“Easy A” is not destroying the atheist symbol


I like the blog Atheist Revolution, but I think Vjack may have missed the boat this time:

Look at the trailer for the upcoming film, “Easy A” and imagine what this could do to the meaning of a favorite atheist symbol. If this ends up being a hit, people will likely mistake our symbol some sort of odd promotion of the film. Admittedly, almost nobody outside the atheist community seems to recognize this symbol, but now they might assume we are die hard fans of this flick.

Here’s the trailer for “Easy A”:

Vjack makes it clear that he knows the scarlet A stood for adulterer long before atheists chose to use it as our symbol… so then what’s the problem? We co opted it because it was a symbol of religious persecution. If this movie helps publicize that, then good for it! The general public is way more accepting of sexual promiscuity than atheism anyway – it doesn’t exactly hurt our cause to be associated with it. Hell, we already are.

From the trailer alone, I’m actually kind of excited about this movie. Taking a dig at judgemental religious people? A strong willed female standing up for sexual women at her own risk? And doing that because it’s the right thing to do, not just for personal gain? I’m having a geekgasm over the possibility of feminist teen movie!

This is post 17 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Comments

  1. LS says

    Wow, yeah, I would not mind being associated with that movie even slightly. This is probably the first time I’ve been excited about an upcoming release since…um…I actually don’t remember the last one. In regards to the A as an Atheist symbol…I actually don’t own one of those shirts. But I think I would actually rather have a shirt which spelled it out, “Atheist.” As great as the A movement is, only about 0.5% of people will bother to ask what it means, and thus know that you’re an Atheist. (I’m basing that on my experience wearing shirts with obscure nerd jokes on them.)

  2. says

    I’m really fond of the OutCampaign “A”, and this actually looks like a fun movie to see. If people thought I was an avid Easy A fan, I’d show them to the OutCampaign website and pleasantly add, “And yeah, I liked that movie, too.”

  3. Fred Flinstone says

    Symbolism is important. When I first heard of the use A for Atheism, my first reaction wasn’t positive, because the A is in use for Anarchism (which I also espouse) as well. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi…When I thought further about it, Anarchism and Atheism are inextricably linked in my mind, so I decided that it was a good thing.Maybe I (or someone with talent) should “shoop” them together…

  4. the_Siliconopolitan says

    But does she talk to any other women about something that isn’t a man?

  5. says

    Well, it’s not like it’s the “official Atheist symbol” or anything. Richard Dawkins, after hearing so many recently deconverted religious people lament “I didn’t know I could be an Atheist,” started the OutCampaign, hoping that it would lessen the number of people who felt trapped in their faith.

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