Atheist community being torn apart by war between feminists and misogynists, page 1

Originally posted by adjensen
A short time ago, I ran across an article that lambasted Richard Dawkins for downplaying a fellow atheist, a woman who had made a blog post about feeling threatened by someone accosting her in an elevator at a skeptic's conference. There are a number of articles, the crux of which is pretty much "Richard Dawkins doesn't get it", but here's the response of Rebecca Watson, the who raised the initial concern.

I didn't think too much of that, apart from snickering a little bit at Dawkins' cluelessness, but then last week I came across another weird article, titled "Rape is never funny", which was another atheist attacking other atheists, who were making deeply offensive remarks at the women in their community. Following that article back, it sourced posts on rationalia.com that mused "Would it be Immoral to rape a Skepchick?"

It appears that some people in the atheist community are coming to the realization that more than a few of their fellow skeptics are profane, arrogant, misogynist and hateful.

What's worse, they're proud of it, "standing up to censorship."

YouTube Link

Who'da thunk it? Oh. We theists have, having put up with garbage like that, in the name of "non-belief", for years.

Skepchick has responded with a series of posts from males in the humanist community decrying the oafish behaviour, showing no small amount of surprise that their fellow atheists would treat others so poorly.

Rape is never funny, and anyone who debases another human being in a manner that they are in the rationalia.com threads should be utterly ashamed of themselves. Though I am not an atheist, I fully support the campaign at Skepchick to wipe out hate in their community, no matter how deeply it is entrenched.
edit on 30-7-2012 by adjensen because: oopsies

Well, I'm neither an atheist nor a leftist (socially, at least). However, Skepchick is full of # on a number of levels. For one, do you even know what the original controversy was about? Skepchick stayed up late into the morning drinking with some people at a bar; she then announced she was done for the night and that she was going up to her room. Afterward, an atheist approached her in an elevator, asking her to come up to his room for coffee. She declined and that was it.

That's it... That's what happened. So what the # is everyone whining about? If anything, this whole ordeal shows that Skepchick may be a misandrist or some kind of fascist. Why shouldn't a guy be able to approach and proposition her? Is she 10 years old? Is she a delicate flower that needs to be protected from the cruel world? Does she think all men are rapists? Does she expect men to read her mind? The mind boggles. This lady is nuts. I would dread being anywhere near her. I'd be afraid to make eye contact with her for fear of having the police called on me.

What makes this even stranger is during this controversy this lady was advertising and selling a calendar that featured sexy photos of "intellectual" women (called skepchick calendar). I don't know if she was in it herself, but I find it funny that Skepchick will whine about being seen in a sexual way, or not taken seriously, and then turn around and help create, advertise, and sell a calendar that sexualizes "intellectual" women.

edit on 31-7-2012 by Sleepwalk7 because: (no reason given)