We’ve been listening to the first podcast from Non-Prophets for the year and they talked pretty extensively on the whole sexism in atheism nonsense.
Apparently, there was a Top 5 list out there somewhere and Matt Dillahunty won. While I certainly think he ought to be high on the list, he does a lot of good for the atheist community, the problem was, according to many people, the list was flawed because there were no women on the list.
Let’s go back to the point that I made in my last post. Maybe the reason that there are no women on the list is because there just weren’t any really prominent women with widespread popularity in the atheist community this year. Matt Dillahunty, head of the ACA, David Silverman, head of American Atheists, Ricky Gervais, prominent actor and outspoken atheist, George Takei, Star Trek’s Sulu, and Hemant Mehta, the “Friendly Atheist”, were pitted against each other in a fun Twitter/Facebook popularity contest. It meant nothing, of course, but honestly, I can’t think of a single outspoken female atheist out there who does anywhere near what any of these men do, who are as well-known or as vocal in their atheism. That’s not to say that a lot of women aren’t knowledgeable, credible or gaining in popularity, but that they simply aren’t there yet. Some of the most influential atheists out there, Dawkins and Dennett and even Hitchens, didn’t make the list. Unfortunately, the most influential thing Hitchens did last year was die. There are no female atheist authors, no females leading prominent organizations, no outspoken atheist female actors. So why should they be on the list? Because of what’s between their legs? That’s ridiculous. Yet apparently that’s what they expect. They want special treatment and a quota system to achieve things they simply have not earned.
You want to see sexism in an atheist Internet list? There you go. Funny how sexism only matters on the other side of the coin, isn’t it?
That’s really where this entire sexism nonsense fails. Isn’t the point of equality being complete gender blindness? Shouldn’t we simply ignore gender and just vote for the best people? Now I could see a reason to bitch if 3 out of 4 of the topselling atheist authors were female, if they ran half the big atheist groups and if PZ Myers’ first name was Patricia (but he’d have to lose the beard), but that’s simply not the case. Earning means performing, not demanding.
On a similar note, the Atheist Revolution is still posting on sexism in atheism and it’s still a silly subject. I keep pointing out that “sexism”, and that’s not really what they’re talking about anymore, is part of humanity, not part of atheism. Atheists are just a bunch of people who only share a single attribute: not believing in a god. Why we ought to expect them to magically be better than everyone else in every respect is ridiculous.
Sorry, I just don’t see women getting hit on being a major problem, so long as they aren’t accosted and men take no for an answer. It’s ingrained in the human psyche, it’s happened throughout history and there’s nothing especially wrong with it. I brought the whole mess up to my wife, who has been going to conventions and the like all her life and she laughed and said she never got upset at the people who hit on her at conventions. It’s expected. Hell, her ass was highlighted on a TV spot because the TV cameraman followed her around while filming the convention.
I really think some people look for things to be upset about.
