How would you feel seeing a female scientist wearing couture in magazines instead of pop culture celebrities?

4 comments

1. I’d cringe and roll my eyes. It’d be pointless, awkward, and extremely belittling to all professions involved, but mainly just be nice if women could be allowed to exist in a professional field without having to be presented as attractive or beautiful to be seen as legitimate or interesting. There’s no need to put a “look, they can be beautiful too so they’re admirable now!” spin on everything and everyone.

2. Ok? This isn’t really relevant to my life in any way, but I’d be neutral about the concept unless those magazines are also about to start publishing peer-reviewed research by those scientists – in which case, go for it! We need more nontraditional venues to get research findings to the public. If it’s about the science, it shouldn’t be about sexually objectifying the scientists – otherwise it starts getting problematic to me.

   If the magazine’s goal is just showing fashion styles, then it doesn’t really matter to me who the models are in their personal/professional life.

3. How would we know the difference? Lol! Speaking for the average person who doesn’t follow celebrity culture or high fashion, we already don’t know who 80% of the people are on the covers of magazines. And we probably know even less about who/what they’re wearing.

   Walking past the shelf full of magazines in the supermarket, I’m not going to have a clue if the person on the cover is a model, celebrity, or scientist. If a headline did catch my eye that clued me in to that person being a scientist, I’m going to buy the magazine to read the article that is (hopefully) about who they are and what they’re studying. I’m not going to spend 10 seconds looking at what they’re wearing.

   I like the sentiment of broadening representation. And I’m quite certain that there are people who are interested in both science and couture. But it feels like it would be quite a niche market to cater to.

4. i mean… for what exactly? they’re completely different professions. most scientists aren’t models and vice versa for a reason.

   it would feel forced. like “look how ✨progressive✨ and ✨feminist✨ we are, and now go buy our shit”.

   we need strong role models, don’t get me wrong. but professional models require tons of training and experience. it would be insulting to just plant a pretty scientist in front of a camera and call it art. just like it would be insulting to plant an untrained model in a lab, have her do some high school chemistry experiment and call it science.