Brainiacs in Bikinis

Just heard a talk at the ACME Coalition conference in Burlington, VT.  The person giving the talk was lecturing on how rarely women/girls who are gifted are presented in the media. She obviously hadn't read our book yet which talks about how when they are presented as "gifted" it's usually through magic!  Boys get swords, girls get magic.  One quote she had in her power point caught my eye though and she attributed it to Tyra Banks. She said Tyra said, "Nobody wants to see a brainiac in a bikini." If Tyra actually said that, she's wrong. Why else did Playboy (or was it Penthouse?) try to get Harvard women to pose nude a few years ago.  (Turns out they couldn't find one so they took a woman who was taking a Harvard extension course. Yay for peer pressure!)  But, people DO want to see brainiacs in a bikini, because presenting them so "neutralizes" the scary power of a smart woman!  Even Hermione Granger gets a makeover!  It seems that Hollywood wants to reassure us when there's a gifted woman that she's not initmidating, not unbalancing the patriarchy, and that she's still sexually appealing.  Remember those movies of old where the librarian took her glasses off, pulled her hair out of a bun and shook it out?

Comments

[Jennifer]

No wonder my professor mom wants to be in a beauty contest...