by Jacqueline S. Homan, author of Classism For Dimwits, Divine Right: The Truth is a Lie, and Eyes of a Monster
Well, since my previous post concerning the problems of rampant misogyny and sexism in the atheist/skeptics community, which has really become more of a haven for MRA’s/PUA’s and their misogynist male chauvinist fellow travelers, I received only one follow-up email from JREF’s Communications Director, Carrie Poppy the same day as the original post went up.
Thank you for your questions, Jacqueline.
Could you provide your deadline and outlet? Thanks so much.
Best,
Carrie PoppyDirector of Communications, James Randi Educational FoundationFrom: Jacqueline Homan <jacquelinehoman7@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 10:05 PM
Subject: These are my specific questions
To: djgrothe@randi.org
Cc: Carrie@randi.org
To which I immediately responded:
My deadline is three business days. And as to “outlet”, I believe I made it perfectly clear to DJ Grothe that I am unembedded, therefore you may submit your responses to me in the same fashion in which I asked the questions: by email.
As of midnight, June 26 2012, I have not received ANY further response. To the best of my knowledge, neither have the others who have also been inquiring.
This is not an accident or an ‘unfortunate miscommunication.’ There is something to be said when valid questions go ignored about women being threatened, harassed, and retaliated against for complaining that atheist/skeptics conferences more closely resemble Nerd Boys Gone Wild with “enlightened” men exhibiting frat boy mentalities. The Vatican and the Christian Right are not the only patriarchal powerhouses with a vested interest in perpetuating misogyny, male privilege, sexism, and discrimination against women and girls. The “freethought” community needs to own up to that and stop blaming misogyny on religion when religion has merely been one of the vehicles that legitimized it.
The dead giveaway was the conspicuous absence of all these “reasonable” men in the fight against the War on Women. Not a single loud-mouthed atheist/skeptic pontificating know-it-all gasbag male from this colossal fart convention could be found among most states’ Unite Against the War on Women rallies on 4-28 counter-protesting the misogynistic fetal idolators of popery that want everyone to forget about women’s right to life and bodily autonomy.
Sikivu Hutchinson, an African-American feminist and atheist said something to that effect at the Women in Secularism conference at the Center for Inquiry last month: where has the secular community been for poor women in the battle for reproductive rights?
How is the fight for birth control and abortion NOT a “science interest” being threatened by patriarchal religious powerhouses when it is medical ethics and specific medical technology that is under siege precisely because it is something that saves women’s lives?
The overwhelmingly white upper-middle class ‘good ol’ boys club’ dominating the atheist/skeptic community has been trying to pressure biology professor PZ Myers to “shut Sikivu up” and chastised him for giving her a platform so her voice can be heard, so that the “freethought” community is not one more bastion of male privilege. Many of these same “usual suspects” in the “freethought” community have also sent Taslima Nasrin vicious, threatening emails, because they’re trying to silence her, too.
If all that money that Rebecca Watson and the rest of the Skepchicks raised that ended up going into JREF’s coffers (rich white dudes’ pockets) for sending women to TAM conferences had instead gone to Planned Parenthood or the National Abortion Network Funds — that would have done far more to empower women and girls than sending women to these atheist/skeptics conferences when all that material can be found online for free anyway. Why should women further enrich these over-privileged alpha dipshits who never gave a fuck about us and who don’t want women to be liberated or even have basic human rights?
If we are going to educate women and girls on breaking the shackles of misogyny and freeing womanity from the cruel yoke of patriarchy, let’s do it right: Let’s examine suppressed history, and the wealth of knowledge unearthed by archaeologists and anthropologists that was buried under tons of patriarchal debris and demand restorative justice for women. Let us eschew ANY “enlightenment movement” , “educational foundation”, or “social justice” movement that relegates women to the margins as the inconsequential “Other” except to provide (often unwillingly and without just compensation) expected free grata gestational “duty” — no matter the harm and cost to us. Let us stop rewarding promoters of the rape culture.
Advancement and progress for only half of the human race but not the other is no advancement or progress at all.
Tags: abortion, birth control, contraception, DJ Grothe, feminism, JREF, misogyny, New Atheist movement, patriarchy, privilege, rape, sexism, skepticism, TAM
June 27, 2012 at 10:43 am |
Hear, hear. You are making a really important point here, one that has wider ramifications. If equality for women is the goal, then it’s incredibly dangerous and self-defeating to invest one’s political energies into groups (e.g. the Democratic Party) which are heavily invested in institutions (the military-industrial complex, the financial industry, etc.) that are in turn integral to the patriarchal status quo.
June 28, 2012 at 12:56 am |
That’s right. Any movement that relegates women as “the Other” to the margins, deeming women’s human rights and needs as a “divisive special interest” is not a movement that women should back on ANY level. That brilliant rad fem writers who happen to also be atheists struggle in poverty and don’t get their/our books promoted to the level of bestsellers like the books written by Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris — both whom are wind-up dolls for secular patriarchy and white male privilege — speaks volumes.
June 27, 2012 at 11:49 pm |
WHAT JACQUELINE SAID!
June 30, 2012 at 1:44 am |
What you said here speaks huge to me!
“If we are going to educate women and girls on breaking the shackles of misogyny and freeing womanity from the cruel yoke of patriarchy, let’s do it right: Let’s examine suppressed history, and the wealth of knowledge unearthed by archaeologists and anthropologists that was buried under tons of patriarchal debris and demand restorative justice for women. Let us eschew ANY “enlightenment movement” , “educational foundation”, or “social justice” movement that relegates women to the margins as the inconsequential “Other” except to provide (often unwillingly and without just compensation) expected free grata gestational “duty” — no matter the harm and cost to us. Let us stop rewarding promoters of the rape culture.”
I am pretty much two years away from University, but what I plan on taking is a double major, Women Studies and History! I want to take History, but try and remove the male bias, including my own bias as a male. To look, to try and understand History from a more Female centric basis. I’s all there, just not written down, what were Men afraid of at the time… what did they suppress or twist, I think it’s possible to undercover the History of Women, if you look at what is not written and why! And yeah, Anthropolgy and Archaeology, just another tool to discover History that exists, but just not written down by Men! You are an Amazing writer, you just got my brain going like crazy, cause it’s what I want to explore and do! Much respect! Eddie
and thank you for liking my little page on facebook , that is so mighty cool!
Eddie
June 30, 2012 at 6:04 am |
Thank you Eddie. You would also probably really enjoy my books, especially Divine Right and Classism for Dimwits. If you want some good material that you will never read in books that are rich white male centered (excluding not only women’s experiences but also that of poor males that were at the bottom of the social heap as well), I strongly suggest getting those two books of mine that I just suggested.
July 6, 2012 at 8:25 pm |
I find it hard to believe that in the 21st century these arguments for equality are still raging, whether for feminism, racism or general gender inequality. For at least the past thirty years in the UK no kind of inequality is taught or allowed in schools, diversity is promoted in all public bodies and yet I still meet men, and women with knuckle dragging Neanderthal outlook on anyone slightly different. It would be good, and very possible in this internet era, to organise minority groups, women, LBGT etc. into national strikes movements. What it needs is a person with determination and knowledge, a person like you Jaqueline.
I only found out about you through a circuitous series of links from a picture on Working Class Atheists FB page. However, I have just ordered your Classism for Dimwits from Amazon. Don’t tar all men with the same brush, and they can be changed, as a boy I was raised in a culture of racism, but that is clear of me now, because I went to the trouble of getting to know people of other races. Education is the key.