The recent Babe War (Food Babe vs Science Babe) that probably touched your inbox or news feed is a great opportunity to think about a broader issue: the changing faces of science communication. I spoke about this with LA Times science writer Eryn Brown who wrote an excellent article about it that appears today. (Picture (Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times) and headline are from the article’s online version.)
(By the way, due to space issues, a lot of what we spoke about did not make it to the article (at least not in the form of quotes), including: The increased access the general public now has to science and science-related content (both good and bad), which I think is a good thing; The need for continued efforts to raise the overall level of basic science literacy members of the public have, in order to help them distinguish signal from noise; The wider range of people who feel they can join the conversation about science (also a positive, but see the previous point);… And so on.)
Enjoy the article! I think it examines some of these issues rather nicely.
-cvj
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I instinctively feel that if you brand yourself as a “babe” you know the connotation it has. I don’t care if she does but am not a huge fan of the idea- reminds me of the “skepchick” movement a few years back and was another term I didn’t like. I’d be pissed off if a colleague called me a babe or chick, so I’m not about to encourage members of the public who I don’t even know to do so! ????
Amanda… just to follow up: With regards the positive, negative, or neutral aspect, I’m thinking of the “Blair’s Babes” press coverage in the UK when an unprecedented number of female cabinet members were appointed by the Prime Minister…. The Babe term and its implications arguably derailed serious discussion of the content of their ideas. One might hope that a good strategy is to seize ownership of the term and rehabilitate it, and maybe that is what is being attempted here with Food Babe and Science Babe and SciBabe… etc…. I am just not sure it is helpful in this instance, and I do not think it has much to do with supporting the excellent idea that a woman/girl need not choose between being a scientist and owning her sexuality… Maybe the best way to do that is just to… Do it. – Without needing to put a culturally-laden label on yourself. (My friend and Fail Lab sometime co-presenter Crystal Dilworth is an excellent example. See discussion here, e.g. http://asymptotia.com/2013/09/17/fail-lab/ .) … But in the end I respect people’s right to call themselves whatever they want to…
Amanda, yes indeed. I think I know that communicator…:) I think part of the issue is whether or not you think using the term Babe is positive, negative, or neutral. Evidently not everyone agrees. My own feeling is that it would be nice to get to a point where there is such a plurality of voices out there that we have the full spectrum of people…. People pushing just their ideas, people serving it up with whatever sexualized imagery they want to spin it with, and everything in between. The problem is (and I think this is what Yvette and Madeleine might be annoyed by, and I sympathize) that the media tend to get stuck on the extremes and the novelty factor takes over and then stuff goes viral not because of the ideas so much as other things like the sexualization factor….
Clifford – or it means that girls/women out there see that they don’t have to choose. To quote a veteran science communicator it is good “to show the general public that people who look like them do science and are regular people”.
I completely agree Madeleine and Yvette. And this time the women have given themselves the title, which is probably even worse in some respects…
The “babe” title is annoying. Why the need to sex it up/dumb it down? What’s the equivalent for men?
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Beyond the Battling Babes http://t.co/Ag3aRJGCw7 via @Asymptotia
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RT @asymptotia: Beyond the Battling Babes: The recent Babe War (Food Babe vs Science Babe) that probably … @LATerynbrown http://t.co/NJh8…
My primary concern is c’mon, what are the odds of two women scientists interested in communication having the same name!!