Not Sure What to Think

   I've seen several new articles about Nobel scientist, Tim Hunt, lately. For those of you who have not seen them, he made some sexists remarks at a conference in South Korea. His remarks were tweeted by someone who was in attendance. Many were offended and outraged at his remarks.
  Depending on what you read he either resigned or was forced to resign his position as an honorary professor at a university in London. His reputation has definitely been ruined. As happens so often when comments go viral bad things have started to happen.
  I have mixed feelings about this situation. On one hand there is the issue of free speech. His comment was that women in labs have romantic feelings for their coworkers and cry when criticized. If this is his experience when working in labs with men and women then he certainly has the right to say it. You may find it stupid, not funny, not true and offensive, but that doesn't eliminate his right to have that opinion and to verbalize it if he chooses.
  On the other hand, while I'm not a lab worker, I am a woman in a scientific field. I find it really offensive. It's offensive to think that women flit around labs thinking about romance. It's offensive to imply that a woman cannot take constructive criticism about a job. Part of me would really like to beat him over the head with my counting tray and pestle. ( A small, heavy club shaped utensil used along with a mortar to grind pills and mix various compounds.)
   Part of me is a little pleased with the level of outrage. I'm glad that we have come to the place where sexist remarks aren't something to chuckle over in the locker room. There was a time when a remark like that would have been accompanied by a wink, nod and knowing smile. That would be the end of it. We're starting to see that comments that denigrate certain groups of people are harmful. They are especially harmful when coming from someone seen as an authority.
  I also worry that the pendulum has swung a little too far. I enjoyed the response of some female scientists who have had pictures taken of themselves in all kinds of  protective lab gear and posting them with the hashtag distractinglysexy. Some of the comments along with these pictures are pretty funny. My favourite is one that said "who can't resist a girl with her own supplied air". I'm glad that there are a few that have decided to treat this with a sense of humour.
   I think the public shaming might have gone a little too far. I could understand his being asked to resign if he actually practiced sexist behaviors and gender discrimination at his job. If he had a reputation for belittling women in public and in private he would have received what is due. If his comment was a poor attempt at humour or just a bad remark that was made without any forethought, then I think he might be justified in saying that he's being unfairly condemned.
  We have all had times when we have said things that we regret. Fortunately for those of us who are obscure those remarks go unknown to the world. We make out red-faced apologies, learn from the experience and then move on. No damage done except to the ego. Sadder and wiser otherwise unscathed.
   Tim Hunt does not have that luxury. Since he is not an obscure person his remarks were sent around the world using all kinds of electronic media. As a result he's been asked to leave various posts he has held and once he did so those organizations made very public announcements about getting rid of him. If this isn't bad enough, his wife, who loves him and who should know him better than any of us has had to watch this. His reputation right now is shot. Even when this storm does down, this incident is going to follow him for the rest of his life. Anything that will be written about him will include a mention of his remarks.
  As I said before I'm not quite sure what I think of this. It would be good if this debate opened a reasoned discussion on the subject. It would be nice if we could allow Mr. Hunt to learn from his remarks without jumping on the tar and feather bandwagon. That's not the way it works these days. I'm not sure that is a good thing.
 Information for this column taken from the CNN and Guardian websites.