Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett had a hilarious idea.
It was an idea born of a gaffe by a Nobel laureate. Speaking to a conference of science journalists in June, the biochemist Richard T. (Tim) Hunt described his “trouble with girls” in the lab as the following: “You fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them they cry.”
What was so distracting about women in the lab? Ms. Cosslett, who is 28 and runs the feminist blog The Vagenda, began tweeting black-and-white photos of her favorite female scientists, such as Marie Curie — not exactly glamour shots — with the hashtag #DistractinglySexy. Female scientists on Twitter responded by tweeting selfies of themselves in lab coats, goggles, and biohazard suits with the same hashtag. Others sent pictures of themselves in the field, often sunburned and sweaty, digging at an archaeological site, for instance, or, in one memorable example, taking a sample of cheetah feces.
She spurred a rallying cry for women in science.
Ms. Cosslett’s campaign went viral, turning a clever joke into a lighthearted yet powerful rallying cry for female scientists who routinely feel underestimated and discriminated against.
The concerns raised by #DistractinglySexy reverberated well beyond the case of Mr. Hunt (who resigned from his post at University College London before the campaign began). In October, allegations surfaced against the prominent astronomer Geoffrey W. Marcy, who was accused of having sexually harassed female graduate students for years, and who then resigned from the University of California at Berkeley under pressure from his department and the scientific community.
The case of Mr. Marcy demonstrates that the problems faced by women in the sciences are much bigger than a hashtag. And Ms. Cosslett would be the first to say so.
“I think social media can lead to great change,” she said in an email to The Chronicle, “but at the same time I don’t think online ‘hate mobs’ really count as progress.”
In a column for The Guardian titled “My #distractinglysexy hashtag is not to blame for Tim Hunt’s resignation,” Ms. Cosslett wrote that the influence of social media is overstated, and that those taking part in a Twitter campaign are “just a load of men and women with opinions on stuff, in the same way that people have been having opinions on stuff for thousands of years. It’s just that now they are being published.”
Going viral shouldn’t be viewed as feminists’ secret weapon in the fight for gender equality, Ms. Cosslett writes, but instead as “our only recourse” in sectors, including higher education, where women lack equal representation in leadership positions.
But the campaign not only demonstrated the power of Twitter users. It also created a space for women to showcase important academic work. “What I really learned,” Ms. Cosslett said, “is that women scientists have a fantastic sense of humor, and the vital, underappreciated work they are doing is changing the world for the better.”
Andy Thomason oversees breaking news coverage. Send him a tip at andy.thomason@chronicle.com. And follow him on Twitter @arthomason.
