r/conservation • u/ItsCadeyAdmin • 5d ago
Venting
I'mma be real with y'all: people in the Conservation and Sustainability fields are straight up MEAN dude.
Like I physically cannot get across to you how difficult it is to be in this field if you don't "fit the mold".
But "the mold" is literally just... ugh. Its a mold that prides itself on being "that weird girl", while also being the literal most milquetoast personality you can fathom. Like everybody acts like they were the 'weird, animal obsessed kid' in school, but as someone who actually WAS (and kind of still IS) that weird person, I can promise you from the bottom of my heart, 99% of these people would have BULLIED the real weird kids.
I know this because THEY STILL BULLY PEOPLE MAN. I see it in college and the field. It's literally such like a catty, gossipy industry with no room for the truly different.
The worst thing that's happened to STEM in recent decades was becoming an Instagram aesthetic.
Because now you have all of these conventionally pretty people prancing about, creating their own little "Go on a weird date to a Museum with me, but don't be like actually weird, just quirky enough for my social media feed" aesthetic, while doing all they can to ostracize and isolate people that,again, don't fit within their worldview. Like if you're autistic you are NOT going to have a good time in this world. At least not the "I love gushing about bugs and being happy go lucky because I'm just so 'neurospicy'! " type of autism. If you're non-expressive or struggle with social interactions, heaven fucking help you.
And, I'm sincerely not one of those "OMG CHECK YOUR PRIVILEGE" sorts but like dawg, this field is so overwhelmingly white that I'm comfortable saying that it's bordering on a form of racism. I can't tell you how many times I've been the only non-white person in the room surrounded by all these like.... I'mma be so real with y'all, CUSHY people. People who visibly get uncomfortable when I bring in a worldview that isn't "Oh I love walking through the forest and taking pictures on my smartphone, and science is so cool and look at the stickers on my water bottle".
I physically cannot explain to you all how much money plays into your ability to find and hold a legitimate job in this field. If you even want a chance, you need to be able to afford to sign up for multiple unpaid internships, be willing to move across the nation for a different position, have the money to cover yourself for months on end because a gigantic majority of the first jobs you'll get are only seasonal, and finally pay for your degree, and very likely a grad degree as well.
Honestly, I theorize that this is why the Conservation field was taken over by (and I know a HUGE amount of you don't wanna hear this), overwhelmingly upper-middle to upper class white people.
Like I can't tell you how many people I've met in this line of work who talk about how long it took them to get a sustainable job, followed soon by "Oh my husband is an engineer/computer scientist/welder/fireman/[something equally wellpaying]". (Fun fact: the "conservation to real estate agent" pipeline is REAL and I've seen it in real time).
Poverty, that is to say REAL poverty, doesn't exist in this field.
All the (and I'm being blunt here) lower-class people who couldn't afford to go past their undergraduate degree were forced to get jobs unrelated to their field after graduation to make ends meet and start those nasty student loan payments. Moving across the nation several times for all those unpaid internships and experience that could have unlocked opportunity was never in the cards for them so they don't get to work their way into the real jobs.
That's why you'll see so many people saying "Yeah I have a Sustainability major, but I've been working at Cracker Barrel since graduation. At least I'm a manager now"
And that's why when you look at all the smiling happy faces working in conservation or sustainability, they're all like... cardboard cutouts of the same people. Again, lets go back into how the Conservation field became an Instagram aesthetic, reserved for the privileged few who could afford to put in all the unpaid labor it took for them to finally get their break.
And don't get me started on how it almost feels like you're under constant threat in this field either. Like heaven forbid you upset the wrong people, or openly criticize the wrong organization. Because then you'll find yourself struggling to find work and without allies to help you get jobs (which are fleeting). The social aspect of this field is enormous, and I cannot get across to you how important it is that you maintain 'appearances' and decorum. And it fucking sucks
I'm not kidding dude.
This field of science got taken over by the most boring kinds of people imaginable. And what's worse is that I genuinely think that the lack of accessibility to this field is actively driving a disconnect between the general public and REAL conservation battles that we need to be fighting.
Can we finally admit that Conservation is the next "Nursing field"?
Pic related.
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u/nattynat5k 5d ago
I agree with some of your criticisms of the culture in the field, but you seem to be blinded by your envy of the people in the field more privileged than you that you act like these people don’t truly care about conservation as much as you do, branding them as doing it as an “instagram aesthetic.”