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Sex and the Single Python Researcher
LA to Laura Wood:
In this story from the Daily Mail about a 17-foot, 164-pound Burmese python caught in Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History team that is examining it, see the researcher on the left? Looks like she’s really serious about research, right?  Laura Wood replies:
Don’t be ridiculous. That’s what scientists look like today.LA replies:
All I could think of when I saw her was that I wanted to ask her out on a date.Laura replies:
You would have to be prepared for a very scientific date.LA continues:
Also, there’s a second photo in that article that shows her with her colleagues working on the python. Her colleagues are all male, dressed in casual clothing that, of course, covers them. She’s wearing that low cut floral top with bare arms and her body fetchingly on display and long loose hair hanging down. 
Remember that discussion about female modesty a few months ago and how another blogger said angrily that no woman can force men to have lustful thoughts? He also objected to the idea that feminists emasculate men by wearing revealing clothes and then censuring the reactions of men (or at least those men whose attentions are unwanted). Men, he said, are fully responsible and must restrain themselves.LA replies:
Or how a male of any age concentrates.
Synchronicity. In thinking of a title for this entry last night, what I came up with was a paraphrase of Sex and the Single Girl. Then this morning I remembered: the author of Sex and the Single Girl, Helen Gurley Brown, the long-time editor of Cosmopolitan, died at age 90 a couple of days ago.James R. writes:
She looks like a chav, complete with the overdone hair, makeup, and at least one tattoo (on her shoulder). I would bet she has what they proudly call a “tramp stamp” on her lower back.LA replies:
I’m not sure if the word chav applies outside a British context. She looks like an ordinary American girl to me (except for the tattoo, which I hadn’t noticed before you pointed it out.)Stephen T. writes: Another thing: The scheduled autopsy of a famous snake is not the unplanned occasion for a spontaneous, spur-of-the-moment photo-op. Per the copyright, the photo was taken by a museum photographer. In my experience, organizations and companies usually inform employees in advance that they will be photographed on the job. (In my experience, also, employees frequently agree only grudgingly, but I don’t think so in this case.) She almost certainly knew she would be photographed for the media that day and therefore was, in her mind, properly dressed for the occasion. On any other day in the lab, she might well have been wearing baggy jeans and a work shirt and had her hair tied back. She appears to be made-up for the camera—certainly heavy on the lip gloss. And that tousled, bedroom hair isn’t a look that happens naturally, either. So, the effect that photo has on most people is exactly what she consciously intended, desired and planned, in a premeditated way. I don’t think she looks bad, I’m just saying that the way she looks and the total effect it has is not a casual, “candid camera” accident.James P. writes:
I found a photo that names the people dissecting the python. The “researcher” in the colorful top is not a scientist or researcher at all. She is Claudia Grant, whom the Florida museum website lists as a “web assistant”—i.e., she runs the museum website and provides IT support. What does she know about snakes? Why is she helping to dissect the snake? I am tempted to speculate that she’s only in the picture because she is more photogenic than the male researchers.LA replies:
Even if this photo was as you say, it is nevertheless representative of the American workplace today and of TV news and talk programs, where, as we’ve discussed before, you have buttoned-up serious males and half naked females, and the males are never supposed to notice the females’ nakedness.N. writes: Perhaps the young woman forgot what day it was, and by mistake dressed for church instead of for the lab.Paul K. writes:
About ten years ago my a new boss was brought in to head my department at the company where I worked. She was in her early fifties, married with no children, quite attractive, and as could be seen in photos she hung in her office, a real beauty in her youth. Her sexual appeal was obviously very important to her as she routinely dressed in mini-skirts and tight knit tops, often with no bra (yes, it was obvious). I was once standing behind her in a conference room when she bent down to get a bottle of water, exposing the lacy straps of her thong underwear above her low-cut slacks.Philip M. writes: You know, looking at that first picture of the woman with that come-hither expression on her face, it could almost be an exact re-creation of how things must have looked to Adam when he decided to go and find out why his wife had been gone for so long. All she needs is an apple. Posted by Lawrence Auster at August 16, 2012 10:22 AM | Send Email entry |