Nerdery

[liv]

Work is a bit politically frustrating at the moment, so have some silly links:

joannas found the personality quiz I've been waiting for all my life: What kind of protein are you? I am a transcription factor, which considering how much of my work has in fact been on TFs, is a particularly pleasing result. It means that I implement decisions by switching genes on and off, thereby delegating other proteins to go off and do useful things. Which sounds about right for someone who spends her non-research time teaching baby doctors and switching them on to go and cure people.

ETA 1: If you're getting a result like "analyst" or "nurturer" you need to scroll up to the top of the picture to see what kind protein you actually are. Yes, it's very bad UI design, I hadn't realized that it was making the descriptions more prominent than the actual result. Sorry about that!

There was an XKCD with biochemistry; there's no point linking to XKCD really cos just about everybody follows XKCD. And that strip isn't closely related to my work, but it's the chemistry a couple of levels under what I do, so it made me feel loved.

All the academics on my Twitter feed are linking to this silly Guardian article about why academics have a bad dress-sense: because we're not alienated from our labour, apparently. It's a charming thought, and there is a serious point buried in the article, which is that many female academics work just as hard on coming across exactly the right degree of nonchalant about appearance as they would on being impeccably presented if they worked in a sector that expected that. Me, I dress badly because I can't be bothered to spend time or money on clothes, and because I'm fat enough that there's no low-effort way to look good. But it's nice to pretend that it has something to do with Marx or feminism or something.

ETA 2: redbird absolutely nails the analysis that's missing from the article: "Even without choosing to dress that way for Marxist or feminist reasons, you can make those choices without a lot of stress in part because of your specific work and class situation." Yes, that. That's the conclusion the article should've come to, thank you redbird for fixing it so succinctly.

Comments

[highlyeccentric]

The one time I met you I thought you dressed like someone who ENJOYED their outfit regardless of small matters like fashion or even cohesion. But that could be me projecting my immense love of swooshy skirts...

[liv]

Thank you, that's a lovely compliment! I do in fact wear almost exclusively clothes that I like, but I don't really know how to do outfits. So yes, I don't follow fashion and I'm quite bad at coordinating different things I like together, but I generally have positive feelings about anything I put on, either the colour or the style or something. And yes, I do in fact love swooshy skirts. I would love well-fitted trousers just as much but well-fitted trousers do not exist off-the-peg for people with my figure, so on average I end up a lot more femmey than I really am.

[vatine]

Apparently I am, too, a transcription factor.

I still can't fodl a paper crane, though.

[kerrypolka]

I can't be bothered to spend time or money and I'm fat enough that there's no low-effort way to look good sound like they have a lot to do with Marxism and feminism to me, but I recognise I'm quicker to connect everyday life choices to those things than probably most people! :)

[kerrypolka]

I second this, you seem like someone who dresses in a way you like rather than a way you feel you ought to!

[highlyeccentric]

Have you encountered swooshy trousers? You strike me as someone who might enjoy fisherman's pants [http://www.fishermenpants.com/#!womens/c1y5p] in bright colours and patterns. If they code femme it's 'hippie earth mother' rather than feminine per se, and i've seen some fine butch ladies in such trousers...

[merrythebard]

I too am a Transcription Factor, apparently! Though alas, I know too little to know much of the implications of this. :-)

FWIW, I love the way you dress, and thoroughly agree with highlyeccentric that you dress like you're enjoying your clothes. It is lovely. :-)

[nanila]

Are transcription factors known to attract other transcription factors? Because you've got at least three in your DW circle. :)

I dress OK (being average-sized and knowing a couple of brands I can count on to make clothes I like both help) but looking after my hair properly and wearing makeup to go with the decent clothes is a haphazard business at best...

[ursula]

I keep hoping there is some magic way I could dress that would make people not mistake me for an undergrad, but apparently I am doomed until my hair goes gray.

