EGU Blogs

Palaeontologist

Geologists as a social stigma?

So I was browsing for content for future blog posts the other day, and came across this video from Friends (the show people of my era grew up with).

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Ross is a palaeontologist, so naturally one of the coolest, smartest and sexiest of all the science breeds, but takes a little dig at geologists here in a social context.

Now compare that to this video from American Dad, in which geologists are portrayed in the opposite manner, in a James Bond-y way.

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So have any of you ever experienced a social stereotyping or generalisation of some sort, positive or negative, when people find out you’re a geologist (or geoscientist of some sort), or have known about it for a while? On a personal level, I get called ‘the dinosaur man’ quite a bit at university, but that’s more of a sub-affectionate jibe, I think. Interested to know what y’all may have experienced!