I can’t remember another time in my life when I was as honored to come in second.
Jen McCreight as Blag Hag recently did a reader poll for their nominations for Most Influential Female Atheist of 2011. And I came in at Number Two! A fairly distant number two, well behind the landslide winner: Rebecca Watson.
And in fact, I am totally proud to be on this list at all. Because I’m in incredibly awesome company. Others on this list include Jessica Ahlquist, Maryam Namazie, Natalie Reed, Ophelia Benson, Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Amanda Marcotte, and the women of the Godless Bitches Podcast. If anyone tries to tell you that atheist women aren’t getting recognition because there just aren’t any who have done awesome thing, point them at this list, and then laught in their face.
Oh, and I hope I don’t have to explain why we need a separate form of recognition for female atheists. But for those who might just be joining this blog and haven’t gotten the memo yet, here’s Jen’s explanation:
Why bother with a women-only poll? Because despite their accomplishes, women are still frequently overlooked when we acknowledge people in the atheist movement. I originally started this informal award because of end of the year “Top Atheist” lists that always seemed to exclude women. We’re certainly getting better: the gender ratio at cons is getting less skewed for attendees and speakers, and women’s issues are gaining more and more attention in the movement. But there’s still room for improvement. The main public figures of atheism are predominantly men, and calling out blatantly obvious issues of sexism results in the internet exploding (not to mention, you know, rape and death threats). And yet again, end of the year round-ups forget that women exist.
So congratulations to Rebecca for a well-deserved landslide win. Congratulations to all the other women — on this list or not — who have worked so hard for the atheist community and the atheist movement. And, lest I forget… congratulations to MEEEEEE!
Much deserved congratulations to you, Greta. I’m honored to share a blogging network with you.
Sure, true. Just as the accomplishes by Filipino, Brazilian, Iranian and Ugandan male atheists, to name but a few non-first-world, non-white examples.
Congratulations, Greta!
Number two notwithstanding, I think I’ve got more of your posts bookmarked for handy linking than anyone else’s. That’s pretty influential.
And of course, congratulations to Rebecca and all the other female bloggers who have to put up with the sexist bullshit that unfortunately still infests this community.
Congratulations. Don’t let the fame, honour, glory and bragging rights go to your head. Get back to the blogging and push back the darkness.
I need something more intellectual to read like your blog. I’m sick of marking exams. As my physics teacher was fond of saying, nature abhors a vacuum, but why do students insist on filling it with bullshit?
As the kids say, w00t! to you, Rebecca, and all.
(Do they still say that?)
You’re “Number Two?” Is that because you’re “the shit?” (Meant as a compliment not derogatory) Congrats. I enjoy reading your blog so I would agree that praise is due.
Congratulations, darling, and keep on inspiring us.
Congratulations, Greta. Well-deserved, I say.
I thought it made sense because there was one for guys already…
I knew next to nothing about sexism, misogyny or privilege before elevatorgate, and my initial reaction to it was pretty dismissive. Since then, I’ve read so much about these subjects on this and other blogs, and I now consider myself better informed and (hopefully) a lot more sensitive to these issues. It’s been kind of an epiphany, actually.
Congratulations, to Greta and the august company she keeps!
Room for improvement, and indeed, we’re seeing bunches of it! The community is better off now for having had these discussions and growing pains, and I look forward to much, much more in the upcoming year. Very well done, all, and my thanks.
Congratultions to you, Greta. You really have no idea of the impact you make through your words, at least to me. At late middle age, I am new to atheism, and even newer to blogging. I didn’t even know the aethosphere existed until a few months ago, when someone mentioned your blog. I’ve spent many sleepless nights since then trying to “catch up” on YEARS of stuff.
I sample other bloggers, but your essays are the ones I always come back to over and over. I’ve embarked on a project of cut-and-pasting your essays over into a printable format and organizing into a book; it’s taking forever. Hopefully I will have the guts one day to pull relevant ones out and give to certain people. (Too overwhelming for hard core believers to see some of the stuff on FTB).
Congratulations!
congrats! I am a faithful (ha!) reader, and just yesterday had my first discussion/debate about atheism. Thanks to what have read here, I was able to respond to God of the Gaps, Religious People Do Good Too, and Pascal’s Wager. Thank you Greta! And keep up the wonderful work.
Thing of it is, all of the atheist/skeptic/feminist women who are publicly “active” are teh awesomne. I’m so glad I share a world with you. Thanks.
Congrats! I don’t know about Rebecca (I have never followed her work), but your blog is excellent and I love it … even when I hate it 🙂 Could anyone expect more???
Congratulations Greta.
Just want to mention; the reason I value this blog so much is only partly the subject matter. The other part is that you write such good prose. Whatever the subject, you’re always enjoyable to read.
In thinking about the top 5 atheists of 2011 thing that last couple of days, I concluded that both you and Rebecca Watson made my top 5 (the only nominee I shared with Staks was Dave Silverman). I have not thought about who would have won, ultimately, but I agree that you both have been excellent spokes….women? Is spokeswomen a word? Sure it is. 😉
I will add, without trying to derail the conversation, that Staks Rosch, a close personal friend of mine, is a decent person who made a mistake recently. He will learn from it, just as I learned from Rebecca Watson and Greta Christina this last year or so. We become better people through open and honest criticism.
I hope more greatness is to come in the next year.
Congratulations, Greta. There are many good blogs, but I like yours just as much as I like Phayngula. You are easy to read and follow and always interesting. I don’t particularly follow your fashion friday entries, but I’m sure they are a real interest for many.
I would have voted you number one.
