You got Science in my Feminism!

(Just a heads up, but planning for Women's History Month has begun!)

   American pop-culture, which, for the most part, IS American culture, portrays both scientists and feminists in a negative light. Scientists as represented as dull, crazy, socially inept people who overlook obvious solutions to problems (so that the “book dumb” hero can save the day) or are outright evil. Even well intentioned scientists are shown being so out of touch with reality that they think a giant deathray would improve peoples lives, or something equally insane.
    Our culture has problems with feminists, too. Feminists in the media are usually portrayed as man-haters that don’t understand that women have already won their rights and are setting out to create a matriarchy that oppresses men, etc. They’re also shown as ugly and fat and don’t shave, and are virgin whores.
    The reason for this, I believe, is that the united states is a deeply anti-intellectual country, and that creates both problems with our ability to use science and maintain a healthy introspective on our own culture. Things which challenge the status quo are bad, so while we greedily take up technological advancements that make things happen for us, we fear discoveries that might change our world view. This also goes for philosophical movements- “Safe” ideas don’t challenge our beliefs and don’t require much of a change in our behaviors. So objectivism- believing the best thing you can do for the world is to peruse your own goals no mater the cost to others- has gone over much better in the US than feminism.
    There are companies and other organizations that have a vested interest in perpetuating these portrayals. For instance, allegedly pro life organizations do not want science or feminism becoming more accepted (for a variety of reasons that cannot be neatly summarized within this blog post without derailing it). Newspapers and magazines love articles that provide “scientific” confirmation for every day biases, which is one of the reasons so much sexist pseudo-science ends up ingrained in our pop culture, like women being innately attracted to pink like moths to a bugzapper.
    All too often it seems that feminists and scientists distrust each other. But what we need to understand is that both groups need each other. Science depends on minimizing bias, and feminists need ways to demonstrate that the problems they point out actually exist. But the continued abuse of science to support sexism leads to distrust. On the flip side, I’ve seen feminist pieces (thankfully only one the text book) that make science out to be an enemy.
    The first step is getting people to meet, talk and explore each other's fields, and find common ground. I’m hoping that this election cycle will provide enough evidence that Feminist and scientific issues are interlinked.