At least for one video, after a long absence. Guess what has motivated her to speak up?
As always, she’s forthright and blunt — hers is a voice I’ve missed for some time.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
A good response from someone who experienced this first hand. A very straight forward account of what happened, and a reasonable belief on why it happened, and a reasonable expectation of what should happen as a result. Exactly what this place needs.
Everything Cristina Rad says here rings true to me. I have been sexually grabbed: by a family member, strangers in the street and at bars, and in professional spaces by colleagues. When someone does something SO inappropriate, your brain freezes. You can’t process it at the moment. It’s totally shocking. And it takes you out of your joy and pleasure and security of being yourself and says to you: you are just a thing. Nothing you want matters to Gross Grabber, just that they saw flesh and wanted it – so they laid claim by grabbing. It’s that simple, but it says loud and clear: Don’t you get too big for your britches. Don’t you start thinking that you are equal to me. You think your body belongs to you? You silly girl. What you want doesn’t matter to me. See how easily I can prove your inferiority to me: here’s the proof. I can touch you if I want to. See? You couldn’t stop me.
Oh, and people will blame YOU for it, not Gross Grabber, because: reasons.
That kind of behavior demeans you and that fucks you up in the moment, and maybe for a while, because it attacks your sense of owning yourself. You have to work to regain your composure.
So please go and give her some support on her youtube. Don’t let the only voices there be the haters and MRAs.
makes sense to me. however, i would have slapped him for his insolence and rudeness.
Welcome back, Cristina. We’ve indeed missed you voice.
Oh, fuck off, paxoll.
Good suggestion, PZ.
First, I would like to thank Cristina Rad for her bravery speaking out about her experience with Krauss and her support for the women interviewed in the BuzzFeed article. I hope that she receives the support that she deserves in what might be a difficult time.
However, I do have some issues with the video itself and the reactions it has received.
Rad claims that Krauss is a clueless, awkward man who basically doesn’t have any game. When in fact, I believe he knew exactly what he was doing and that he could get away with it. She absolves him of a lot of accountability by doing this. Saying that men are too awkward or inept at flirting to avoid sexually harassing women is a way of blaming the victim. It tells us that however those men have harmed women it doesn’t really matter, that they have no right to be angry or seek justice, that they are vindictive villains because those men did not mean to do any harm. The harasser becomes a sympathetic victim instead of a predator.
Rad claims that she was not traumatized by the event. While I am glad that this is the case, this has no bearing on how inappropriate Krauss’ actions were. He touched someone in a sexual manner without their consent. At best this is sexual harassment, at worst it is sexual assault. Period. His actions should not be downplayed by anyone watching this video because the victim was not traumatized.
This leads me to how people are reacting to Rad’s video. While I am pleased that more people may now believe that Krauss has acted inappropriately toward women because they trust Rad’s testimony to be credible, I am disappointed at how many people are praising her for being the “right kind of victim”. Those who were once hyper-skeptical about sexual harassment claims are praising Cristina for being measured, and by this they mean that she does not appear to be angry, traumatized, or asking for any type of consequences for Krauss. You can read comment after comment applauding Cristina for not being hysterical, sensational, hyperbolic, and other descriptions that are often used to dismiss victim’s accounts. While I am glad this story has come out, in some ways it does a disservice to the other women in this case.
I wrote a comment in support to Cris under the video, but it’s really quite odd to see these YouTubers from back in the day come back to the platform. I mean she has 100K subscribers, but doesn’t make a living from YT/patreon while I’ve watched small lefty/progressive channels grow from zero to 70k/200k in the last two years and become fulltime YT lefties, or come out of the woodwork and remake their channels. I really hope Cristina comes back with her amazing videos, I’m pretty sure there are a lot of people willing to listen to and monetarily support her. Contrapoints did that, and I’m really thankful she did, she’s educated and supported so many and Cris could do the same.
I know you think YT is a swamp, PZ, but many rare and important tentacled organisms also flourish there, seemingly against all odds and despite the alligators.
=8)-DX
YT is actually what brought me here all those years ago. Dick Coughlans channel linked to this blog on an old video. I have hope that there will be a resurgence of reason countering the bullshit on that site like in the early day of youtube atheist/skeptic. Channels like yours PZ, Contrapoints, Hbomberguy, ext. bring me back to those days.
Cristina Rad says that she hopes LK will continue to contribute but that this could only happen if he apologises to all the women who he has sexually harassed and that he comes to understand and accept that what he did was wrong and why. However, I don’t think this is likely to make any difference at this stage. His push back really put an end to that as a possible outcome. I agree with her that he seems to be a sexual opportunist rather than a sexual predator. I also agree that he thinks this is acceptable behaviour – because he did it publicly. But his career is finished in my opinion. There’s no going back from here.
If he hasn’t figured it out yet, as he seems not to have, maybe a friend should suggest he see a psychologist with the appropriate expertise. There is a saying that power is a great aphrodisiac. Also, when someone is revered for achievements in one field, there is a tendency for them to generalise to other fields. LK: I am a great science educator. Therefore I am great, period. Therefore I am a great sex symbol and women are just waiting for me to pay attention to them. No, LK, they revere you for your science, not your sex appeal. You are an unattractive old man who is good at science education. Something along those lines.
Christina is a marvel who has a mind like an engine. Its refreshing listening to coherent thought spontaneously expressed, and she’s among the best.
But I have to quibble with her assessment regarding the possibility that Krauss can be reaccepted into the scientific community if he came clean. I think Krauss’ lack of sincerity and his incapacity for honest self-appraisal already demonstrates that he has no place in science.
In other words, he failed at integrity. How can anyone be sure an apology or contrition from him isn’t false? Who could ever trust that guy on anything?
By the way, my opinion is aimed only at his response to the accusations. His penchant for getting his jollies by running his hand around like that is a vile separate issue.
But when some men contend that such behavior is innocent and that they ought to be forgiven? Or even suggest that they have a right to such liberties?
That’s like comparing themselves to the dog that starts riding my leg. I can forgive the dog for not having the capacity for self-control. I would be perfectly happy to regard men who engage in such behavior as having as little restraint as a dog that rides my leg.
The difference is that my respect for the dog would remain untarnished.
Among Cristina’s many qualities, I think her honesty is the best. The MRA’s and anti-SJW’s are too stupid to understand that she already disarmed them.
When Christina Rad fell silent, I assumed it was because of Gamergate, and the deep rifts that were happening around then. Hey, it’s not looking like a place worth associating oneself with, is it?
@2, sezit
Hell, even when someone does something inappropriate that isn’t that extreme, if it’s simply unconventional enough, it can be very difficult to process quickly enough. It takes lots of experience or contemplation to figure out the right way to handle new situations.
And, alas, even when it isn’t an inappropriate situation at all freezing can occur in new or unusual situations :(
Happy to see Christina do another video. Very unhappy to see that it is about yet another abuser.
But, happy to see she will make more videos after this.