ANTI ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There have unfortunately also been people who have been less than helpful in my
journey here. I wanted to acknowledge those too, because I know I am not unique
in this experience.
No thank you to the physics study association that made me sing songs about
how women couldn't study physics without sleeping with the professor, the day
I stepped into university life. No thank you to the 5th year physics student that
decided to assign me a 'stripper name' within the first minute of meeting me in
the physics coffee corner in my first year. No thank you to the technician that
was responsible for onboarding me on the use of the cluster in my third year who
raised his eyebrows and asked me if that meant I was some sort of "computer
girl". No thank you to the senior researcher that sent me utterly inappropriate
texts after a conference, then proceeded to 'apologise' months later by telling me
they had not been meant for me anyway so "no hard feelings remain hopefully".
And no thank you to him for attending every conference I've been to since. No
thank you to the people who told me that it was "surprising" that I was doing a
PhD since I was a girl. No thank you to the man who mistook me for a coffee lady
at a conference, and after having to correct him two times that I did not work
there, responded with "you should consider it"
'. No thank you to the researcher
that asked me what I was wearing underneath my outfit during a conference. No
thank you to the physicist who declared to a room full of other physicists that
biologists "don't know how to design an experiment". No thank you to the people
who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent.
And finally, no thank you to the executive board of the TU Delft, whose knee-jerk
reaction to being held up a mirror about the social safety at the university, was
to sue the party holding up the mirror instead of looking at the problems they
highlighted.
I wish I could tell you this has all made me stronger somehow but in reality it
has only shattered my confidence. You have made me feel like I do not belong in
science and I cannot forgive you for that.
- Rachel