Here’s a video the European Commission, um, commissioned to encourage girls to become scientists:
Science, apparently, is about makeup. Wearing it.
I thought it was a joke at first, but no: here is the official EU website. Science. It’s a girl thing.
What comes next after “Epic Fail”? If you would like to express your feelings about the campaign, please e-mail the bozos in charge of it: rtd-wiri@ec.europa.eu
Updates
They pulled the video at about 4.30 today. GOOOD call. Apparently this is not the only video the EU has had to pull lately.
You can still see it (if you really want to) here.
A few reactions:
“Seems like the beginning of a porn movie” — Wall Street Journal
“Kitschy” — Washington Post
“Mildly appalling” — The Next Web
“Insert facepalm here” — Scientific American
“How the EU spends taxpayer money” — Forbes
“Is it sexist?” — HuffPo (yes, they are seriously asking the question).
“Soulcrushingly misdirected” — SciencePunk
“A for effort, D for execution” — Business Insider
“Probably sounded like a good idea late at night in a Brussels basement” — New Scientist
“Pink, sparkly, makeup-related science” — New Statesman
“No scientific content whatsoever” — The Telegraph
“Who put this lipstick in my science?” — Wired
“Not a good thing” — MSNBC
“Apparently serious” — Hollywood Gossip
“Patronizing drivel” – In The Dark
“Words cannot describe my anger” — PygmyLoris
“Ahhh… ffftttt.. wha?” Token Skeptic
and of course, lots and lots of tweets.
Summing up the problem, from James Monk:
embarrassing, humiliating, and so, so sad. I don’t think that girls getting into science is the problem. The problem comes after that, when they find out it is a guy’s world.
Well I think it’s apparent from this video what our Commission thinks the female scientists do/should do/will do?
I think that that’s quite good actually. Out of curiosity, apart from the tag line which was a bit cringey, how does it differ from an average episode of CSI?