Interestingly, you chose two male athletes... no females... although the thread is about encouraging girls in STEM.
Do I correctly understand your position as: MissUSA does not deserve to have a voice; You believe she has not earned the right to address a large audience?
- ON one hand, if this government-employed scientist is denied a voice, then whose outreach would you accept to encourage girls to explore STEM fields?
- On the other hand, there were reportedly over a million fan votes, and the MissUSA competition was trending on twitter, showing that society IS interested in "beauty."
Bottom line, the OP shows that an interest in beauty and an interest in science need not be mutually exclusive. That may be an important message for girls.
I hate to argue - but, what is the basis of this woman being of high IQ? The OP and title calls her as "one of the most intelligent". I remember many posters on this forum being hounded for calling their kids "gifted" because they did not have a neuropsychologist administered report calling their kids PG. They were attacked because they did not have documentary evidence of their kids being gifted. Though I did not participate in those threads, I see irony in holding up a person without proof of their intelligence for their "high intelligence".
indigo, please go back and read my earlier post on this thread - I have talked about Women in STEM in my post - there are many women who are trailblazers in silicon valley in their own rights in a "highly intellectual" field - in a thread about STEM and girls!!! You are the person who introduced the word "athlete" into this topic.
Am I correct in assuming your position as: accomplished athletes, actors and musicians can be equated to a person answering a few questions with "politically correct" answers in a beauty pageant?
ETA: Since we are discussing Women in STEM , I would like to throw in a plug for WiSTEM:
http://www.womeninstem.com/wistem-for-schools.phpThey do a lot of good work in the local public schools in my area.
ETA2: Michael Phelps visited a famous USA swimming team training center in my town - multiple times to compete- and I have witnessed him encouraging many of the young athletes (including many young girls) to follow their dreams, to work hard and being very supportive of them. Which is why I mentioned him by name. I do not have any interaction or familiarity with any female sportsperson because I simply do not follow sports.
