Just ask them

It was slightly surprising to see an article in USA Today that talks about atheism and feminism without sneering at either one.

Now, more than a month after “Elevatorgate” erupted, freethinkers are assessing its meaning. Many acknowledge they have a “woman problem” — men outnumber women at atheist gatherings, both at the podium and in the audiences.

In the audiences is tricky to fix. At the podium is dead easy – just invite them. Invite me, for instance. Invite Katha Pollitt, Wendy Kaminer, Kathryn Joyce, Michelle Goldberg, Janet Heimlich, Vyckie Garrison.

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation, notes that while men might fill their gatherings, women often lead freethought organizations. She has directed FFRF’s local chapters to use more women — at least 50 percent — in their billboard and bus banner ads.

“We want to be proactive and make sure there is diversity,” she said. “The movement is big enough now.”

That is reflected in a new “Women in Secularism” conference announced in August by the Center for Inquiry. The conference, billed as the first of its kind, will be held in May in Washington, D.C., and will feature an all-female lineup.

“A lot of us think it is long overdue,” said Melody Hensley, executive director of the center’s Washington office and the organizer of the event, which will include Jacoby, Watson and Gaylor*. “If you have women leaders, you are going to have more women. So this conference is a step forward to attract more women to the cause.”

*And me.

God damn it, smile!

Ah, perfect. Woman is out in the world on a bright sunny day, at the wheel of her car, and a guy in a van shouts out his window at her –

“Smile!”

With that one word my amiable Sunday-morning state of mind was
lost in a mushroom cloud of stranger-hate. What crime did I commit to warrant
attention from such a dolt (story of my life)? I was squinting in the sun.

See? See? See? This is what I’m saying. It’s exactly what I’m saying. I was just walking up the street, mind elsewhere, as one does, and as one is allowed to do, and some total stranger shouted at me for not smiling.

I am so pleased to find that I’m not alone in not liking strangers telling me how to arrange my face.

I know I’m not the only woman who has experienced the “Smile!”
phenomenon. Mention such an incident to any woman on the planet and prepare for a stream of obscenity-laden anecdotes and suggestive hand gestures.

In the top ten of female peeves it’s right at the top. I’d rather hear a frat boy scream, “show me your tits” than have one more middle-aged nincompoop command I say cheese in precisely the same spirit of “fun” that a movie cowboy pulls out a gun and tells the town drunk to dance.

(To be fair, I already knew I wasn’t alone in not liking strangers telling me how to arrange my face, not least via comments on that post. But it’s pleasing to see it treated as common knowledge.)

Weirdly, I’ve noticed these hyper-concerned male citizens aren’t exactly smiling when they offer up their unsolicited advice. In fact, they look pretty serious about their desire to see the world’s female population walk around with a goofy grin pasted on their faces.

Precisely. Angry neighbor guy was savage with his  unsolicited advice.

I can’t help but wonder if it’s that desire to see every woman behave as if she were ready, willing and able that’s behind the old “Smile” edict. I also think that the kind of man who yells it out is labouring under the impression that it’s a woman’s job to try and look pretty at all times and when she doesn’t he sees it as his civic duty to apply the corrective.

H/t Benjamin Nelson.

Record numbers of women are living in poverty

Tom Martin please note. (Not that he will.)

When the U.S. Census Bureau released the latest poverty statistics this week, the news was predictably bleak—or at least the news that people were given. But there was a little something the major media omitted from their coverage.

That minor detail? Half the population.

The larger half.

And when it comes to the latest economic data on women, the news is even worse than most people seem to realize. But you couldn’t learn that by reading The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal, neither of which even mentioned women in their front-page stories about the rise in the poverty rate, which has soared to its highest level since 1993.

Yes but what about the menz?

Even more dialogue with William Hamby

September 15: I somehow overlooked Bill’s last entry so here it is now, six days after it was written.

September 5 or whatever it was: We had an interesting discussion over the past couple of days about atheism and feminism and how to reach the mainstream, so I invited him to do a dialogue here. OB

William Hamby

Ophelia, you’ve brought up something that’s been near and dear to me, but which I’ve kept largely under my hat for a couple of years now. What you called your “branch of the movement” – the nerdy bloggy type – is the branch most directly responsible for the entirety of the movement so far. The iconoclasts, scientists, coffee house philosophy geeks, Aspies (Asperger syndrome, as you know, is linked to atheism,) etc… They were the ones who didn’t give a shit what society thought because they had already shunned many of the “trappings” of culture in the first place. So it wasn’t a big thing for them to flaunt their big brains and tell everybody they were atheists. [Read more…]

Men are being silenced

A guy is suing LSE for sexism.

The man, 39-year-old Tom Martin, based in London, began pursuing an MSc degree in gender, media and culture at the LSE’s Gender Institute in October 2009. He withdrew six weeks later, citing “anti-male discrimination” in the coursework.

“Its programs actively block men’s discourse and perpetuate the men-bad, women-good dialogue,” Martin told me by phone yesterday. “I want gender studies to be more inclusive for men.” [Read more…]

You could tell the story in your sleep

Another familiar story. Religious men walk out of official ceremony in protest because women ___. Their bosses dismiss them. Clerics say it’s an outrage.

The details barely matter; they’re interchangeable. In this case the men were military cadets in Israel; their bosses are their superior officers; the women were singing; the clerics are rabbis.

At some point during the evening, two female soldiers got up to sing. When one
of them began singing solo, dozens of religious soldiers got up and turned to
leave the auditorium.

Pointedly sending the message that the female soldier was a harlot. That should be good for morale.

H/t Ezra Resnick.

Anointing the sick with oil

Familiar story. Couple belong to church that “preaches faith-healing and rejects modern medicine in favor of prayer and other spiritual practices such as anointing the sick with oil.” Couple lets infant die instead of getting medical help.

David Hickman, the couple’s infant son, died in 2009 from a bacterial infection in his lungs. Born two months premature, weighing only 3 pounds and 5 ounces, David only lived for an agonizing nine hours. David, slowly succumbing to the infection in the Hickman’s home, was surrounded by female church members who are considered midwives, although there is no evidence these unlicensed, supposed “midwives,” have any medical education.

Couple goes on trial. Defense is expected to argue that the infant’s death was unforeseeable  and that the couple are the victims of religious persecution.

HPV vax will make your daughter a SLUT

It’s so impressive – not in the least surprising, but so impressive – when candidates for elected office cheerfully put other people’s lives at risk in the hope of gaining an advantage over a rival.

Like Michele Bachmann.

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) is continuing to attack the 2012 frontrunner for mandating that young girls get the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine…

Social conservatives argue that the vaccine, which protects against a sexually-transmitted disease that can lead to cervical cancer, encourages promiscuity. Perry’s decision has already riled up conservative activists; it might be Bachmann’s best hope to win back those voters.

And that’s reason enough to make irresponsible attacks on a public health measure.