The Nerd Girls build a car!

[MagicRat]

A solar-powered car.

http://www.nerdgirls.org/

These girls are obviously smart and talented, but why make this demeaning and cheezy website? It diminishes women engineers and belittles the impressive achievements of their project.

Their slogan is "breaking the stigmas and stereotypes of women in engineering"

IMO they encourage such stereotypes by singling themselves out as girls and set on a girl-only project to prove they are not acutally mentally disabled.

This perception is only encouraged by the website's name; they are not 'talented engineers who happen to be female' but are 'nerds'

The last time I looked, the term 'nerd' was a derogatory expression.

The site also includes a segment that nerdgirls also "like to do all the things that “normal” people do, like sports, music, dance, shopping and hanging out with our friends."

Are they admitting that women engineers are abnormal?

I know this site is intended to encourage other girls to choose an engineering career, but the site imo only serves to encourage the sterotypes that they claim they are trying to eliminate.

[Muscletang]

A couple of those girls aren't bad looking but then again they're surrounded by nerd girls. Anyway, if they are sexiest and sterotypical, a little alcohol will probably cure that.

[beef_bourito]

wait, there're women in engineering? they're taking everything away from us!!! those harpies should be burnt at the stake. jk, im all for women in engineering, as long as they're good, but i guess that stands for guys to.

i see what they're trying to acomplish, they're trying to relate to high school girls and encourage them to go do whatever they want, even if that means engineering, but i think they made it a little too girly, it looks like a middle school girls picture of high school to me.

[freakray]

Wait a second, in their 'team' photo, the one on the extreme right sure looks like a fella...

[Toksin]

I know some hot, socially well adjusted female engineering students, and a few of them are brilliant.

[sv650s]

Originally Posted by freakray

the one on the extreme right sure looks like a fella..

maybe he's a dude by day and drag queen by night

[stoned_pimp420]

sv now that's some FUNYY SHIT!!!!

[Rally Sport]

Originally Posted by sv650s

maybe he's a dude by day and drag queen by night

Or maybe it shows that a woman only team cannot be smart.











NOTE: I AM BY NO MEANS SEXIST AND THIS WAS SAID IN A JOKING MANNER.

[freakray]

Originally Posted by Rally Sport 92

Or maybe it shows that a woman only team cannot be smart.

Maybe the guy figures he's being smart, one guy and that many girls.....odds have got to be good some time.....

[speediva]

Okay, I'm no engineer, but I DO have a degree in Mathematics and am certified to teach everything in Math from arithmetic to calculus, so let me explain...

As a math person, I call myself a geek ALL THE TIME. I am one, so why deny it? I think that the first step to solving a problem is to identify it, which clearly they've done. I can assure you that as engineers, they are pretty damn certain they, too, are nerds.

Words can only have a negative connotation if you LET THEM. I don't think that being geeky or nerdy is bad. It just means I/they/whoever is smart in some fashion.

As for the site, I'll be honest, I didn't check it out (I might want to get my Masters in Engineering if I did...)

[MagicRat]

Originally Posted by saturntangerine

As a math person, I call myself a geek ALL THE TIME. I am one, so why deny it? I think that the first step to solving a problem is to identify it, which clearly they've done. I can assure you that as engineers, they are pretty damn certain they, too, are nerds.

Words can only have a negative connotation if you LET THEM. I don't think that being geeky or nerdy is bad. It just means I/they/whoever is smart in some fashion.
As for the site, I'll be honest, I didn't check it out (I might want to get my Masters in Engineering if I did...)

They have identified a problem that IMO does not, or should not exist.

Since when does being smart and accomplished become a bad thing?
Of course it isn't, and it is a serious error that parts of society has made it so.
However, on this site, the students have made the assumption that it IS bad, and then they go on to play to the stereotype, IMO to their own detrement.

I understand for you, you are having some fun with the geek connetation, but that is because you are already an accomplished academic and you know better.

The same cannot be said for girls in high school. This site is made to appeal to high school girls to choose an engineering career by attempting to be so nerdy its cool. But my point is that this site plays to the negative and reinforces the negative attitudes that such girls may have encountered in life. By doing so, the site becomes counter-productive and disingenuous.

[G-man422]

poor gay,,......I mean poor guy.

[nissan_240sx]

lol

[beef_bourito]

i wouldn't call myself a geek, mostly because of the stereotypes, but i do have my geeky moments. i have a social life and friends, something that goes against the stereotype, despite living at a private school, but i am interested in stuff like turbine engines, cars, electronics, video games, anything scientific, so you could call me a nerd or geek for that. im all for women taking engineering, i just think that in calling themselves nerds they might be putting off some girls who were thinking of engineering. mostly because they don't want to be portrayed as nerds.

[Marc-OS]

I've never thought of either word being bad. I don't think even other people that say it think of it as bad anymore. I think it's another word that's meaning has been diluted over time. Now, it's just another word for smart person.

Anyway, those girls have done some impressive work. That is one sweet car. I especially like the custom leather wrapped steering wheel.