I need to make this rant…
I have to.
I am morally obligated to.
Get the fucking A out of STEM.
I see it cropping up, it went from STEM to STEAM… Science Technology, Engineering, Math…. and they added the fucking A in for ARTS…
WHAT THE FUCK!?
Now, I love the arts and humanities peeps very well…
But it wasn’t the point!
Adding the A is like saying All Subjects Matter…
Seriously… the whole point of the focus on STEM was to get girls and women to join into degree programs they were grossly underrepresented in.
There is no problem with women being represented in Arts (Except after they graduate and are disregarded because they’re women, but, that’s a different rant)
“Hey! We see this horrible, horrible disparity between representation in these four educational fields… Let’s help the under-represented groups get in and get involved and find a love for them!”
Then some, probably yoga pants wearing soccer mom type crawls out of the woodwork and says “THAT’S DISCRIMINATORY! YOU’RE LEAVING OUT THE ARTS! ALL SUBJECTS MATTER!”
And of course… people so scared to say “Yah know, this isn’t about arts, because arts aren’t having a problem….” instead go “OMG! HOW COULD WE DO THAT! WE NEED TO BE INCLUSIVE!!!!”
and you water down the whole movement, destroy the intent, and end up back at square one…
… you know, the square where someone said “Why are so many girls and women concentrated in the Arts and Humanities and not engaging in Science, Tech, Engineering, and Math?” and tried to create programs to put the focus where it was needed.

