The first thing I saw when I went to Twitter just now:
Sara E. Mayhew @saramayhew 31m
Fcking embarrassing to have such shitty speakers representing women. @wis3cfi: Women in Secularism 3 approaches by @opheliabenson
Ah yes, such “shitty speakers” as Taslima Nasreen, Susan Jacoby, Rebecca Goldstein, Katha Pollitt, Barbara Ehrenreich, Soraya Chemaly, Amanda Knief…
Embarrassing indeed.
What that pathetic lineup needs is a cartoonist to bring it to the next level.
I am torn. I really want to attend WiS3, but I feel very dodgy about supporting CFI. They not only continue to support Ben Radford after an investigation found him guilty of sexual harassment, they let him publish something like this:
http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/the_anatomy_of_false_accusations_a_skeptical_case_study/
Embarrassed to say “fuck” but OK with “shit”? Or was that the tweetbonics filter?
The wot? Twitter doesn’t stop you saying fuck.
What that pathetic lineup needs is a cartoonist to bring it to the next level.
I bet the lady who does Oglaf would be awesome to have on a panel!
To be fair, you probably could tell an interesting story while also promoting skepticism through the medium of manga. I haven’t read any of Sara Mayhews work to find out if she pulls that off.
I wouldn’t want to listen to her at this point because outside that work she just comes across as an incredibly bitter and quite stupid individual.
I have come to terms with supporting CFI DC, which has an operating budget of its own, and donations can be earmarked to ONLY go to supporting CFI DC. They are not the ones doing the crappy stuff like continuing to associate with Ben Radford (and others).
While I can’t speak to the others (at least, I can’t quickly bring a memory of past speaking events to mind) I’d hardly call Susan Jacoby a shitty speaker, and as for Taslima Nasreen? I finally got around to listening to the early episodes of the Token Skeptic podcast, one of which was mostly just audio of her speaking to a conference… I don’t know, maybe shitty is a colloquial way of saying awesome?
Sara Mayhew is a shitty person.
Taslima had the audience spellbound in Dublin. Maryam was a basket case after it.
I can’t figure out her thought processes, honestly. “If I’m an asshole to everybody, pretty soon they’ll all acknowledge that I’m the greatest!” /shrug
If Sara Mayhew considers that a shitty list of speakers, I shall consider that a ringing endorsement of the whole event. I’m sad I can’t go.
OMG Yes!
Oh gawd, the lady who does The thrilling adventures of Lovelace and Babbage would be amazing to hear speak.
i swear i am not trolling – is Mayhew positive about ANYTHING (other than manga. i have seen that part of her backstory)? Or is it only limited to things outside FTB/Skepchick? Her…..frequency of negative twitting doesn’t scream ‘constructive’….
Dammit. I’d hoped she’d gone away.
I can understand not knowing Trudy Cooper (I had to google her, myself), but not bothering to look up Sydney Padua is embarrassing.
I’d love to hear Kaja Foglio and Danielle Corsetto as well.
I merely repeated the formulation of the comment I was responding to. Not sure I understand why naming the work and not the author is more “embarrassing” in one case than the other.
If you haven’t so far, look up Noelle Stevenson. Her comic Nimona has been gaining obsessive fans left and right lately.
Thanks for the recommendation.
My point – such that it was – was that it’s somewhat distancing to refer to an author by her work, rather than acknowledge her identity.
@ 11 UnknownEric the Apostate
This might help.
Hmm, are any of these so-called ‘speakers’ TED fellows? No? Well, duh – of course they’re not good enough for TED Fellow Sara ‘Ted Fellow’ Mayhew* (TED Fellow).
*TED Fellow.
I can vouch for that. She brought the house down.