Are you hot enough to be an archaeologist?

Posted at 12:15 PM Sep 10, 2009

By Andrea Grimes

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So, you're smart enough to have a career in archaeology. That means a bachelor's degree, probably a master's degree, and if you really want to complete the pedigree, a Ph.D. That's a long, long time of dirty, grimy field work, research and schooling to get where you want to go. Congratulations! You're an archaeologist! You're intelligent and motivated! But are you hot enough to be an archaeologist?

That's the concern of SexyArchaeology.org, where it's not adequate to be good at what you do--you gotta be sexy, too. In an e-mail sent around to my grad department this morning, SexyArchaeology.org announces that they're looking for sexy archaeologists to cast in a developing reality show. They'd like you to send in four photos and a "paragraph about yourself," in which you should prove you have an "interesting, active" life and an "outgoing personality," which are obviously the most important traits to look for in a good archaeologist. Don't worry about telling 'em about your research, awards, teaching experience, published works. Nah. Just make sure one of those photos is full length, so we don't get any fatties, understand?

This is in addition to the "Sexiest Field Crew" award handed out by the website. And from the looks of the silhouettes on the field crew banner, they're not exactly jumping out of the mainstream box when it comes to defining "sexy."

The proprietor of Sexy Archaeology, some grad from Bristol, England, is so very smart that he's figured out that sex sells, and that sex might be used to sell archaeology. From the website:

SexyArchaeology.org seeks to entice future generations of archaeologists by utilizing the image that popular media has created of archaeologists; that of brave, adventurous, attractive and intelligent men and women. We proudly support the promotion of smart archaeology and archaeological education. We support scientific research and discovery, by providing links to the most recent news and research in archaeology.

Explain, please: what does "sexy" have to do with "smart archaeology" or "archaeological education"? Any grad student will tell you that higher-higher ed is a slog and a half; now somebody's trying to push us to be "sexy" while we're tackling three academic books a week, trying to get published, applying for grants and maintaining sanity? Besides, in this economy, I'd rather be told that a potential field could set me up with some financial security, rather than some booty security.