Having a spot on a list with you, Greta, is an absolute joy and honour. You are, and continue to be, probably my all-time biggest blogger hero and an ongoing inspiration*. 🙂
*Except for those times where it’s like “damn, how could I ever possibly say this better than Greta just did, or add anything at all to what she wrote?” 😉
Congratulations! I have been enjoying your thinking out loud for a couple of years now and always look forward to new posts. You rock and you make me think.
Congratulations & thanks Greta Christina. Well deserved.
Last year was such an eye-opener for so many on that issue when RW turned over that big elavator-shaped rock and all those creepy, slimey, disgusting misogynist bugs were exposed to the light after gnawing away unnoticed there by too many for too long.
Reading your blog – as well as Rebecca Watson’s one & many others – has really made some of us men think and realise a few things. I’m one of them.
Again, thankyou – and more power to you, Rebecca Watson and the other strong, smart, increasingly prominent athiest women.
Congratulations Greta. You should also get an award for that acceptance speech. A true team player.
FIX! FIX!
There is NO way RW could rank ahead of you on this. I mean the sphere of influence was atheism, right?
Anything I could have said has been said in the previous comments, but what the heck I’ll give it a try. I just started reading your blog a few months ago and find it inspiring, informative and well, just plain wonderful. Congratulations!
A reasonably careful discussion of the brouhaha is given here and here. What happened is not exactly what is now celebrated in song and story. But what does the truth matter, when there’s a fine tale to tell?
Kiwanda, I fail to see how those links constitute a “reasonably careful dissection”. There are a good number of reasonable points in there, but they’re outweighed by a lot of ungrounded claims (i.e. the bit where women are “branded gender traitors”), claims that are just demonstrably untrue (i.e. the elevatorgate incident being described as a ‘thought crime’), and in general a lot of rah-rah applause-light political speech, such as:
Congratulations, Greta! I didn’t see the poll in time to vote, but I would have been hard pressed to choose between you, Rebecca and Jen McCreight herself. You’ve all had a big impact on me this past year. Keep doing what you do so well!
Look on the bright side Greta, if you’re number two, it means you haven’t hit your peak yet! 🙂
Congrats, Greta! You’re the most influential Atheist (female or non) to me personally, primarily because your Atheists and Anger piece was the thing that finally broke the self-misogyny that the internet instilled in me. Oh, and because you’re such a damn good writer. You managed to make fashion, of all things, interesting to me. Atleast when you write about it.
I will say it’s sad that there’s an “influential female atheists” list at all, because it sounds like awards for the junior league of Atheism or something. But when George Takei (Whom I wasn’t even aware was an Atheist) is listed as more influential over far more deserving Atheists, simply because those other Atheists are women, I guess we need these lists. :/
Dear Greta
Congratulations – but in my opinion, you should have had first prize.
I discovered your blog very recently (I’m in the process of becoming an atheist after years of agnosticism) and I think it is excellent, particularly your writing on a-theology. (I have an academic background in philosophy and theology, so feel I’m qualified to judge – not all atheist writing is good.)
Jane Smith (Pretoria, South Africa)
I had assumed that this kind of virulent sexism was a phenomenon of the “true believers”; it never occurred to me that there was any significant faction of atheists that was that stupid.
I am white and male. I respect reason and intelligence; that’s why I read Greta Christina. I would like to be in denial about this stupid shit, partly because it’s so off topic. It’s a waste of time to have to deal with it. (It does have to be dealt with, and to be clear, it isn’t Greta wasting our time, it’s the stupid misogynists. I just resent the distraction and feel diminished by the stupidity of some of my sex.)
No matter the topic, though, it seems like the same semi-literate jerks like to spew their disgusting effluvia on us all. There is no difference in their writing or intelligence level; they are pretty much all fuckin stupid.
I submit that a large percentage of these attacks are only casually misogynistic. The point is to be as offensive and shocking as (in)humanly possible. Whatever attack accomplishes that fills the bill. Markos, of DailyKos, publishes his hate mail weekly. I am sure that if he had an amputated limb, there would be a ton of discussion about that. They will use any possible point of attack.
Then there are the actual misogynists – insecure men who need to feel superior to somebody and know that diminishing their superiors is the only way to provide even that illusion.
So keep up the good work, Greta, and be aware that this kind of harassment is so alien and repugnant to a large percentage of us males (even the white ones) that we had to be informed it was occurring, and reacted with shock and disbelief to the whole idea.
Reading your blog – as well as Rebecca Watson’s one & many others – has really made some of us men think and realise a few things. I’m one of them.
I’m another.
I came into this with clean hands, as it were. I’m the sort of guy who isn’t dismissive of women or their concerns about sexism and related problems but who also doesn’t think merely BEING a woman or espousing certain views authorizes you to holler “Sexism!” at anyone who disagrees with you.
I knew about Rebecca Watson only from the SGU podcast. I’d never met her, read her SkepChick pieces or heard anything about her interaction with other members of our little enclave before this. I had no strong feelings about her either way.
I do now.
While I can understand Watson taking exception to Dawkins’ “Muslima” remarks, her response and subsequent conduct were an order of magnitude worse – and more revealing – than any missteps he may have made.
If there’s a more textbook case of High School Princess Syndrome on view in the blogosphere, I have yet to see it. You could float a battleship on Watson’s sense of lese majeste and entitlement.
Even worse has been the appalling group-think, mendacity and gender-politics opportunism of Watson’s Amen Corner, most certainly including Pimp Daddy “PC” Myers, seeking to turn what was at worst a clumsy, drunken pass into some kind of Bastille-storming call-to-arms against the dreaded “Privilege.”
Eye-opening, indeed.