We’d like to begin this week with an important public service announcement: women in science have always existed, and they are fucking awesome.
You may not be surprised to hear that history has handed women in science (and elsewhere) a pretty shit deal. If you were even permitted to step foot in a lab, a man would more than likely take the credit for your work (we’re looking at you, Watson and Crick), up to and including enjoying a Nobel prize for your efforts (more on this below…).
These days, men kindly let us study physics without worrying our fallopian tubes will become tangled in fear and confusion, but women in science are STILL not always recognised for their work.
Wikipedia is no exception. The online encyclopaedic behemoth has a massive gender gap (unsurprising, considering that the majority of contributors are men). Luckily, WikiProject Women in Science and others are tackling this bias head-on by editing women onto Wikipedia. Some are even holding Wikipedia edit-a-thons to honour amazing women scientists and tell the world about their work. Want to help change history for women in science (or women in general)? Hit that keyboard, hags.
HEX EDUCATION
Fat-Positive Fertility
Many of us have been there – we head to the docs for some minor ailment, and are told it would be fixed if we “lost some weight”. But for someone trying to conceive, medical care is even more loaded with judgement. Feminist and fertility coach Nicola Salmon explains why it’s time to break down stigmas around weight and fertility – and why we should question what we're told about trying to conceive in a “bigger body”. Read the interview here.
TIT BITS
Keeping abreast of the latest news, views, and research
Hysteria? Nope, that’s a heart attack
Further evidence emerged recently that emergency room physicians are misdiagnosing heart attacks in women, being more likely to (incorrectly) blame chest pain on other factors, such as anxiety – regardless of their risk factors or symptoms. But why? Study author Gemma Martinez-Nadal says: “Heart attack has traditionally been considered a male disease, and has been understudied, underdiagnosed, and undertreated in women”. Silly us, we thought we officially stopped diagnosing women with hysteria when it was removed from the DSM in 1980.
No shit
What’s more annoying than a steaming pile of bullshit? Perhaps recent findings that BSers themselves are more likely to believe BS and be fooled by false information (we shit you not). We’re now wondering if men deny the existence of sexism because they can’t separate the truth from all their mansplaining nonsense. Like some sort of perpetual motion carousel of lies, where all the horses are misogyny and the candy floss tastes like gammon.
A woman’s place
Good news, matriarchy fans – the patriarchy may not be inevitable! The serious bling adorning a recently discovered female skeleton suggests that women could have had political and economic power as far back as the Bronze Age. BOOM. Between them, La Almoloya Woman, Denmark’s 'Egtved Girl' and ‘Skrydstrup Woman’ (AKA clunkiest superhero trio ever) have helped redefine women in ancient history as autonomous figures with wealth in their own right. Pass the diadems and let’s take this town BACK.
Nobel Prize? More like Mo’ Balls Prize
Ever done an amazing job at work, only to have a male colleague or boss take the credit? (We suspect many of you are more familiar with the concept than you ought to be). Now imagine it meant you missed out on a Nobel Prize, like these four women who won Nobel Prizes... for their male supervisors. Did you know there is only one woman each on the Nobel Committees for Physiology or Medicine and Physics? And that only 57 women have ever won a Nobel, compared to over 800 men? Definitely no correlation there, though. Move along.
Woman of the Week
Pernille Bjørn
Hats off to Pernille Bjørn, who was recognised by the University of Copenhagen this month for her work celebrating women in tech.
Bjørn, the first female professor of computer science at the university, received the SCIENCE Dissemination Award for a number of initiatives highlighting the critical contribution of women in the tech industry.
We tend to assume that men have always dominated the tech sector (the stereotypical computer nerd, fiddling with his joystick) but from the hidden figures at NASA to Bletchley’s Enigma code crackers, women were the majority in tech right up until the 1980s. One of Bjørn’s projects – Atari Women – draws attention to the pioneering women behind many of Atari’s early arcade and home console games (including classics like Centipede and Warlords).
"I don't want to change women so that they 'fit in' with computer science,” says Bjørn, “I would like to change the field of computer science so that different types of people can recognise themselves and experience that they too can be successful here." Joystick fiddling optional.
TO THE KRAKEN 🦑
Knicker shaming is taking a (muff) dive
Won’t somebody please stop the vaginal mayhem??
Hold onto your knickers, because TikTok is trying to shame you into throwing them away after 6 months. Yes, that’s right – as if your fanny isn’t considered gross enough, people now have the idea that your underwear is a “harbinger of an infectious apocalypse”. (We fucking wish – personally the most our own knickers have mustered is the bewitching of one local cow). It’s bollocks, of course – not least because washing machines exist – so feel free to adopt our rule of ‘keep em til the crotch drops out’. Thankfully, garments as flimsy as ‘underwear’ could never constrain Ms K’s own unspeakable salty loins, so she is free to use them for crushing knicker-shamers everywhere.
More things cracking our Enigma codes this week:
Meet picking nose lady... or lady of the chewing gum | Is Dolly Parton a secular American saint? | Cinnamon shrimp drama | Why is it so hard to speak up at work? | We like this painting of Witches Going to Sabbath with their tits out. And a goat.
The HEX Science team
🧬Jean Splicer | ☢ Marie Fury | 🧠 Rorschach Tess | 🔬 Rosalind Frankly