practises for monitoring people’s sartorial choices during such broadcasts.
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