Belle De Jour As Forensic Pathologist

As a blogger who has regularly contributed to the Scientiae blog-carnival (yes, I must get back into blog carnivals, I know… but I’ve set myself a deadline for the thesis) – there’s been a bit of breaking-news which does relate to one of the topics that the blog carnival regularly discusses: scientists completing their PhDs and what choices you make with your career in order to achieve that goal.

It’s probably no longer ‘the big news’, after seeing it on several news sites, mind…  But I did want to comment that in all of her writing, I wouldn’t have guessed this field of science was Belle De-Jour’s (aka Dr Brooke Magnanti’s) speciality. You can find her film and book reviews in several publications; I did kind of think ‘has worked in computer science‘ after reading her more recent novel.

The Daily Mail:

…six years ago, as she struggled to complete her PhD thesis, Dr Magnanti is said to have run out of money and became a £300-a-night escort girl working in London. She began blogging anonymously about her activities on the internet under the pseudonym ‘Belle de Jour‘.

Her writing attracted millions of readers across the globe and its quality even sparked rumours that ‘Belle’ was a well-known author. Yet until last week not even her agent knew her real name.

…In an interview in today’s Sunday Times, Dr Magnanti claims she was working on a doctoral study in the department of forensic pathology at Sheffield University when she took up prostitution in 2003. ‘I was getting ready to submit my thesis,’ she said. ‘I saved up a bit of money. I thought, I’ll just move to London, because that’s where the jobs are, and I’ll see what happens. I couldn’t find a professional job in my chosen field because I didn’t have my PhD yet.’

The Guardian:

But now Magnanti, a respected specialist in developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology in a hospital research group in Bristol, has spoken of the time six years ago she worked as a £300 an hour prostitute working through a London escort agency. Magnanti turned to the agency in the final stages of her PhD thesis when she ran out of money. She was already an experienced science blogger and began writing about her experiences in a web diary later adapted into books and a television drama starring Billie Piper.

BoraZ of Science Blogs pondered what ‘experienced science blogger meant’ back in 2003 – evidence in her favour demonstrates the following ‘zine articles on autopsies, which I really enjoyed. The rest of her research (and even science fiction) you can find fairly easily online (I’ve already ‘Twittered’ a few links):

Barbelith – The Autopsy – spectacle or science? By Brooke Magnanti

…To what end is our modern habit of denying the brutality and carnality of life? What do we gain? Widespread animal cruelty in the name of convenient food, for one. Foreign policy that refuses to acknowledge and intervene in even the clearest cases of genocide. The increasing paternalism of those who, simply by having access to knowledge that should be free, erect a wall between the public and the NHS, military and the government. Groups created as servants of society are instead gatekeepers in a paradigm of information transfer where the only way to gain influence is to renounce idealism. Of all the medical students I’ve met, only one actually wanted to become a GP past her third year. The vast majority view that option as a poor second to the financial possibilities of specialisation and consultancy. Frankly, I’m surprised more of them don’t train in cosmetic dentistry.

Tagged as: autopsy, Belle De Jour, Brooke Magnanti, career, Links Elsewhere, news, research, Science, Science Blogging