Hidden Heroism

Science is not all viewed equally. Historically, to be valuable science, the information must be created and presented by a valuable scientist in an objective manner. As a student of science- objectivity, has been taught from the beginning; in conjuction with being analytical, non biased and critical above all. As long as the critique falls outside of the institution.

Oreskes describes objectivity, in the frame of science, as a gender influenced ideal that fails to capture the connectedness and fragmentation of knowledge. In the male dominated field of science men have set the standards. Standards, Oreskes argues, are constructed from their foundations as men.

“To forge their identity as men, male children must detach themselves from their primary love object [mother], whereas female children forge their identities as women in continuing their identification with their mother… male identity is forged in separation, female identity in attachment” (Oreskes 88).

Oreskes goes on to explain the cause of female invisibility in science as a symptom of the detached male worldview.

Stratified with the psychoanalytic theory inferring objectivity is produced by male formative detachment is the idea of heroism. Heroism, as described by Oreskes, is “that science is a long, lonely struggle and crucial discoveries are almost always made at night” (Oreskes 110). To expand, one cannot be doing valuable science if they are not working long uninterrupted hours in solitude. Implicitly speaking, a great scientist is one with no connections to others in professional and personal life. While many male scientists have wives it is not controversial for those spouses to receive little time from their partner, “but if the scientist in the story were a woman, with children alone at home, would we still admire her dedication?… By emphasizing attributes associated with masculinity, heroic ideology renders the female scientist invisible” (Oreskes 111). Heroic ideology ensures that even when a female scientist is working objectively that their work will still be obscured.

Oreskes’ ideas about objectivity and heroism are illustrated in the film Hidden Figures. The film is based on the female scientists and mathematicians at NASA whose work was vital for the success of Apollo 11. One of the focuses of the film, Katherine Johnson, who was black and female, faced unnecessary whitewashing. Within her story line, Katherine is shown using colored bathrooms and her boss- seeing her inconvenienced, tears down the “colored” bathroom sign.

This was curated to be one of the high points of the movie and was also a fabrication. The real Katherine Johnson used the white bathroom and was never given trouble. The addition of a white savior in the story line of a brillant female mathematician (conducting objective work) validates Okeske’s thesis that women will have their work devalued if not by objectivity then scientific heroism. Race was the vehicle of scientific heroism used to devalue Katherine Johnson’s portrayal in Hidden figures.