Thursday, February 22, 2007

Red Hot Optics

The Cosmic Variance blog cites this study:
School performance can also suffer. In one experiment cited, college-aged women were asked to try on and evaluate either a swim suit or a sweater. While they waited for 10 minutes while wearing the garment, they completed a math test.

"The results revealed that young women in swimsuits performed significantly worse ... than those wearing sweaters. No difference were found for young men."
to complain about an ad for Edmund optical equipment showing an attractive woman.

It is an odd complaint. It sounds like he just want to promote a different stereotype for women, so that more women will become physicists. The Edmund ad is actually pretty tame compared to ads elsewhere.

Here is more from the American Psychological Association:
The APA report calls on parents, school officials, and all health professionals to be alert for the potential impact of sexualization on girls and young women. Schools, the APA says, should teach media literacy skills to all students and should include information on the negative effects of the sexualization of girls in media literacy and sex education programs.

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