A planetary scientist who worked with NASA came across a fellow who passed a sexist joke at her on a dating app and she had an apt response for him.
Social media and dating apps are meant to bring like minded people together but it's not uncommon to come across prejudiced trolls on these platforms. Dr. Lauren McKeown, who is a lecturer in planetary surfaces from Ireland and had previously worked with NASA, also bumped into one such man on datinb app Hinge. She later decided to share a post to summarize her experience through screenshots of private messages on her X handle @mclaurenseries.
McKewon addressed the guy's blatant sexism that was disguised as bad humor. The man named Mikey slid into McKewon's inbox and responded to her comment that said "The dorkiest thing about me is, I worked at NASA,." Trying to be sarcastic, the man wrote, "That's cool. Wait till I tell my parents."
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am single 🤦🏼♀️ pic.twitter.com/E3XHNLZXan
— Dr Lauren Mc Keown (@mclaurenseries) August 14, 2019
But then the conversation went downhill. "So what are you like, the receptionist? Just kidding, you look reasonably smart," Mikey wrote in his message. At this point, McKeown decided to gracefully call out Mikey's attitude towards women in general. "Smart enough to know at least, that judging a woman's intelligence based on her appearance might not be the best way to initiate conversation. P.S: My mother is a primary school receptionist and is the wisest, most inspirational and kindest person I know. So much so in fact, my PhD thesis in planetary science is dedicated to her," McKeown wrote in her reply. The post has received over 150,000 likes ever since.
Other X users expressed their opinions on this incident and some even criticized her for not being able to take a joke. @PlanetaryKeri, a woman who is a flight engineer, responded to McKeown's post and wrote, "Once had a guy break up with me after I gave him a tour of where I was working on a Mars mission because he said he thought I was lying about working for NASA and he has to be the smarter one in the relationship." @megsylhydrazine wrote, "When I started working at a new NASA facility, someone assumed I needed directions and I was pointed in the direction of the gift shop."
Christ. ‘Reasonably smart’... i.e. I deem you to have met my low estimation of maximum female intelligence.
— Dan Spencer (@Spencer_space) August 14, 2019
Must have designed a satellite weapons platform.
— ☄🌎 Nate 🌪🛰 (@Grim_Science) August 14, 2019
Cause that dude just got nuked from orbit.
The official X handle of Hinge also dropped in to comment in favor of McKeown. "Yikes. Hinge has a zero-tolerance policy for behavior like this. We're on it. And while we're at it, your next Hinge date is on us. DM us! We hope you find someone worth deleting Hinge for soon," the comment from @hinge read. "I think it’s something we don’t talk about much on here - that people still think it’s a compliment to imply your appearance doesn’t align with how a scientist looks. The most infuriating part is this guy probably thought he was implying I looked good by that statement," McKeown further wrote in another comment. "Simultaneously insulting everything I’ve worked for, scientists he might not deem conventionally attractive and hardworking people who might not be academic but could trump me and him in other ways."
Happy Pride Month! Thanks so much to Amila Cooray and the JPL Spectrum group for this awesome t-shirt. I believe it was designed by an intern and will hopefully be in the store soon 😊❤️🧡💛💚💙💜 pic.twitter.com/QQpz2bE7He
— Dr Lauren Mc Keown (@mclaurenseries) June 12, 2022
According to her profile on NASA's official website, McKeown has been living in Pasadena, California. She was studying icy surface processes on Mars and Europa through laboratory analog work and remote-sensing image analysis. She also holds a PhD in Planetary Science from Trinity College, Dublin and an undergraduate degree in Physics with Astronomy and Space Science from University College Dublin. She has previously worked as a tenured lecturer in planetary surfaces at Birkbeck, University of London.