Hi girls! One of the lunch periods yesterday mentioned the sexy PhD costume that is currently being distributed by Amazon and how it tries to encourage girls to get a PhD by sexifying it. We thought we would share that costume here:

Clearly, this is not the message we need to be distributing to girls: the only reason to get a PhD is to look sexier. Just like in the Science: It's A Girl Thing video, the producers believed that girls are only attracted to items that make them appear "beautiful" or "hot". 

Huffington Post recently released an article on this costume showing the funniest reviews from women with actual PhDs on Amazon. Below is a response by Dawn Rouse:

Like all lady Ph.Ds, I frequently ask myself: "How could I be sexier?"

Delicious costumes has come to my rescue! I can now lecture in my 5 inch gold spiked heels and "barely there" regalia while giving nary a thought to the male gaze and its implications on the prevalence of rape culture in our society.

I fully expect my chili pepper rating on RMP to go through the roof once I begin to greet my students in this costume. Hopefully I can keep my "post structural hegemonies" from engaging in some wardrobe malfunctions. Then again, who cares?

I'm sexy! Forget about the 7 years I spent sweating out a dissertation and engaging in innovative research!

SEXY!!!!
(for more responses go to the Huffington Post Article)

Hey girls! Thank you so much to everyone who came out to our kick-off meeting! It was so cool to here your ideas and opinions about how to address the problem of underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. For those of you who are interested, please Check out the Prezi from the meeting!

Also, here are the links to the different videos we watched yesterday:

• The Math Barbie
• The Computer Science Barbie
• Ellen - Bic for Girls
• Science: It's A Girl Thing
• Inspire Her Mind - Verizon Ad
• GoldieBlox - Ad
• GoldieBlox - Promo Video

If you did not fill out the introduction survey yet, please do so here!

We are so psyched for the exciting year ahead of us! Hopefully you are too!

Lucy and Caitlin