RoboProf

Last week I had the funniest conversation with a couple classmates about our calculus professor. We all agreed she was nice but there was something mechanical about her. We weren't sure if it was because of her teaching methods or the way she was as a person in class. Anyway I was thinking more about it and it occurred to me that she was no different than the male math professors I've had in the past. I never thought any of them were robots. Was it because she was a woman in a "man's" world? I pondered all of this in her classroom. I wonder if when I start to work as a Chemical Engineer people will perceive me the same way. Why does the gender of the person make it different. We actually look to her since she's a woman to take it easy on us. She never said she would what gave us that idea.


Human perception is an interesting thing. In my Anthropology class we were discussing how they give ordinary jobs these important sounding titles. For example how a Stripper can call herself an exotic dancer or a visual entertainment artist. If someone says that they are a visual entertainment artist you might have to think twice about what that actually means even exotic dancer doesn't give the same image as some just saying that they strip for a living. The three don't even sound like the same thing. It's like calling a janitor a custodial engineer or calling a cashier a sales associate or sales representative. You make minimum wage how are you an associate?