Embrace your inner teenager.

I saw Ice Princess this weekend. Yes, I am 28 years old and, yes, I should be ashamed of myself, but I have a pathetic weakness for teen genre movies. My pride prevents me from going out in public and renting it, so I am Netflix member for exactly this reason (I am, of course, assuming I will never meet any of you readers in person). Also I can convince myself I am not really paying for it; it is just sort of a bonus for the monthly membership. But my neurosis is beside the point.

The Plot: High school girl, who is top in physics, is told to apply for a very difficult physics scholarship. She is unpopular, her hair is in a bun and, of course, she's socially awkward - the general expectation for smart girl in high school. Teacher tells Girl that the experiment for the scholarship should be a personal reflection of her. Girl has a thing for figure skating and so a physics project is born. She writes a computer program to analyze figure skaters and fix their spread eagles (I kid you not, they actually use the term "spread eagle" in a G movie – apparently, it is a figure skating term). She then uses the program on herself and becomes a competitive figure skater. Hair comes down, add a little eyeliner and Girl is starting to look good. (Why did my hair never look that good when it was long?) Zamboni driver falls for girl, she becomes popular and, inevitably, drops physics to pursue her dream of becoming a figure skater.

If this is the kind of movie real 13 year olds actually watch, I'm thinking that we're going for the wrong message here. The whole physics students == unpopular and unattractive and figure skaters == popular and attractive is not going to draw young girls into physics. I'd even go so far as to say it might deter them. I look forward to the day when they make a teen movie where the heroine is hot, not because she has ridiculously pretty hair and ice skates, but because she's smart. I mean, come on, ice skating?! I would think being able to think for yourself would be way hotter than a triple lutz, but I could be wrong.

Comments

[Anonymous]

Zamboni driver falls for girl

While I agree that this movie sounds like it's sending a terrible message, this bit alone makes it awesome.

[Rob]

Is it any different for boys -- good in chemistry == unpopular?

I personally think it's a good thing. Back when I was dating, I dated the intelligent girls. They weren't the most popular girls because they were smart, even though they were beautiful. I would not have had a chance with any of those ladies had there not been a social handicap for being intelligent.

There was one particular girl, the most beautiful and smartest, whom I met at a science lecture my senior year of high school (hence the use of the term "girls"). She and her friends were discussing dynamite.

I still can't believe she wound up marrying me, but I'm grateful!

BTW: One of our songs is the Eagles' "Take It to the Limit."

[citrine]

Quite often the ones who were popular burn out (emotionally?) pretty early in life while many of the former nerds keep slowly but steadily improving in social skills and fashion sense. With this slow reversal process the former nerds on the whole end up having more satisfying lives - personally and professionally - when the 20th high school reunion comes around.

Dare I say "Revenge of the Nerds"?

[mick]

C'mon we've all thought about dropping our physics goals and becoming a figure skater... well, maybe not a figure skater but I can list:

professional skateboarder
rock star
athlete
ultimate frisbee freak
politician (ok, this is as geeky as the physics thing)
hired goon
professional rugby player...

I doubt I'd be any good at any of these things though.... whereas I'm not to bad when it comes to this physics caper.

[Caolionn]

Yes, the stereotype works on both boys and girls in high school. And yes, having seen many a popular girl ten years later, I am grateful that high school wasn't my peak, although it isn't too surprising that vapid people don't age well.

But wouldn't it be nice to breakdown those stereotypes and make physics as cool as figure skating (or being rock star or professional skaterboarder or fill-in-the-blank). Yes, I also enjoy living in a parallel universe where pigs fly.

[xoxo]

Have you seen the latest NerdTV? They interview a geeky supermodel. She's 23 years old and hacks mobile phones.

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/shows/

[restodelmondo]

In "Mean Girls" Lindsey Lohan's character is hot (also) because she knows that lim(1/x) as x->0 is not 0 - or something like that. And also the super-geek...(ok, I won't spoil the whole film).

[knucklehead]

Dr. C wrote:
"The whole physics students == unpopular and unattractive and figure skaters == popular and attractive is not going to draw young girls into physics."

1) Good! There is a massive, well documented surplus and ongoing overproduction of Ph.D.s in physics. It would not be in the best interest of young girls to spend a decade qualifying for (non-)participation in a saturated job market. That it's very much in the interest of existing faculty to keep the infamous grad student/postdoc pipeline stuffed with cheap, discardable labor is another matter.

2) "physics students == unpopular and unattractive and figure skaters == popular and attractive" also happens to be true. Heck, the vast majority of physicists would rather date a hot figure skater than a colleague. That many of them end up both dating and marrying each other is not because they find each other the most attractive alternative, just the available alternative.

[Bob]

"October Sky" was the exception. In that film science ruled over athletics. Hollywood slips every now and then..

[Caolionn]

Totally forgot about "Mean Girls", excellent catch. I haven't seen "October Sky" yet, but Jake Gyllenhaal is pretty dreamy, so I might have to rent that.

I am totally loving the geeky supermodel ...

[baldric]

If you're willing to dig back a bit, Real Genius had an excellent female geek who's hotness stemmed from her geekiness. Maybe its just my fascination with hyperactive women with glasses *smile*

[Caolionn]

Oh, taking it old-school with Real Genius. I think I will have to add that to my Netflix queue too. That one requires a refresher screening. I really only remember popcorn.

[rbogner]

Plus, Real Genius takes place at the best "playground" for math and science in the world *cough*.

As an undergrad there I'll attest for the lack of good looking women in physics and science in general. Somehow they let a few good-looking women in every year, though.

Even here almost everyone (at one point or another) wishes they went somewhere else for college so they had a shot at dating someone normal.

*shrugs*

[Mark Martin]

Not only does Ice Princess deliver a somewhat anti-intellectual message, but they don't even get the physics right: "As she brings her arms in, she increases her moment of inertia." Uh-huh.

[Mark Martin]

""October Sky" was the exception. In that film science ruled over athletics."

Yes, but keep in mind at least two things:

[1]- October Sky is about men. It's rare indeed for popular entertainment to portray women as thoroughly smart.

[2]- October Sky isn't a Disney movie. Disney is institutionally opposed to just about anything that isn't about reassuring the target audience of their right to be uneducated.

[Caolionn]

rbogner: I have to say, I was surprised to see many more attractive women at Caltech than I was expecting. I think I came in with (stereotypically) low expectations, but there are quite a few hotties roaming the grounds. By "quite a few", I mean more than 10, which is what I was expecting.

Mark: I have actually gotten really good at ignoring physics in pop culture. There are usually so many errors, I wouldn't be able to enjoy it on an entertainment level. As a matter of fact, that is the only way to get through Dan Brown's "Angels & Demons", otherwise you are bound to go mad.

Re Disney comment. Ouch (but funny).

[Mark Martin]

Angels & Demons. Heh! You're right. I see that CERN has an entire site dedicated to A & D. Yes, it's necessary to suspend one's physical intuition for pop-entertainment. Star Trek/Star Wars are fine by me. But when there is, ostensibly, a pretense of sticking to the physics...

Thanks!

[Chris Sherwin]

Don't read too much into Disney movies. It can lead to insanity, and in some cases... a rash! This movie has been released a few other times under different titles. The titles escape me right now but I believe "Princess" was in there somewhere. Everyone is guilty of letting physical beauty determine a person's worth to some extent. (I visit this blog once in a while to hear what a certain cute physicist has to say.) Movies like this seem to be uniquely American and unfortunately a kind of public service announcement for young girls. But I figure if a young girl doesn't see through this kind of propaganda by the time she's out her teens there wasn't much hope to begin with.