Women scientists pose in #distractinglysexy photos after Nobel winner criticizes women

Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt was criticised on social media the world over when he elaborated the “trouble with girls” at a conference of science journalists.

According to the BBC , he said, “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.”

He couldn’t have chosen a worse venue to make the comment, given he said it at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea on Monday.

The comments, which were greeted with stony silence by the audience at the conference, gained wide attention after they were first noted on Twitter  by Connie St Louis, the director of the science journalism program at City University London, according to a report by the New York Times .

Since then, Sir Hunt has resigned as a lecturer at University College London and apologised, telling the BBC it was “a very stupid thing to do in the presence of all those journalists”. Hunt, who won the Nobel prize for medicine in 2001 for his work on how cells divide.

But Tim joins a long list of illustrious Nobel laureates who have made disparaging remarks against women that includes VS Naipaul who said women writers are inferior in 2011 .  Even Michelin-starred chef Tom Kerridge  said recently that he was unsure whether the cooking industry was right for women.

More men are employed in restaurants because “testosterone is probably the wrong word”, said Kerridge, “but that dynamic of getting things done, that ability to dig deep and be put under pressure”.

Expectedly women world over were not impressed by Hunt’s comments and took to Twitter to express their displeasure.

I am in the office, but I can't do my science work as I saw a photograph of #TimHunt and now I'm in love, dammit https://t.co/vxVI61UwuL

— Prof Sophie Scott CBE (@sophiescott) June 10, 2015

Dear department: please note l will be unable to chair the 10am meeting this morning because I am too busy swooning and crying. #TimHunt

— Kate Devlin (@drkatedevlin) June 10, 2015

And then female scientists working in the fields of biology, archaeology, computer coding, chemistry and geology created the hashtag #DistractinglySexy to show how sexy they are while doing their jobs.

How do my male colleagues publish anything when I show up dressed so revealing? #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/D3GYQQciyc

— Van Truong (@vantru0ng) June 12, 2015

#DistractinglySexy signage.
via @jengolbeck pic.twitter.com/y4wUEf4egU

— Shit Academics Say (@AcademicsSay) June 12, 2015

Nothing like a sample tube full of cheetah poop to make you #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/tdBTLRos4p

— Prof Sarah Durant (@SarahMDurant) June 11, 2015

I will not say I haven't cried for my thesis but the worst thing is being so #distractinglysexy when I code... pic.twitter.com/OKRFA3FqE5

— Alba Hierro 🏳️‍🌈 (@hierro34) June 11, 2015

Mind you, guys in the lab were always checking out my nice rack...#distractinglysexy #TimHunt pic.twitter.com/xT7jpL0hiE

— 🧬💻Laura Baxter 🌱🔬 (@scientist_me) June 10, 2015