Firstly, I don’t claim that we have a gender neutral world. In fact, I started out the post pointing out that we still had a long way to go to equality, so I don’t think I even hinted at that.

I didn’t say that female bits are just advertisers, either. I’m not sure where you’re interpreting that from.

I also did not say that unconventionally attractive bodies are received the same as the conventional appearance. I, of all people, am well aware of the differences between how society sees a body like mine as compared to, say, Paris Hilton. What I said was, if we’re going to be all for people of all body types approaching something like science outreach using a theme that people see as sexual, then, in order to be fair, we have to be cool with that same approach from anyone, not just full bodied people. If we’re not cool with everyone doing it then it is we who are being prejudiced and that prejudice is aimed at our fellow woman who happens to have a body that society views as better than ours. A bias against a media-reinforced image is no better than a bias against the average, normal body.

I also don’t think that all comments on a woman’s appearance are somehow designed to remind her of a class position. I think most comments on a woman’s appearance are representative of what the person saying them is thinking. It may not be welcome and it may remind a woman if she feels oppressed, but that doesn’t mean that the intention of the person saying it was to make her feel that way.

Honestly, I like playing on the grounds that I have and if the world is cool with me doing it because I have an atypical body than people are used to seeing in my position, then I want them to be cool with anybody else, no matter their body type, doing the same thing.

Again, there has not been a single place where I claimed that inequality doesn’t exist. My main message was that I want fair grounds for myself and other women and I want myself and other women, no matter their body type, fat, thin, Barbie, Rosanne, I don’t care who they are, to be able to express themselves as they wish and I don’t want the sexy police to tell us we can’t express our passion for science and social issues because we show a nipple every now and then.

I don’t think it is correct for women to arm themselves in defense of the average woman’s body while chastising women with a stereotypical media-reinforced image. I want the same treatment as other women and I want to hold my ground as I am, a representative of my own sexuality, and see people like the Science cheerleader maintain her identity as well. I simply don’t feel that it is ethical for anybody to favor any set of body types over another. To bash the Science Cheerleader while being cool with the Radical Cheerleaders just smells too much like a reverse prejudice to me. I just can’t get on board with that.

Thanks for reading our post and taking the time to respond! I think you are coming from a post-feminist perspective with which I do not agree. You are starting from the premise that the world is gender-neutral, and that while women may have been historically oppressed this is no longer true. For example, you argue that disembodied female bits used to sell goods are just “advertisers,” that comments on a woman’s looks are the same as random other unwanted comments (though I LOVE the vampire baby robots!), and that unconventionally attractive female bodies are received by society in the exact same way a conventionally attractive female bodies.

In a perfect world this would all be true. But none of these things are actually gender neutral, since (as Twisty likes to say) women are the sex class. I think this is clearly illustrated when people gender-flip stereotypically sexy poses, like in this superhero parody. So when people want to use sex to sell stuff, they use women (of course there are some exceptions, but why else do women’s magazines aimed at hetero women have sexy pictures of women?). And comments on a woman’s looks are NOT the same as other unwanted comments, because (like street harassment) their intent is to remind a woman of her place in the sex class. And women who want to be sexy with different body types are NOT the same as those who conform to the beauty ideal – in fact, they can get smacked down pretty hard.

Just like advertising & cheerleading, science and science outreach has a history and a context. We can decide not to care about it to achieve other goals, but I don’t think we can pretend that it doesn’t exist.