1. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Gendered, ‘Raced’ and Classed: Constructions of mathematicians in popular culture Marie-Pierre Moreau, Heather Mendick and Debbie Epstein

2. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Rationale: why does it matter to explore this issue? The policy argument: less and less young people choosing to do maths post GCSEs in England and Wales, similar trends in other countries (Henry, 2002; Kirkman, 2002; MacLeod, 2005; TES, 2003) More and more (male) mathematicians as prominent figures of popular culture (e.g. A Beautiful Mind, Good Will Hunting, Proof, Pi, Enigma, Numb3rs, Fermat’s Last Theorem…) The strong association between mathematics and identities (Mendick, 2006), and mathematics and masculinities (in popular culture and elsewhere – mathematics as iconic of rationality: Harding, 1998; Walkerdine, 1998; Wertheim, 1997)

3. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 The research context to the paper ‘Mathematical Images and Identities: education, entertainment, social justice’, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council: RES-000-23-1454 What discourses are there about mathematics and mathematicians within contemporary popular cultural representations? How are these discourses deployed by learners in constructing their relationships with mathematics? How are these discourses and processes gendered, classed and raced?

4. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Data collection and data analysis 2 groups of participants: Year 10 – Year 11 pupils Year 2 – Year 3 undergraduates 4 phases of data collection and analysis: Survey (556 questionnaires completed by Year 10 students –14 to 15 y.o., and 100 second year university undergraduates – contrasted sample of institutions) ‘Texts’ (identified from the survey) – the paper draws on this particular corpus of data Focus groups (27) (contrasted sample) Individual interviews (56) (idem)

5. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Research questions How representations of mathematicians in popular culture are gendered, ‘raced’ and classed? – hereafter, focus on gender How are mathematical masculinities constructed in Hollywood popular culture? Do these constructions subvert or strengthen constructions of dominant masculinities? Theoretical positioning: feminist, post-structuralist and cultural studies theories (e.g. work by Buckingham and Bragg, 2004, on the critical viewer)

6. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Some figures of mathematical masculinities in popular culture

7. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Mathematical masculinities in Hollywood popular culture The side-lining of mathematical feminities: invisible female mathematicians in contemporary popular culture The double subordination of women mathematicians: –Women mathematicians as daughters (Proof, Numb3rs?) of a male mathematician central to the plot –Women mathematicians as students (e.g. Amita Ramanujan, Alicia Nash, Lisa Simpson) –This double subordination is reflected in their side-lining in films as they are generally not central to the plot The side-lining of non heterosexual, non white and non middle class masculinities

8. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Do constructions of mathematical masculinities in Hollywood popular culture really subvert dominant discourses of masculinities? The figure of the ‘mathematical genius’ is associated with characteristics which have not been traditional features of the discursive construction of dominant masculinities –Emotional instability (possibly mental health issue) and fragileness –In relation to these, need of protection –Dependence (diff. to leave on his own) vs independence (and able to provide for dependents – main breadwinner) -Etc. Although mathematical masculinities combine the identity markers of dominant groups (in relation to gender, ‘race’, class and heterosexuality), yet they clearly distinguish from the dominant model of masculinity

9. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Numb3rs Don Charlie Alan

10. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 CharlieDon ‘Genius’vs.‘Average’ Emotional instability-sensitive vs Control of emotions, Being protectedvsProtecting DependentvsIndependent UnreliablevsReliable Involvement in domestic workvsNo involvement Lifestyle: teetotaller, no car…vs‘Ladish’ lifestyle and attitudes No use of physical strength vsPhysical strength ‘Alternative’ masculinityvsDominant masculinity

11. Gender and Education Conference, Trinity College Dublin, 28-30 March 2007 Some conclusions  How such constructions of mathematical masculinities/men mathematicians deploy in students’ discourses and can encourage/discourage them to engage with mathematics? (ongoing data collection and analysis)  What are the gender/ ‘race’ and ‘class’ effects of popular culture constructions of mathematicians? (ongoing data collection and analysis)  Which implications of the lack of representations of women mathematicians in popular culture (as well as mathematicians who may not fit with the middle-class, white, heterosexual male figure)?  Which implications of the association between male mathematicians and ‘alternative’ masculinities?