Science and those who love it often get a hard time, and I wondered if there is anything to be learned from a personal experience of changing attitudes in the UK to being Irish.
One of my grandmothers was Eileen Mulligan, born in County Cork. She came to the UK before the Second World War, and seems to have spent much of her life trying not to appear Irish, because back then there was considerable prejudice in this country.
This still applied to a degree to my mother’s generation, though it had been watered down a bit. Unlike her mother, my mum would refer to the fact her mother was born in Cork, but would joke about it, implying (falsely) she was born of an English family there. I believed this when I was young – I was later told it was just a joke, but I didn’t see the funny side.
For me, it has been an immense pride that I’m quarter Irish – I see it as something to celebrate, rather than hide away.
Now, from the media, I suspect scientists tended to have a similar type of stereotyping in society to the way the Irish were in the UK in my grandmother’s time. These were, perhaps, the mad scientists, intent on world domination.
The intermediate stage, like my mother’s generation, where the stigma has been weakened with humour is now regular on our screens. There is Dr Who of course. Then, to take two US examples, on both Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (don’t ask me why they both have occult associations), the geeky science types were the subversive heroes, while the football jocks/cheerleaders were the baddies. (Although in both cases the central character tended to span both worlds.) The same goes for Malcolm in the Middle.
I suspect the examples above tend to have a teen theme because that’s the age when people think most about this issue.
I’m wondering if we’re coming to a time that is equivalent to my generation, where we don’t just have the semi-humorous ‘geeks are good’ feel, but we can have people standing up and being proud to love science? And why not?
I’ve noticed this trend too and been pleased by it – being four quarters Irish. I suspect it may have arisen from the odd conjunction of the IRA ceasefire and the irresistible rise of James Nesbitt, who seems to have made it cool to be Irish…
Whether a similar transformation awaits scientists remains to be seen, though I’m sure appearances in popular culture as subversive heroes helps. Will be sitting down to watch Lab Rats next Thursday with interest (and a little trepidation..)!
Well Brian, I thought it was an interesting post…! But perhaps your working of the system sucked up all of yesterday’s commenting activity…
Thanks, Stephen! While the factors you mention certainly increase the coolness, I think the positive feeling goes back further – certainly for me, which makes me suspect it’s a generational thing rather than being influenced by current affairs/a personable actor.
I thought it happened when England failed to qualify for the world cup in 1994 and everyone supported Ireland instead…
50% Irish, 25% Scottish, 25% English here, if you go back to my great-grandparents…