Mayim Bialik

[Deleted]

Maybe it's a mixture of this:

a more generalized philosophy that vaccines are unnatural

plus this:

a general distrust of medical professionals

plus a healthy dose of "Thousands of years ago, our caveman ancestors didn't vaccinate their kids and they turned out just fine!"

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

A good deal of her research may be done in the lab (I have no idea) which would make it difficult, but then again, I really don't know what her research would require of her.

I can't imagine being a mother and a research professor would be that easy or do-able for someone who adheres to AP in the extreme. In my experience, I notice there are not a lot of mothers who are also research professors, especially mothers of young children, and the few who are, are quite vocal about the academy not being a very welcoming place for mothers, especially those on the tenure track. I can't speak to that personally, since I'm not a mother and not a professor. Not that it hasn't been done and can't be done, but I notice (again, in my experience)it's not done that often and that says a lot to me, about how "easy" it is. Obviously, the reasons I don't see many research professors who are also mothers are myriad and not limited to my musings here. Mayim, from my perspective made a decision about motherhood and academia that I've seen the majority make (of the ones who wanted children), which is that combining both is so difficult they end up choosing one or the other, because doing both doesn't seem plausible. Of course, this is just anecdotal and maybe there's a vast number of women who are research professors with small children.

Maybe for Mayim acting is the easier option because even though the hours on set are long, there's more time off in between projects than she would have grinding it out day to day as a research professor? I don't know. I'm just guessing here, since there's a reason that for her, it's easier to put up with the hours required of an actress versus that of an academic. Oh, and because money! Which I can definitely understand.

ETA: I had no idea that work on a sitcom was like a part-time job! No wonder she prefers that option.

[Deleted]

Apr 2, 2014 9:59:41 GMT -4 nemmie said:

Apr 2, 2014 9:32:09 GMT -4 Kaleidoscope Eyes said:

One thing I find interesting and quite contrary to Gwyneth Paltrow is that Mayim said she chose acting over academia because life as a research professor wouldn't allow her the time she needs to pursue the parenting style she chooses. I can't remember where I read it, but I thought it was interesting when compared to Paltrow's concept of what working 9 to 5 really means versus acting jobs.

I find this very interesting - research is time-consuming but could easily be done from home time-to-time and/or when her children are sleeping (you know, soundly, nestled up next to her, never leaving her side). So that's kind of a load of BS.

It's not necessarily BS. My brother is a stay-at-home dad, and when kid #1 and kid #2 were born we was pursuing a PhD in a hard science. Not long after kid #2 was born he dropped the PhD studies because he just couldn't handle taking care of two kids as well as all the work that was necessary to get a PhD. And working from home with a baby and a two year old is much easier said than done. He was an overstressed wreck of nerves until he quit working towards the PhD.

[Ginger]

ETA: I had no idea that work on a sitcom was like a part-time job! No wonder she prefers that option.

Well, if you think about it, they do 24 episodes per year, which means 24 weeks of work and 28 weeks off. During episode week, they do a table read and some rehearsals, which amounts to about three half-days of work. The day they film the show - which for most sitcoms is about 3-9pm or 3-11pm if they run late - is the only day they work long hours. It's a great gig for a parent. And a set with a big private trailer is a nice place for a child to visit.

[Mutagen]

I used to have a job where I read over drug information every day. Even the most basic and run-of-the-mill antibiotics regularly report cases where somebody had a severely adverse reaction. It was remarkable how cases of severe overdose on some drugs would be reported and the patient would recover perfectly, yet other people could take the exact same drug at a minimum dose and have terrible effects. And while there is plenty to criticize about the pharmaceutical industry, stuff like that isn't because of big evil pharma conspiracies. It's because no two human beings are exactly alike, except possibly twins, and as much variety as there is among human bodies there is going to be a variety of reactions to medication.

I myself had a reaction to amoxicillin and I advise doctors not to give me -cillin drugs. But that doesn't mean I've decided that Amoxil is an evil conspiracy poison put out by big pharma!!1!, it means that I am in the unlucky small percentage of people who can't take the drug.  IMO it would take a really self-centered worldview to decide my experience cancels out all the people who have been helped, and even had their lives saved, by the drug.

Emotionally, I understand the urge not to gamble if your child is in that unlucky percentage, but choosing to gamble with pertussis, rubella and measles instead is outrageous (and frankly, a first-world luxury). And taking other unwilling people with you on that gamble -- newborns, immunocompromised people and others who can't be vaccinated -- is absolutely wrong.  What is so confounding about the anti-vax movement is that the very kids who can't take vaccines are the ones who really need herd immunity.

[nemmie]

She wasn’t referring to obtaining her PhD, but working as a research professor. I deal with scientists and research professors all day long, deep in the muck of their research – it’s doable, especially in that sort of discipline that doesn’t call for a lot of hands-on field work. It would be loads of work and dedication though.

My sister is a costume designer in L.A. and she tells me days on a TV set are just as long as films she has done. However, that’s from her perspective, and Mayim’s days might be much shorter (I don’t watch BBT so don’t know how involved she is in the show). So it’s quite true she might have much shorter days on a set. Admittedly all I know of Mayim is what I have read from you fine folks on this board

[Kaleidoscope Eyes]

Ah, gotcha. My experience with research professors is not in the hard sciences and their days are long and the demands are very difficult. It requires a lot of travel (though not as much as acting on location) and it's definitely not 9-5 work. It's amazing how vastly different things can be from one discipline to another within academia.

[CAgirl]

I'm the mom to a 5 month old so I'm reading all the debates on the vaccinations on the baby boards. The anti vaxxers are done with the "it causes autism" argument, although there's still some floating around. The majority of them say why would you put chemicals into your baby? And the pharm companies are just wanting to profit from poisoning babies. These people are hardcore & seem to not understand herd immunity. Instead they ask why do you care if my kid is not vaccinated if yours already is vaccinated? And if someone says herd immunity, they still repeat the same question.

I have a friend who has unvaccinated babies. My doctor told me to keep my baby away from my friend's kids. Her husband is a conspiracy theorists & nuts. It seems many anti vaxxers are conspiracy theorists.

OT: I love Mayim on BBT. She has made the show funnier. It makes me sad she's a bit looney. And the attached parenting makes me laugh. At the moment, I'm trying to get my baby to nap in her crib & not on me! What I would do to not have her want to be just with me!

[Wol]

That she's a neuroscientist and anti-vac blows my tiny mind. Wow. I can throw shade at people who take Jenny McCarthy's advice because she's dumb as a bag of hair, but Mayim has the intellect to back up what she's preaching - and she's still wrong. So bizarre.

[batmom]

A friendly acquaintance is a family doctor. When she has patients who don't want to follow the recommended vaccination requirements she doesn't bother arguing, just tells them that if they go ahead with that decisions, they won't be allowed in her office waiting room because she has other patients with compromised immune systems, such as the young girl who's just had chemo and will have to get all of her vaccinations again in a year or so when she's healthy, and she will not risk the health of her other patients. She said just that statement has changed a few minds on the spot. She also likens avoiding vaccinations because of health fears to skateboarding down the middle of the road to avoid maybe having an accident on the sidewalk.