![\"LoughEske](\"http:\/\/www.starshipnivan.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/LoughEske-Alexander-crop.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNature<\/em> (once a single magazine, now a constellation of suffixed clones collectively called NPG) is part of the scientific holy trinity in terms of prestige. Of course, neither Nature<\/em> nor Science<\/em> are above publishing (and hyping) sloppy articles they deem \u201chot\u201d \u2013 as exemplified by the \u201carsenic\u201d bacteria jawdropper<\/a> and the ENCODE non-news<\/a>. To get anything accepted in Nature<\/em>, whether a peer-reviewed article, a fiction piece or even a letter is a Big Deal and the gatekeeping and power politics are geared to emphasize this core fact. I know whereof I speak first-hand: I have one (mid-author) paper in Nature<\/em>, reviewed manuscripts for them, and made the short-short list for an NPG senior editor position a few years ago.<\/p>\n Nature<\/em> and Science<\/em> do the periodic \u201cwomen\/minorities in science\u201d recap, though their own percentages of non-defaults remain dismal across categories (in fairness, that simply reflects larger academia). Two recent events at Nature<\/em> highlight the issues of navigating life while not in the auto-approved NPG list.<\/p>\n The first was the decision to republish a comment in their correspondence section. What did this comment say that was so worthwhile that a Nature <\/em>editor singled it out, assigned it a doi number and reprinted it? In the impeccable tradition of Larry Summers and essentialist evopsycho, it stated that bias has nothing to do with women\u2019s lesser status in science \u2013 it\u2019s all about the fact that they have kids. What are the author\u2019s credentials? An internet search reveals he just graduated with a hazy B. A. from a small Texas college and his LinkedIn profile lists his occupation as accounting.<\/p>\n Right on the heels of this, the senior biology editor of Nature<\/em> (who also handles their Science Futures where \u201chard\u201d SF<\/a> gets published) decided to name an outspoken pseudonymous science blogger; the two had been feuding since 2009. The blogger is a non-Anglo woman in the early stages of her faculty career, although her pseudonym was unusually transparent. The NPG editor called her \u201can inconsequential sports physio\u201d.<\/p>\n I know neither combatant personally. I\u2019ve dipped occasionally into the posts of the now-named blogger and also have occasionally read the uneven Science Futures short stories curated by the Nature<\/em> editor (several SF authors I know had stories published there but the less said of Ed Rybicki\u2019s \u201cWomanspace\u201d, the better). From parallel experiences of my own, I think the naming was the act of a settled insider who considers in-your-face criticism an affront to his self-definition \u2013 but \u201cinconsequential\u201d was even more corrosive. Such terms always aim to raise doubts in those of us whose legitimacy is always on trial, no matter how lengthy or weighty our credentials and achievements.<\/p>\n When I started publishing books, stories, poems and essays, I made a conscious decision to do so under my real name, aware of the risks and penalties of this choice (many of which promptly materialized, with significant repercussions). There is no question that pseudonymity is crucial for those at the lower end of power differentials and that real harm can come to those deemed to be \u201ctoo vocal\u201d (especially if they\u2019re women, non-white, poor, queer or a combination thereof). I also hear the argument that knowledge should count, rather than appeals to authority \u2013 although that slides fairly often towards disdain of bona fide expertise. On the other side, there is equally no question that pseudonymity can be used to snipe without consequences and occasionally hides an impostor: recall the \u201cendangered Syrian lesbian\u201d who turned out to be a straight American man?<\/p>\n I decided to do everything under my real name because I wanted to plant a flag, so to speak. I wanted to make it clear that someone like me \u2013 an unfeminine, dark, \u201cuppity\u201d woman with an accent, a zero-generation immigrant who doesn\u2019t conform to cultural gender in either her native or adopted culture \u2013 can get scholarships and degrees from Harvard and MIT, can be the PI of an NIH funded lab<\/a>, can run a department, can write a popular science book<\/a>, can conceive of and execute a paradigm-shifting SF anthology<\/a>. All done cold turkey, without any dynasty cushioning or insider connnections. And I wanted to be able to do all my various activities without the fear of blackmail dangling over my head. I got my share of rape, etc threats with \u201cWe know your home address\u201d notes appended to them. But I had lived six formative years in a real military dictatorship, where people, including first-degree relatives, got tortured and disappeared. Internet trolls are drooling babies compared to real secret police.<\/p>\n Did use of my real name restrict me? Well, I could not be a shock jock (mind you, I prefer less lazy ways of denoting disagreement than profanity). Neither could I spend much time detailing my serious health issues for extra pittypats \u2013 I find dwelling on such matters boring anyway. Did it cost me gigs and tenure? Probably, despite the lip service of both academia and the \u201cprogressive\u201d blogosphere to the importance\/desirability of diversity and outreach. Would I have done it differently, knowing what I know now? Unlikely. I don\u2019t have the stamina or patience for creating more than one persona\/lity.<\/p>\n In short, I wanted to live an undistracted, integrated life, where my personal could indeed be political and vice versa. By a combination of attributes and circumstances, I was able to do so, more or less. It helped that I eventually realized I would never be deemed legitimate, even if I won Nobels, Pulitzers, Hugos, you name it. My \u201cotherness\u201d suffices to make me Johnson\u2019s dog walking on her hind legs. Along the same lines, the fact that an entitled insider named a non-Anglo woman scientist with intent to intimidate was vile but almost secondary: she was classified as \u201clesser\u201d the moment she made it clear she was non-default.<\/p>\n Non-defaults are never treated as fully human. All else springs from that.<\/p>\n Is It Something in the Water? Or: Me Tarzan, You Ape<\/a><\/p>\n Of Federal Research Grants and Dancing Bears<\/a><\/p>\n Who Will Be Companions to Female Kings?<\/a><\/p>\n Those Who Never Got to Fly<\/a><\/p>\n So, Where Are All the Outstanding Women in X?<\/a><\/p>\n Images:<\/strong> Top, Lough Eske<\/a> by Brendan Alexander<\/a>; bottom, yours truly by Peter Cassidy – just so there is no doubt about the identity of the author of this post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “…Breathe deep! No hurt, no pardon out here in the cold with you you with your back to the wall.” — Adrienne Rich, the ending of “Orion” Nature (once a single magazine, now a constellation of suffixed clones collectively called NPG) is part of the scientific holy trinity in terms of prestige. Of course, neither […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biology-and-culture","category-history","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starshipnivan.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Related articles<\/strong><\/p>\n