Mushtaq Bilal, PhD@MushtaqBilalPhD
This is unbelievable!
Kurt Wüthrich, an 84-year-old, Swiss, male scientist, who won the Nobel Prize in 2002 claims that "as a male scientist" he has "a feeling of discrimination."
He said this during the 72nd Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting on a panel that had four old, male scientists including him and an old, male moderator. (It was literally a susage fest!)
When Science Magazine asked him to elaborate on the kind of discrimnation he faced, "Wüthrich said he did not feel personally discriminated against as an individual at the event but thought that all men attendees faced discrimination while women were tokenized."
Here's an example of the discrimination Kurt Wüthrich, a Nobel Prize winner, gave:
In group photos of laureates, women laureates were asked to stand in front while male scientists like him were told to stand behind them 🤦😂😭
This makes him feel "horrible" because asking women laureates to stand in front is "ridiculous, fully ridiculuous."
A young scholar countered Wüthrich's childish tantrum and the moderator tried to shut her up.
For reference, here's a comparison:
Nobel Prizes won:
By men: 892
By women: 60
Speakers invited to this year's Lindau meeting:
Men: 34
Women: 5
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A couple of observations:
1. The feeling among men that gender equality is somehow a form of discrimination against them is not limited to incels (involuntary celibates) on the internet.
Male Nobel Prize winners can feel the same way too.
2. Many young scholars and scientists are still playing the "prestige" game: do a PhD in a "prestigious" university, do a postdoc in a "prestigious" lab, go to "prestigious" meetings like Lindau.
Playing the prestige game takes a lot of toll on one's mental health and personal relationships. The worst part is make you feel extremely insecure.
No amount of external validation, not even a Nobel Prize, will help you overcome your insecurities.
