#DISTRACTINGLYSEXY

British Nobel Prize winning biochemist Sir Tim Hunt's sexist comments at a conference in South Korea came as a surprise. The 72-year old Nobel Laureate, on 8 June, called himself a 'chauvinist' and said that he was in favour of single-sex science labs as women could be a distraction (because they 'fall in love' and 'cry when criticised’
He was quoted as saying, "Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you and — when you criticise them — they cry.”
To make matters worse, these comments were made at a lunch hosted by women.What an irony!
As expected, Hunt received a lot of flak for his misogynistic comments that not only sparked outrage on the internet, but also prompted action from organisations associated with him.

University College London said in a statement that Mr. Hunt, who was knighted in 2006, has resigned his post in the faculty of life sciences .The Royal Society, where Mr. Hunt is a fellow, also sought to distance itself from the comments as some critics called for him to be removed from its rolls

THE NONAPOLOGY APOLOGY-
Following the backlash, Mr. Hunt, who acknowledged a reputation as a chauvinist at the conference, issued what some on social media called a “non apology apology.” He told BBC radio that he was “really, really sorry” for causing any offence.
He said the comments were meant to be ironic and lighthearted but had been “interpreted deadly seriously by my audience”.

He  stood by his comments and  elaborated that women are prone to cry when confronted with criticism. “It’s terribly important that you can criticise people’s ideas without criticising them and if they burst into tears, it means that you tend to hold back from getting at the absolute truth,” he said. “Science is about nothing but getting at the truth, and anything that gets in the way of that diminishes, in my experience, the science.”

Well, a big question coming up in my mind is  how a man of reasoning , a rather strict believer in science could not see through the unreasoned facts in his own statements! If it were women who drove men away from getting to the truth the same should apply to men. If men can be distracted by beautiful women , cannot handsome men be blamed for distracting women from their work? The allegation thus is visibly biased,unreasonable and unacceptable.

A DISTRACTION IS A DISTRACTION.
It could vary from a strong wind to colleague with sour throat(Mind it! Could be any gender). If you are a real pro you don't let yourself get distracted by anybody or anything. So all of it depends solely on your will and discipline. It's important to look into your weakness instead of blaming it onto opposite gender around you.

Irrespective of the intention, Hunt's comments were uncalled for, coming from someone holding his position in the science fraternity. This however is not a lone incident of women being blamed for lack of concentration in men!

The way of dressing of women at workplaces  is often put under scanner by many. Debrahlee Lorenzana, in case you haven't heard of her, is the woman who recently sued Citibank in the US for firing her for being "too hot".Yeah, according to her statement, the blokes in her office were so overwhelmed by her looks that she was reprimanded for dressing too sexily, was stripped from some of her duties and was then asked to transfer to a new branch.While she claims she wore modest clothing and did nothing to provoke the male reaction, the blokes around her couldn't seem to keep it in their pants. So they gave the 33-year-old single mother a long list of clothing items that she would not be allowed to wear, which included turtlenecks, pencil skirts, fitted suits and three-inch heels. How would a change in a women’s dress help you tame the diverted minds? Why should not the treatment be targeted where the problem is? 

Kate Moos in “Women in Ministry: The Fashion Problem” quite aptly answer the doubts, “While I know of several movie-star handsome men in the clergy whose hotness does not seem to prevent them from being taken seriously, I have now collected several stories of female clergy being taken aside by male superiors and told that their beauty or sexiness is 'distracting' and a serious problem.
What shall we call this?
Sexism.
Plain and simple.
If a man is distracted by his completely appropriately dressed female minister's beauty and sexiness, that's his problem. The Biblical name for that problem is lust, I do believe. The cultural name for it is objectification. I say 'Work on it with your spiritual director, Senior Pastor Horndog.' "

These narrow minded comments haven't even spared the celebrities. The well known couple Anushka and Virat's relationship was stated as a reason for the star batsman failing in two consecutive matches.

To these allegations the actress answered-
"I don't know what to make out of it. It is upsetting, no doubt. To be targeted and bullied by goons, if I call them that. It was very hurtful. It is sad that a self-made, successful woman, can be degraded and downgraded to nothing more than a distraction or a 'mandakini' who is destroying someone's concentration.”
It's highly disappointing to see how people easily neglected a technical flaw in his game and all the attention was diverted to Anushka being the reason of his failure.

Let's say Anushka's film fails at the box office. Would these very people claim that it was all because of Virat being a distraction? A person going out to cheer his or her partner for any of their ventures: that I suppose is a support, not distraction.

The next example comes from one of India's oldest universities Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)where women were banned from its main library. An academic from the institution said the action was taken over fears of "distracting" male students.
Meanwhile, India's education minister Smriti Irani voiced anger after a report in The Times of India newspaper pinned the blame on the attitude of the university's vice-chancellor Zameer Uddin Shah. Shah allegedly said there would be "four times more boys" in the library if women were permitted.

Now is this the girl's fault if boys follow her to the library? A clear answer to this is: NO. Then what are these girls being punished for? Being an element of distraction?

Well, if the problem is about boys not being able to concentrate or they're coming to the library just to get the pleasure of staring at girls. Then would it not be a better solution to put THEM out of the library instead of the girls. 

A woman at work is as much a professional as a man out there. Chauvinists like Tim Hunt and Zameer Uddin Shah have often failed to understand that. If men cannot control themselves around women, then it's they who've failed in their professionalism not the women. If you are distracted it's you who chose to do so, not the other person.

If a woman qualifies to and is capable of holding a position ,no one has a right to deny it to her alleging her to be distractingly sexy. Its high time we move over this mentality.We need to get over the beauty of a woman's body and appreciate the beauty of her mind. Time and again, women have shown their worth in various professional fields and proved that they cannot be done without.

Dear male chauvinist, RESPECT THE #BEAUTIFULBRAINS.

Shikha Asrani