Kink In Exile discusses a peculiar and novel form of reverse discrimination and asks…
Perhaps it is a testament to the women’s movement that intelligence no longer precludes attractiveness in most people’s minds, but why does attractiveness still preclude intelligence? Why do I feel like people expect my IQ to drop by 20 points when I put on lipstick? Perhaps the social pressure is coming not from the cultural norm, but rather from the counter culture? After all, it isn’t that people expect my makeup to fall through a hole in the space-time continuum if I accidentally read too dense an astronomy paper, but rather that my understanding of said paper will be diminished by makeup. The pressure to conform, for once, is coming from the geeks.
Correlation does not equal causation. Women in math and science fields are frequently less concerned with their appearance than their peers in the humanities. What an interesting correlation! So why do I feel marginalized and suspect when I’m dressed up around geeks? Does anyone else have this experience?
If you’re familiar with the phenomenon leave a comment at her site.
