Post by Minna Krejci
This is a new one: the newly crowned Miss USA calls herself “a huge science geek.”
And there is at least some evidence that may back her claim. In preliminary questions as part of the Miss USA competition, she supported teaching evolution in public schools — one of only 2 of the 51 contestants that did — by saying,
“I was taught evolution in high school. I do believe in it. I’m a huge science geek…I like to believe in the big bang theory and, you know, the evolution of humans throughout time.”
Later, on-air, she apparently also gave a “complex” answer regarding the question of legalizing marijuana (medically yes, otherwise no.)
Are things looking up for the next generation of geeky girls? Will girls be less afraid to show their smarts, no longer fearing that it might make them less “cool”? Even Miss USA geeks out about the Big Bang!
Of course, we should also consider what the standards for “geekdom” are these days. It sounds a bit like Miss USA (Alyssa Campanella, from California) puts the Big Bang theory in the same group as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny – things to believe in because it’s fun to believe in them, not necessarily because the science points to them. (I hope that’s not really the case, but you never know.)
Hm… I just searched for “the Big Bang theory” on Wikipedia and was directed straight to an article about the sitcom. Not even a disambiguation page first! I’m honestly not sure what to make of that. While it’s great that science is creeping its way further into the entertainment industry (which is obviously highly influential), I hope that the actual science doesn’t get watered down during the process of making it accessible to the public. We want simple, not simplistic.
Back to the Miss USA pageant (not to be confused with the Miss America pageant, by the way). Campanella wasn’t the only smarty pants competing this year. Nicole Poteet, a radiation protection engineer with an undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering and a master’s degree in nuclear engineering, represented Virginia in the competition. And what does she have to say for herself?
“Don’t tell anyone, but deep inside I’m kind of a dork.”
If Poteet’s a dork and Campanella’s a geek, dorks and geeks have sure come a long way from what I remember about high school! Here’s to hoping that they’ll serve as good role models and help motivate and encourage tomorrow’s female engineers and scientists.
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