[liv]

I like swooshy trousers, yes, but I think they don't work well for me, because even though they're pretty flexible they don't fit at both my waist and over my bum. Also, in that delicate female academic dance of I don't care about my appearance at all honest, but I am still dressing within expected parameters, I'm not quite sure I could make bright coloured swooshy trousers work. Thanks for the suggestion, I could in fact do with more purple loose-fitting trousers in my life, just will have to hunt to find them cut in a way that fits me.

[liv]

Yay, thank you! I think you've mostly seen me when I'm dressed up for parties rather than my everyday working clothes, but I do appreciate that I'm coming over in such a positive way, rather than as someone who's just useless at clothes which is my normal self-image.

[liv]

Yeah, I'm really crap at origami and similar three-D skills, I just study things that are amazingly good at it!

[liv]

You may in fact have a point there. I'm kind of frustrated with the article, because it talks about Marxism but has zero class analysis, and the academic "scruffy formal" style has a ton of class interactions. But it is of course a fluff piece, so I can't complain too much.

[liv]

Awww, I am really delighted by this post attracting lots of compliments on my clothes, that's not at all the reaction I was expecting. Thank you, that's a really lovely thing to say. It's true that for parties with friends I usually dress in clothes I just purely like, and don't worry about subtle status issues such as can apply at work.

[liv]

I can't think of a way to phrase this that doesn't sound like an innuendo, but yes, transcription factors very much attract other transcription factors. Which is to say, the whole way that the transcription program works is that TFs nearly all work in pairs and you can get lots of different combinations of pairs which have different effects. In fact, I'm starting to think that I should follow up the silly meme by making a post about why TFs are cool and interesting.

I'm impressed you can manage dressing ok, even if hair and makeup are haphazard. Even that level feels kind of beyond me, but I admit that's partly because I'm disinclined to putting effort in to learning the skill.

[liv]

Sympathy. I am one of the youngest faculty anyway, and I look young for my age, and there is no way that any amount of career advantage would motivate me to cut my thigh-length hair, so yes, I'm going to be taken for a kid until I'm grey. I've tried clothes with more tailoring than I'd normally go for, and it helps a bit, but only a very little bit.

[kerrypolka]

Also, I'm (a?) kinase! I feel all of the booze related questions may have weighted things somewhat...

[liv]

Actually, what a kinase does in the cell is a lot like what you do IRL! They receive information from the body and the outside world and turn it into messages which they then pass on to the actual bits of the cell that do stuff.

[kerrypolka]

OMG that is what I do! Dude! What an excellent quiz! :D

[rysmiel]

For what it's worth, acquiring visible grey has not stopped people mistaking me for an undergrad this last couple of years, though it looks like this year I might finally manage to make it through to the end of the current term without being mistaken for one.

[forestofglory]

I'm an analyst.(I still find these types quizes a bit irritating for there lack of options and nuance.)

Also I don't follow XKCD I just read it when someone links me to it. This seem like a good way to get the highlights, which is what I want.

[redbird]

I suspect that's a combination of dress style and the long hair; as liv notes, at your age people expect shorter hair. Wearing it the way you do is probably giving subconscious "I don't have to look good for a job/interview" signals, in the same way that not dyeing mine seems to signify "I'm too old to care about looking appropriate for work." Where it's really not changing what I do to/with my hair as the hair itself has changed.

And the comment I was going to make before rysmiel distracted me

[redbird]

Without even reading the article: a friend of mine in high school was fond of a quote from Marx, to the effect that we make our choices, but we don't choose the circumstances in which we make them. So, even without choosing to dress that way for Marxist or feminist reasons, you can make those choices without a lot of stress in part because of your specific work and class situation.

[davidgillon]

Apparently I'm a nurturer, which I hadn't even realised was a style of protein.

WRT clothes, my sister's opinion is that I was clearly somewhere else when the coordination gene was handed out :)

[vatine]

Oh, I am av fair dab at figuring how to n create a 3D shape using cuts or depositing things (I quite enjoy designing models to be extruded on a 3D printer and have started experimenting by making 3D shapes on laser cutters).

But, somehow, cranes elude me.