• Newsfeed

#DistractinglySexy Trends in Response to Nobel Scientist’s Sexist Remarks

2 minute read

On Wednesday, Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt resigned from his position as honorary professor at University College London after telling a conference in South Korea that it’s distracting to work alongside “girls” in laboratories because “they fall in love with you and when you criticize them, they cry.”

Since then, the hashtag #distractinglysexy has been trending on social media, as women have been posting photos of the unglamorous life of a research scientist to ridicule the embattled biochemist, who shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology for research on how cells divide.

I was so #distractinglysexy when collecting cheetah crap that even I lost track of what I was doing and dropped some. pic.twitter.com/3qDS7Hd9aG

— Anne Hilborn (@AnneWHilborn) June 11, 2015

It's just really hard working in a coed lab because I'm too distracting to the male scientists #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/9cZMUpy6TL

— Danielle Spitzer (@DNAielleSpitzer) June 11, 2015

I did an entire Liver Transplant without crying or falling in love. #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/6RdApuzFo9

— Tiffany Anthony MD (@drtanthony) June 12, 2015

I wish I could concentrate in the lab, but I fell in love with Europasaurus holgeri #distractinglysexy #WomenInSTEM pic.twitter.com/UdKrpKAamJ

— Franziska Sattler-Morrison, M.Sc. (@ohyeahfranzi) June 12, 2015

Mind you, guys in the lab were always checking out my nice rack...#distractinglysexy #TimHunt pic.twitter.com/xT7jpL0hiE

— 🧬💻Laura Baxter 🌱🔬 (@scientist_me) June 10, 2015

There were also jokes about history’s most famous female scientists:

I'm really glad that Curie managed to take a break from crying to discover radium and polonium #distractinglysexy pic.twitter.com/txYVHoidK5

— Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) June 11, 2015

Rosalind Franklin was so #distractinglysexy that Watson and Crick forgot to give her credit for figuring out how DNA worked

— a luminous presence shaped like Seth D. Michaels (@sethdmichaels) June 12, 2015

See The Best Biology Photos Of The Year

Two Bisons on the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.
Two Bisons on the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyo.Lukas Gawenda
A spider at sunset in Predel, Bulgaria.
A spider at sunset in Predel, Bulgaria.Krasimir Matarov
Parental care in parasitoid wasps
Parasitoid wasps building clay pots in Borneo, Brunei.Thomas Endlein
Siblings watering newly planted seedlings in Rizal, The Philippines.
Siblings watering newly planted seedlings in Rizal, The Philippines.Ysabel M Victoriano
A leopard in its natural habitat in Karantaka, India.
A leopard in its natural habitat in Karantaka, India.Nagarjun Ram
A farmer protects his family and animals from mosquitos in Gujarat, India.
A farmer protects his family and animals from mosquitos in Gujarat, India.Dimple Pancholi
A tarsier in its natural habitat in Sulawesi, Indonesia.
A tarsier in its natural habitat in Sulawesi, Indonesia.Wolfgang Weinhardt
A plant takes advantage of the available shelter in a dilapidated house in Kolmanskop, Namibia.
A plant takes advantage of the available shelter in a dilapidated house in Kolmanskop, Namibia.Kelsey Green
A female blackbird holding a dried mealworm in her mouth in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.
A female blackbird holding a dried mealworm in her mouth in Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.Billy Clapham
A chick embryo in a hardened eggshell is sustained until full development in Rizal, The Philippines.Robert Cabagnot
An adult female Italian crested newt stationed below the fresh water surface in Piedmont, Italy.
An adult female Italian crested newt stationed below the fresh water surface in Piedmont, Italy.Matteo Riccardo Di Nicola
A sea turtle eating a jellyfish in The Maldives.
A sea turtle eating a jellyfish in The Maldives.Boris Barath

More Must-Reads From TIME

Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com