S01.E08: Weird Science

[OnceSane]

Quote

Rainbow's passion for science deflates when her peers convince her that science isn't cool; Harrison works to mold a testimony from Denise; Santamonica tries to steal the spotlight back after Johan suffers an injury.

Airs November 19, 2019.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Obligatory music video:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm glad Rainbow realized that her love for science far outweighed liking a boy. It makes me sad when girls try to pretend they're not smart.

For the record, I was in GATE/honors/upper track classes in middle school and high school and I still had regular non-nerd boyfriends. I also had cheerleaders in my honors classes in high school. I'm sure there were girls at my school who played dumb but I was like yeah, I'm taking physics!

[vibeology]

5 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

For the record, I was in GATE/honors/upper track classes in middle school and high school and I still had regular non-nerd boyfriends. I also had cheerleaders in my honors classes in high school. I'm sure there were girls at my school who played dumb but I was like yeah, I'm taking physics!

My experience is that some of the girls wouldn't raise their hand or answer questions in class but would quietly ace the assignments and tests. I don't know if they were choosing not to participate in class discussions because they didn't want to come off too smart or if they actually didn't think they knew enough and were always surprised that they tested so well, but I didn't see anyone messing up their marks intentionally like we saw here.

I loved that Bow found her confidence and it'll serve her well in the long run.

I also loved that this week the Dee Dee conflict was more reasonable. Dee Dee shouldn't have to put on an act to testify in a deposition and I was glad Alicia came around to seeing it that way. Sure, she should probably cut out the stories about people who work at different grocery stores because it's not relevant to the case, but there's nothing wrong with AAVE.

ETA: Also, Paul doesn't believe in spices? I can believe he doesn't like those weird chemical blends that exist, but cumin? Paprika? Those are natural! He is doing those poor children wrong.

Edited November 20, 2019 by vibeology

[qtpye]

6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

I'm glad Rainbow realized that her love for science far outweighed liking a boy. It makes me sad when girls try to pretend they're not smart.

For the record, I was in GATE/honors/upper track classes in middle school and high school and I still had regular non-nerd boyfriends. I also had cheerleaders in my honors classes in high school. I'm sure there were girls at my school who played dumb but I was like yeah, I'm taking physics!

I was the same way and I am just a little younger than Rainbow.

Again, this felt a little more like a 50’s thing than an 80’s stereotype.

Can’t Zack Morris teach the writers about how things were really like in the 80’s?

I do love it in the theme song when they say “Yaaaay us”

Maybe it’s because I am a woman of color but I knew that newscaster was mixed but could also understand how she could “pass” pretty easily.

Edited November 20, 2019 by qtpye

[joanne3482]

I did love it when the newscaster was asking the class about who can handle the first thing (which I forgot) and some hands dropped.  Then she asked the second thing - someone yelling at them and more hands dropped.  Then finally she said having bullets whizzing by and only Rainbow's hand was still up (and went up even higher) and Rainbow said that happened all in one day at the commune.  I like the crazy glimpses of the commune. 

[Joimiaroxeu]

Lewis Vutahn.

Yeah, Dynasty versus Falcon Crest was a thing. Knots Landing was in there too. The shows' lead characters were the Three ACs: Alexis Colby, Angela Channing, and Abby Cunningham.

Was that the first time Mixed-ish used a song by Tracee's mom?

Lol, Princess Diana was Black. Allegedly. Forget all the pearl-clutching over the Duchess of Sussex, such a revelation about Diana really would bring down the monarchy. 🙄

[tennisgurl]

3 hours ago, joanne3482 said:

Then finally she said having bullets whizzing by and only Rainbow's hand was still up (and went up even higher) and Rainbow said that happened all in one day at the commune. 

"I like a girl with a story."

I am glad that Rainbow decided to let her science girl flag fly! Was it really such a thing for girls to not want to be shown doing science in the 80s, so much that they would deliberately fail papers? I could see girls being hesitant to raise their hand in class and join science clubs and stuff, but was it that bad? Of course, I have always picked up from 80s stuff that being smart in general wasnt really considered cool in the 80s (especially being "geeky") so maybe that all lines up. 

Johan was such a cute kid. "Make sure to keep it PG." 

The plot with Dee Dee was a lot better than the last few, I think it seemed a lot more realistic and while should could stand to cut her story down a bit (maybe dont talk as much about sketchy Volvo friends?) but she shouldn't have to change her whole personality. 

[AnimeMania]

I don't think any science teacher, past or present, would discourage kids from knowing too much science. Science teachers tend to be pretty Gung-ho about science.

