Scientist who worked at NASA shuts down man on dating app who asked if she was a receptionist

Alex Lasker
Updated ·3 min read

A scientist who used to intern at NASA shut down a man on a dating app who assumed she was a receptionist for the agency.

Dr. Lauren McKeown, who has a Ph.D. in planetary science from Trinity College in Dublin, took to Twitter on Aug. 14 to share a conversation she recently had with a man named Mikey on the popular dating app Hinge.

On her profile, McKeown had listed that the "dorkiest" thing about her is that she worked at NASA, a prompt which Mikey responded to, saying that the job was "cool" and joked that he wanted to tell his parents about her.

McKeown then matched with the man and invited him to start the chat, which is when he asked, "So what are you, like the receptionist?"

"[Just kidding] you look reasonably smart," he followed up.

In a response that has since been retweeted over 17,500 times and racked up more than 180,000 likes, McKeown articulately let the bachelor know she did not appreciate his comments.

"Smart enough to know at least that judging a woman's intelligence based on her appearance might not be the best way to initiate conversation," she wrote. "PS. my mother is a primary school receptionist and is the wisest, most inspirational, and kindest person I know. So much so in fact that my PhD. thesis in planetary science is dedicated to her."

"And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why I am single," McKeown wrote of the exchange.

Immediately, multiple scientists jumped in and related to McKeown's experience as a woman in the field.

"When I started working at a new NASA facility, someone assumed I needed directions and I was pointed in the direction of the gift shop..." wrote an engineer named Megan, whose Twitter bio says she formerly worked at NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center.

"Once had a guy break up with me after I gave him a tour of where I was working on a Mars mission because he said he thought I was lying about working for NASA and he has to be the smarter one in the relationship," wrote Keri Bean, a systems engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "Wtf."

Even Hinge jumped into McKeown's replies, writing, "Yikes. Hinge has a zero tolerance policy for behavior like this. We're on it. And while we're at it, your next Hinge date is on us. DM us! We hope you find someone worth deleting Hinge for soon."

In a subsequent tweet, the scientist expressed shock over how much attention the messages had received.

"What I thought would give a few people a laugh has really made its way around the world," she wrote. "Thanks to everyone who engaged in this important topic."

"...and to the lads taking my tweet as an invite for marriage proposals in my inbox, you (maaaaay) have missed the point," she added, with a laughing emoji.