Oppenheimer Perpetuates a Long-standing Injustice
At the same time that Hollywood writers and actors are on strike for lack of fair and just treatment, Christopher Nolan’s movie “Oppenheimer” comes to theaters with its own unjust representation of women.
The picture revolves around J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. What is missing from the story is a little-known, important fact that the Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the work of female physicist Lise Meitner who discovered nuclear fission.
Despite countless contributions to the Manhattan Project made by accomplished female scientists, this movie perpetuates its own injustice that demands our attention. As the article's authors point out, diversity is and has been an asset to science, but the only women seen in this movie’s trailer are either hanging laundry, crying or cheering on the men.
This important essay challenges the lack of representation of women in physics in popular media, and reveals why that’s a detriment to the field of science and society. Read more in PBS NewsHour.
Slipstream
Pathetically sad and extraordinarily maddening.
Well Street
Ms. Meitner not receiving credit for such a powerful scientific discovery is criminal.
How honorable of her to spend the rest of her days advocating for the responsible use of nuclear energy and promoting nuclear disarmament.
Evangel
This is about another generation of self-aggrandizing men using film and story-telling to cast their imagined superiority over women into another generation of impressionable moviegoers.