If I assume that my daughter is more likely to be influenced by someone she wants to look like, I’d like to level the playing field. She will be inundated with imagery of attractive athletes, lawyers, journalists, and entertainers. Will she also see attractive scientists, mathematicians, programmers, and gearheads?

For me, this isn’t about promoting any field as a place where “all the cool kids go” but simply pointing out that cool kids do go there. You can question whether it’s a good idea to perpetuate the idea that you should judge people by their looks, but the truth is these are the standards teenagers judge themselves and their peers by. It’s hard enough to get kids to care about academics — I’d rather not fight the uphill battle against the stereotypes at the same time.

When I brought up Jurassic Park, I was specifically thinking of the character of Dennis Nedry, whose portrayal did more damage to the image of the male computer programmer than anybody I can remember. If I had a son, I would be glad that he could see images of “hip” software guys to counter that image, even if I didn’t want him to be that “hip” . Why should it be any different for our daughters?