Jonesy, I could agree more with what you are saying. There is such a stigma definitely involved.

Scarlet, you can't even imagine how bad the fields of natural sciences/engineering ( where I am) are!

I see a new night job in your future, Scarlet-Rosie? Good bit of extra shopping pocket money.

Do you know that MIT has a "Charm School" to address this type of problem among us clueless scientists and engineers?
http://web.mit.edu/charm/schedule.html

Maybe you should start a local branch of charm school.

He he Medusa, I used to teach at the Charm School, since it also included dancing

Jonesy, sadly I've been told the same thing by a woman professor at the unviversity where I did my undergrad. According to her, dressing with even a modicum of care and style at that particular university (and in others, but it depended on where) was directly antithetical to advancing in her career. Super sad.

ETA: I think MIT's Charm School is a brilliant idea. I totally would have gone to something like that (and my degrees are from Fine Arts faculties), and so would my DH. Even if you're fairly socailly competent, it would still be really interesting and fun! Tanya, that's very cool that you taught there. How did people dress?

EEWW....Just EEWW!

CHARM SCHOOL!!!! That is so funny, like, as in inspired by Flavor of Love and I Love New York. Ha Ha Ha! That is perfect. A local branch, a night job, someone show me how to start a business. I might not be a high-fashion maven, but I can certainly help these poor souls. What should my business card say? I can start with a questionnaire: do you or have you ever owned a full-length mirror?

This is hysterical !!

MIT has a charm school ! How high tech and radical ! Many years ago I worked in a MIT molecular biology lab. The principal investigator had a collaboration with an Italian lab and the Italians would come over quite a bit to work with us. The hysterical part was that we showed them alot of science and they showed us alot of fashion !!! The women in our lab started wearing lipstick and scarves and nicer watches because one of the female Italian scientists would give "lab meetings" on elegance. Those were fun times for me.

Another funny story, again many years ago, I was walking down the street with a friend of mine who owned a jewelry store. And I spotted the man who was partly responsible for the most recent version of DNA manual sequencing and one of the most respected molecular biologists in the world. To me, it was like running into a rock star. I pointed him out to my friend. And she replied, " That homeless man...what happened to him ?? "

He wasn't homeless, but he was wearing bell bottom, tight fitting high waters, a beard down to his chest, and what looked like a child's oxford shirt, and boat shoes that were torn !!! It was a priceless moment.

Isabel, that's hysterical!

Some people are called to feed the hungry. Others are called to heal the sick. It seems you have been called to dress the scientific. On behalf of the rest of us, I would like to thank you for your sacrifice (the daily assault on your eyes is indeed a sacrifice, LOL) and your public service.

we should call the nobel society and request a new prize category for the dressing the scientific!

Oh my, Scarlet - You have painted such a wonderfully vivid picture and brought back lots of good memories from my Math Department days. . . thank you for the laughs!

I really think you should become the belt fairy -- leaving anonymous belts at their desks, all curled up, tied with a ribbon! (I was thinking from the 99-cents days at a thrift store. . .) But there is still a huge possibility that they wouldn't even 'get' the hint :-\

My son was in undergraduate Chemistry when he made the observation that it was a direct correlation between the professor's number of published papers and the food remnants in his beard. His other observation was the inverse correlation between the gnarly, mossy quality of their beard and their social abilities. (apparently he had all male professors

I do NOT want to offend anyone in the Chem/science academia field -- just tap into a persona that we have probably encountered!

That said, I adore the charm school idea, but, as always, they need to care first. . .

MNsara, some of my profs had so much food in their beards, they were well-provisioned if they got stranded in a snowdrift on their way to the math building. yuck!

of course, 95% of these men were married! there really is a nut for every screw.

Ewww! Actually chemistry was my first love, but I didn't stick with it because there were only crabby male professors and I just couldn't see myself there. I know, sad, right? I didn't get close enough to look in their beards. Thank goodness apparently.