A university professor in London quits after railing against women in the sciences
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
BBC News reports the 72-year-old academic went to a conference in South Korea, where he reportedly made this declaration to the audience about women who are scientists:
"Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry."
On Wednesday, Hunt responded to the uproar that followed on BBC Radio 4, acknowledging his comments were "a very stupid thing to do in the presence of all those journalists."
He then defended his problem with girls, but reframed the original criticism that they fall in love with coworkers and said he, too, had done the same - finding that "these emotional entanglements made life very difficult."
Naturally, the internet was less than sympathetic to Hunt's mea culpa and thus, the #distractinglysexy hashtag was born:
Had *such* trouble doing good science today. What with the crying, and battling my way through hordes of suitors. So distracting. #timhunt
- Katherine Twomey (@ke2mey) June 10, 2015
It's amazing how many very intelligent men cling irrationally to the notion that only men can be rational. #timhunt
- Laurie Penny (@PennyRed) June 10, 2015
The correct word for a female scientist is "scientist."
- OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) June 11, 2015
The only picture I have of myself at work where my mascara isn't running from all of the crying #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/UWEuXjXMxk
- Charlene Blomquist (@charlenedowney) June 11, 2015
Social media snark aside, Hunt's remarks evoked some sobering observations from other people in the science and engineering fields. Among them, this comment from the British Science Association's chief executive, Imran Khan:
"Sadly, dealing with sexism and other forms of discrimination are a daily reality for many people, and I imagine it's hard to find Sir Tim's comments funny if you've been held back by systemic bias for years - whether those remarks were intended as a joke or not,"
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