[Rockstar99435]

4 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

Was it really such a thing for girls to not want to be shown doing science in the 80s, so much that they would deliberately fail papers? I could see girls being hesitant to raise their hand in class and join science clubs and stuff, but was it that bad?

From what I remember, pretending to be dumb was more of an age issue than a time period issue. I was in middle school in the early 90s and remember multiple girls flat out admitting that they were doing badly on purpose because "boys don't like smart girls" but most of them out grew that mindset by high school. The problem was that for some of them, missing out on the advanced classes in middle school meant they couldn't take the advanced classes in high school which may or may not have affected their college/career plans. 

I don't remember any Science teachers giving girls a hard time for liking science, but one of my Spanish teachers told us that the books were trying too hard to be politically correct and that we shouldn't have to learn the female form of doctor, lawyer, and pilot because there weren't enough of them to make it worth the effort. (I'd like to point out that the only difference between the male and female form is that the last letter of the word is either an O or an A.) So it happens.

Edited November 20, 2019 by Rockstar99435

[bybrandy]

I went to various private schools and I don't think dumbing it down to get boys to like you was a thing.  I mean I guess there might have been girls who did it but most of the girls on the honors track anyway cared far more about their class ranking/GPA/College options than some boy getting his feelings hurt and most of the boys at the school were used to girls who were pretty smart and pretty competative.   It certainly wouldn't have been encouraged in the school.  

My mom graduated in 57 and had to petition to take extra math classes that the college because she'd done all the ones offered at the high school.  She was incredibly shy and incredibly driven but she was married with 3 kids by the time they graduated.  When he got his job at Boeing they said they were having trouble finding people who could learn the new computer programming languages and if he knew anybody coming out of school who might be a good fit to put their name down.  He named my mom (his wife) and they both got the jobs.   

It just felt like a story out of my mom's generation not mine.

When Bow was going on about being a mixed freak I was like, "but the reporter is mixed, isn't he?"    And she was.   It didn't occur to me that she was passing.  But I was willing to believe she could have pulled it off especially in a pre-internet world.   People see what they want to see.
 

[Whimsy]

On 11/20/2019 at 9:53 AM, qtpye said:

I was the same way and I am just a little younger than Rainbow.

Again, this felt a little more like a 50’s thing than an 80’s stereotype.

Can’t Zack Morris teach the writers about how things were really like in the 80’s?

I do love it in the theme song when they say “Yaaaay us”

Maybe it’s because I am a woman of color but I knew that newscaster was mixed but could also understand how she could “pass” pretty easily.

I instantly knew she was also mixed so I was actually confused when she admitted it as a secret.  I didn't think in any way it was something she was hiding. 

I get that the joke was that Rainbow was so bad during her taping of her broadcast that the only usable thing was her saying her name, but it came across more to me that the newscaster just wanted to make it about herself and her announcement. 

I was baffled by Paul's refusal to use spices.  Spices are things that are grown naturally in the ground.  I would've thought he would be all over growing and drying his own.  Having a child gone through culinary school, I cringed at him saying that spices are used to just hide mistakes.  

[ElectricBoogaloo]

32 minutes ago, Whimsy said:

I was baffled by Paul's refusal to use spices.  Spices are things that are grown naturally in the ground.  I would've thought he would be all over growing and drying his own.  Having a child gone through culinary school, I cringed at him saying that spices are used to just hide mistakes.  

Same here. I thought he would be fine with spices because they're plant based and natural. And garlic is delicious!

[MaryMitch]

I'm glad that in the end the newscaster turned out to be so nice and encouraging. At first I thought she was just going to be "another pretty face".

[bybrandy]

I think it is a white people like bland food joke but it also seemed weird to me.  I think herbs especially would have been encouraged at a commune with a large agricultural component.  All the crunchy granola (said with love, I tend this way myself) people I know were into Stevia for instance well before it became so commercialized  My sister buys Truvia and my sister-in-law is all, "You know you can grow that... and you used to be able to get stevia at the health food store in bulk a lifetime supply for like 12 cents"   This is a frequent refrain between them and dollars to doughnuts it will come up sometime during the festive season.   

[msrachelj]

On 11/20/2019 at 9:53 AM, qtpye said:

I was the same way and I am just a little younger than Rainbow.

Again, this felt a little more like a 50’s thing than an 80’s stereotype.

Can’t Zack Morris teach the writers about how things were really like in the 80’s?

I do love it in the theme song when they say “Yaaaay us”

Maybe it’s because I am a woman of color but I knew that newscaster was mixed but could also understand how she could “pass” pretty easily.

I noticed right away the newscaster was mixed. I knew where it was going.