By Dani on October 9th, 2008 in Talk

Tags: beauty, brains, engineering, female gender, gender lines, have it all, intelligence, myths, nerd girls, newsweek, nike, one-dimensional, smart, smarts, stereotypes, today show

They’ve been on MSNBC, Newsweek, and the Today Show. They’re the purportedly rare combination of brains and beauty. They’re the Nerd Girls and they’re out to bust up some myths!

“We’re here to say, you can be not just one-dimensional. You can have everything. You can be smart and athletic and fun and have it all,” said Reshma Taufiq on the Today Show. She’s a Nike employee working to bring India up to speed in the digital age.

Taufiq was accompanied by the founder of Nerd Girls, Karen Panetta, along with a master’s student in biological engineering student, an engineer for Boeing, and computer engineer working with microprocessors. All beautiful girls who look just as at home in stilettos as they do in labcoats.

When anyone sets out to smash stereotypes I always wonder if they are making actual progress or just reinforcing the old label. I admire their effort to put intelligence in the spotlight, but would they be getting the attention they want on their brains were they not beautiful? I know that’s what they’re trying to say, that beauty and brains can co-exist, but does it also prove that the two have to go together for brains to even be noticed?

In our culture, is not intelligence alone something to be noted? Women are still trying to prove that looks and smarts aren’t an anomaly.

These are just some thoughts; some healthy poking and prodding. What do you think of the Nerd Girls? More power to them or are they proving that beauty is the biggest bait to be noticed in other arenas? (See also the official Nerd Girls website)