this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
905 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

11047 readers
3484 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] HonoraryMancunian@lemmy.world 69 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Anyone else find it weird how articles often tend to add the parental status of the subject in the title?

[–] Hagdos@lemmy.world 41 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Only if it's about a mother though.

[–] cmhe@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

I guess being a mother is considered an important life achievement, while being a father is not.

[–] HenriVolney@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 month ago

You do get to be a father in news articles. Mainly when they talk about you being deceased though.

[–] Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee 4 points 1 month ago

I think it's more that, for some, becoming a parent is their only life accomplishment, so "reader engagement" is literally, "hey, overlap these two circles, or the middle won't buy our crap."

[–] mouserat@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I guess it's bait for people who like to judge. The idea could be: it's not responsible to quit science for this and being a mother makes irresponsible choices even worse. That's not my point of view, but I know people whose life seems to be so empty that they feel a constant need to look down on others and the "mother" information gives them at least 5 more minutes of talking shit about how this is a terrible decision.

[–] WeirdGoesPro@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

I see it the other way around. Older people eat up clickbait news, and older people tend to be parents, so identifying the woman as a mother makes them go “she’s someone like me” while identifying her as a scientist is less likely to resonate. It helps some people imagine themselves in her shoes.

[–] atrielienz@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

It's been this way since the inception of the news paper. To sell papers they needed to get people invested in the subjects of the paper. That included giving information about the subject of the articles that other people might relate to. If you're a mother you're more likely to be inspired by a mom of 3 who went for a degree in science and ended up becoming a "Trebuchet Master".