The McGall Physics department, which won the Golden Pig award last week, was recently named “McGall’s most misogynistic department” in an independent survey. This marks the first year the award was conferred onto a department other than Mechanical Engineering since the highly chauvinistic prize was established in 1992. Reactions in the Physics department have been mixed.
“We feel greatly honoured and humbled to have received this prestigious award,” Marcus Mitchel, president of the McGall Society of Physics Students (MSPS), said in an earlier phone interview. “We worked incredibly hard around the year not only to create and foster an environment hostile to women, but also to encourage the denigration and objectification of women, both inside and outside the classroom.”
Some have criticized the prize committee’s decision. Mario Curie, head of the McGall Association of Mechanical Engineers (MAME), said in an e-mail communication with The Twice-a-Weekly: “We are truly disappointed that the prize committee did not find us deserving of the Golden Pig this year. In Mechanical Engineering, we strive to deliver the worst possible experience to our female students. We don’t think we have ever fallen short of this goal and are chasing the women out of Mech-Eng, one sassy bitch at a time.”
Others have expressed some degree of surprise with the decision to give the award to Physics. “I always thought that the problem with the boys in Physics was that they can’t look a woman in the eye without stammering and making Magic: The Gathering references, and not that they are disrespectful to women,” McGall Physics student Samantha Goeppert-Mayer remarked. “But then again, I don’t hang out in the undergrad lounge too much. There’s always the chance of getting hit by a stray foosball.”
The Physics department consists of roughly 20 per cent female students and is home to several highly accomplished female faculty members.