A recent video from the European Commission’s Women in Research and Innovation effort to encourage more young women to pursue a career in science has sparked a bit of a furor over it’s portrayal of women.
In the video which, again, is supposed to focus on encouraging girls to take up a career in science, we see three girls enter a lab as if it were a fashion runway. In what looks like the beginning of a porn flick, the three girls strut their way in wearing mini dresses and high heels as a male scientist ogles the girls.
As the video, part of the Science: It’s a Girl Thing! campaign, progresses, images of the girls striking various poses are intercut with imagery that’s more orgasmic than scientific.
In response to this ad and Twitter outrage, female astronomer Dr. Meghan Grey posted a video in which she derides the campaign and its portrayal of women.
While the end is just (getting more girls interested in science), the means are, to put it lightly, questionable.
