So I kind of don't get it

It's so weird to me now that I'm grown up to see all of these public service announcements targeted at getting girls to want to be smart/scientists. I got this message pretty early on because I have a mom with a Chemistry phd and I knew many female scientists growing up (plus being Asian, you learn to equate smartness with success at a very young age regardless of gender), and it's really interesting to me that something that I have grown up with as a norm is like this underdog thing that other people see as a movement.

I started noticing this when everyone started sharing this Kickstarter project called GoldieBlox on facebook. I appreciated the toy for its clever business idea of targeting the totally untapped market of building toys for girls, but the toy itself didn't seem that creative/appealing (especially compared to legos!) and I don't see how the spinning blocks with too much pink is actually going to be fun to play with. BUT, it's certainly still better than another barbie doll with a new outfit.

Then today, I saw this picture on facebook

Does this image make sense? For the people who want to promote smart girl power, is it actually a good thing? Or does it ironically undermine the whole idea of being a smart? What if we saw a similar statement like "Smart Guys Are Rich" or "Pretty Girls are Smart", would it make ANY sense at all? I guess what irks me is that by trying to get girls to believe that being smart is an attractive quality the people who are in charge of it are employing the same rhetoric as superficial women's magazine (which I by the way do like to read at times) and reaffirms the belief that all girls should want to be pretty because it's a female priority!

The weirdest one I've come across so far is this video called "Science, It's a Girl Thing" made by the European Commission that tries to get girls interested in science by linking it to cosmetics! It's such a horrible concept! Girls are interested in cosmetics because ALL OF SOCIETY tells them that they should be from a very early age and that being pretty is all that matters. Isn't it pretty obvious that we're never going to get girls truly interested in science because they think it's going to make them pretty. Sooner or later, they're going to realize that it doesn't make them PRETTY but it will make them SMART. For me, being smart is an important quality ON IT'S OWN MERIT, so why don't they just promote that? I think "Smart Girls are Bad Ass MOFOs" would make for a better message.