Never judge a book by its cover! We’ve heard it dozens of times, but when push comes to shove, far from everyone’s going to follow the wisdom of this old adage. People tend to generalize as a way to make sense of the world. However, that’s no excuse for blatant sexism and bad ‘humor.’
Dr. Lauren McKeown, a lecturer in planetary surfaces from Ireland, shared an unpleasant experience she had on the dating app Hinge. She ended up calling out a potential date for his attitude towards her and women in general.
When the man learned that she’d previously worked at NASA, he joked about her having been the receptionist. Well, Lauren wasn’t having any of it! She confronted him and later posted the screenshots of the conversation on Twitter. Scroll down and have a read how everything went down, dear Pandas.
Irish planetary scientist Lauren shared her interaction with a sexist guy named Mikey on the Hinge dating app
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The guy made a sexist remark and then tried to pass it off as a joke. Here's how his and Lauren's chat went down
Image credits: mclaurenseries
Lauren pointed out to the potential suitor that her own mother works as a primary school receptionist and is the “wisest, most inspirational and kindest” person she knows. In fact, she even dedicated her Ph.D thesis to her.
There’s absolutely nothing ‘shameful’ about being a receptionist. What is shameful, however, is assuming that working as a receptionist is low-brow. Or thinking that women supposedly can’t land a better job at NASA. And let’s not forget that it’s almost delusional to think that the man’s pitiful attempt at ‘negging’ (i.e. giving a backhanded ‘compliment’) could have ever worked.
But the cherry on top (if you could even call it that) was that the guy flat out stated that he can tell a woman’s intelligence by looking at her. It’s no wonder that Lauren wanted to call this guy out publicly, and plenty of Twitter users agreed.
Even the Hinge app got involved, pointing out that this sort of behavior by the guy wouldn’t be tolerated.
On her website, Lauren shares that she’s a planetary scientist with a particular interest in icy planetary surface processes. She also shared a bit more detail about her work which might be interesting for those of you Pandas who have a knack for science.
“I am driven to understand active Martian surface processes such as the formation of araneiforms by cryoventing and linear gullies by sliding CO2 ice blocks. I specialise in analog laboratory experiments under low pressure and temperature conditions and the analysis of multispectral remote-sensing data, in particular HiRISE images and DTMs. I am also interested in the surfaces of icy moons and plume dynamics,” she writes.
Lauren was so disappointed by her interaction with Mikey, she shamed him on Twitter
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People were impressed with how the scientist clapped back at the rude dude
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Some women even shared their own experiences with having worked at NASA and how people reacted to this
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Lauren was upset that there are still guys out there who make generalizations about someone based on their looks alone
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The guy shattered any chances of ever dating Lauren with his receptionist comment
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Even the Hinge dating app got involved in the conversation and called out the man as well
Image credits: hinge
Image credits: mclaurenseries