(Because Blondes!) Actual words people say to a blonde woman studying engineering at MIT

[Tuesday Afternoon]

Sometimes I feel as if in saying that I attend MIT, I’m telling a blonde joke.
[Hint: I’m not.]

Many MIT students recount questions about their GPA, test scores, magnificent things they’ve built, accomplishments, etc.
While I often find myself trying to convince people that I actually attend MIT.
The reactions that I’ve received from people range from amusing to borderline offensive, from disheartening to downright what.

Here’s a collection of reactions in all their confusing glory.

On MIT campus
I’m sitting on a bench off the Infinite Corridor conversing with my best friend. A friend of hers approaches us. Cue introduction.
“Hi! Where do you go to school?”
I’m wearing a MIT jacket. My backpack lies beside me. We’re in MIT’s academic buildings.
“I’m a student here. At MIT.”

“Really?”

more at link:
http://qz.com/322045/im-a-blonde-woman-engineering-student-at-mit-heres-what-people-say-to-me/

[niyad]

1. "cause I'm a blond" (from "earth girls are easy")

[hollysmom]

2. The article is OK, but my one problem with it is

all the women in that picture are bottle blondes. I was a real one.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. there is a certain irony to that, I think

[MannyGoldstein]

4. I once met a beautiful blonde woman who was studying engineering

at a top-tier university. A knockout, with an IQ 15 points higher than mine.

Very intimidating!

We married.

[seabeyond]

5. that there would even be a reason to need to explain a blonde is smart, kinda is the point.

what does that say about us as a society.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. I don't think it needs to be explained

In fact, living local to MIT and having regular interactions with them, I'm surprised by the article. But it is what it is.

A few months ago I was on campus with our son, he was taking a course there, and I pointed out how many women MIT has enrolled today, a far cry from decades ago; I just assumed they were MIT students and very smart.

[LuvLoogie]

6. Blondes I have loved

Deneuve

[LuvLoogie]

7. Veronica

[seabeyond]

8. really? where in this OP do you get the idea us women are asking men to validate the existence of a

blonde? or we need you to throw up pictures of bilf

[LuvLoogie]

12. They're just head shots of iconic blondes.

That's all.

[seabeyond]

13. again. so? and why?

[LuvLoogie]

16. She's cute, attractive, big eyes and smile, if her picture is any indication.

College-aged men are college-aged men even if they are engineers. They hit on her, but I don't think they assaulted her. It's not clear, but some of the comments she gets are likely from other women, perhaps other women MIT students. But not necessarily because she is blonde. Although bright blonde hair is like a beacon, indoors and out.

Cute is cute. At MIT, the library, the grocery store, traffic court, Starbucks. I think the blonde archetype developed out of the silver screen because the hair just glowed in black and white with the right lighting and filters. The way it reflects and contrasts with everything else.

That is what this young woman is contending with. Decades of idolization, jealousy and scorn.

Sometimes people look good just by taking a shower and brushing their teeth and hair. Others take more effort than that, not because they need to, but because it makes them feel good or secure. That's all.

[LanternWaste]

9. And the relevance of your loves is...?

And the relevance of your loves to this topic is exactly what?

[LuvLoogie]

14. Iconic Blonde Archetype Override?

All else is irrelevant?

People assume a lot upon first meeting. College-aged men are still college-aged men, even engineering students.

[LanternWaste]

15. It believe it may have been relevant had they been pictures of...

We all illustrate our biases in way or another... it believe it may have been relevant to the OP had they been pictures of...


Grace Hopper, Computer Scientist


Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, prof of Biochemistry and Biophysics


Ameia Earhart, Pilot and Explorer.





Yet simply asking you the relevance in no ways implies "All else is irrelevant?"-- so yes, 'people do assume a lot..."

[LuvLoogie]

17. I was actually in the middle of looking

for a picture of Liz Warren when you posted. But I catch your drift. What I mean by all else is irrelevant is that some times people see a cute blonde that they are attracted too, and all else becomes irrelevant. That's true in any setting, especially among teenagers and twenty-somethings.

[ismnotwasm]

11. My favorite:

Random guy at Starbucks

“What are you working on?”
“I’m writing an international relations paper on global politics.”
“Cool! Are you studying to be a lawyer? Where do you go to school?”
“No, actually I’m studying engineering at MIT.”
“Oh! So you’re like genius? But you seem so down to earth! Did you have some traumatizing childhood experience that brought you down to earth?”
“How is that relevant?”

Notice how many of the comments are sexual harassment?

[cwydro]

18. I need to come in here more often.

This article is amazing. (not in a good way)

[pnwmom]

19. Try being a redheaded female at MIT.

When my daughter was there, she said there was only one other redhead she'd ever seen -- a guy. Mostly, MIT is a sea of dark brunettes -- but her roommate was a blonde.

When tour buses from Asia came through campus, they often stopped my daughter to ask for a photo.

[Lucky Luciano]

20. I am male. I completed a pure math PhD at UCLA...

When I answered the standard "what do you do?" question in LA, everyone was always surprised. They would say, "but you don't look like a math grad student?!" I would then laugh and say "Thank You!" Often people mistook me for being connected to the entertainment industry somehow when I was light years from it. I didn't fit the stereotype and it surprised people. Happens to men and women that don't fit stereotypes I guess - though I did like that it surprised people admittedly.