Lab Space

For most grad students involved in any kind of research-good, mediocre, misguided... whatever, the lab is their first home. Being a typical grad student with no life, I fall into that category. Our lab recently moved into a new building, and there was a mad rush to choose the best spots for hard-core research/ uninterrupted daydreaming. Being the last one on the scene I got the worst possible desk location, with my back and (more importantly) my computer screen facing the door. We lab rats (can't hide from the truth, can we?) are generally docile creatures who take what we get. Our professor, however, was outraged that all the (gentle)men of the lab had given the lady the worst desk. Well, it had been a while since we thought of ourselves in those terms. So long, in fact, that the words themselves seemed archaic and somewhat unnatural. Understandably, nobody offered to give up their seat, and the professor had told me to choose whichever seat I wanted and tell the person occupying it to move to my place. I did just this, and promptly got kicked out by that person the next morning, when he saw the new arrangement. That is the last time I move someone's stuff without informing them first. Fortunately, he doesn't hold a grudge. I kicked him out, he kicked me out, and we're even. I even learned a lesson in the process. Anyway, I like my new place now (I do not have a choice; after all, it is practically my home). It's actually got the most light, too. Not sunlight, silly. Corridor light. You really thought grad students get sunlight? Not unless we walk home for lunch because we need the Vitamin D.

Gender Stereotypes

We play a major role in shaping our toddlers' mindsets. I was reminded of this last weekend when I went out with a couple. We were shopping for baby clothes and I spotted a cute white t-shirt with a butterfly pattern on the front. When I showed it to them, they patiently explained to me that boys don't wear clothes with pictures of butterflies on them. Balls, vehicles, alphabets and teddybears were acceptable. I can understand that parents would avoid certain colours for their boys (like pink) but I had no idea it extended to patterns as well. Later, when we moved to the toys section, I saw that even here they had separate sections for boys and girls. The girls' section was filled with dolls, and tea sets, make up boxes and a lot of very pink things (I was looking at it from a distance, and it really did seem like a sea of pink from where I was standing). The boys section had aeroplanes, train sets, GI Joes... generally stuff that looked like more fun. Oh, I've played with a lot of dolls in my time, but the toys in the boys section seem infinitely more exciting to me as an adult. I wish we wouldn't program our kids into thinking a certain way. Girls should have both dolls and cars to play with (and baby boys should be able to wear butterfly-print t-shirts). It might actually make the world a better place; a place where women are less bothered about their looks and could change a tire if they really had to, where men stop thinking of kitchens as a no-go zone, and aren't afraid of expressing their feelings. I'm not saying there should be complete homogenization- that would not be a good thing. But do we really need to add rules about what a baby can and cannot wear or play with when nature has already taken care of the mental programming? Men aren't from Mars and women aren't from Venus: we are all from the same planet (duh!), we are just brought up differently. Sometimes, we repeat things- however ridiculous- so often that they become ingrained in our minds.