equality

After saying that the atheist movement ought to be politically progressive and inclusive, I got a letter saying I left some people out. I'll rectify that by simply posting the letter! I'm a long-time reader and admirer of Pharyngula, and I've been especially impressed with your call for atheists and skeptics to take up the banner on progressive causes, including women's rights and being more inclusive to people of colour. As a progressive woman skeptic, I was overjoyed by your support. There's another issue though, that I think has been overlooked by the majority of the skeptical community…
…let's not forget that other gigantic issue, racism. The secular movement ought to be clearly on the side of the angels on that one, too, and we need to listen more to people of color. I know well the phenomenon of speaking at secular events and looking out to see that sea of paleness — I swear, I could work on a tan off the reflected light from those audiences. And the only way to put more black and native American and Asian faces in the seats is to put more of them on the podium. We do have a problem with the white assumption of privilege. And the scary thing is that some people think…
Tara Smith is off at a science conference, and she tried to buy some souvenirs from a Retail Sales Guy. [RSG]: But you can't be a scientist! [Me]: I can't? [RSG]: No, you don't look like a microbiologist. [Me]: Um, what exactly does a microbiologist look like, then? [RSG]: Uh... [Me]: Because I'm pretty sure that I am one. (Rummaging through bag, digging out ASM nametag). Yep, that's my name, and that's the microbiology conference logo right there. [RSG]: But you're too pretty! You should be in Hollywood. Wait, you mean it's not just an atheist problem? Women, I don't know how you cope: you'…
I leave the state for a weekend, and what happens? The Rethuglican brats passed a vote to have a referendum to amend the state constitution to ban gay marriage in Minnesota. We're about to go through a nasty long election cycle in which the sanctimonious assholes who want to dictate how you run your private life will be on the television every night, preaching at me. It is simply appalling that we're going to have to waste so much time struggling for what ought to be a basic civil right against hordes of whining, petty, hateful, smug suburbanites. Here's the bill. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT…
Oy, this will make your head hurt…mainly because you won't be able to handle the degree of stupidity involved in this argument. This is a video from Focus on the Patriarchy that makes an analogy: gay marriage is as unnatural and impossible as gravity pushing objects upward, and trying to claim that trying to legislate equality is as silly as trying to legislate the behavior of objects in a gravitational field. And this is from an organization that has tried to legislate creationism into truth. (via Jen)
Every science blog on the planet is probably going to link to today's xkcd, and I'm not going to buck the trend.
Almost all of your public school teachers have sex. Most of them enjoy it and do it repeatedly, even. Many of your public school teachers vote for the Democratic party. Some are conservative Republicans. Some are Communists. Some of your public school teachers are atheists. Or Episcopalians. Or Baptists. Or Scientologists. All of your public school teachers go home at the end of the school day and have private lives, where they do things that really aren't at all relevant to your 8 year old daughter, your 15 year old son. That you pay taxes to cover their salaries for doing their jobs during…
Here's a pair of brave women. Twenty years after a horrific rape, Liz Seccuro pressed charges on her creepy, oblivious rapist. It was a horrible situation, and she could have run away from the conflict…but she faced her fears and got the rotten guy locked away after he tried to resume a friendly conversation, as if nothing had happened. Amina A. is a gay woman living in Syria — and she and her father faced down a pair of thugs who threatened to rape the lesbian out of her. These were the local 'security services' who try to enforce a religious propriety on every one; just living in the day…
As a member of the professoriate, I like to think that we are egalitarian and do our very best to correct the social inequities that are so prevalent outside of our relatively benevolent, enlightened institutions. Only…not. It looks like women get screwed over in academia, too. The gender gap in faculty pay cannot be explained completely by the long careers of male faculty members, the relative productivity of faculty members, or where male and female faculty members tend to work -- even if those and other factors are part of the picture, according to research being released this week at the…
You would think Canadian universities would be particularly sensitive on the issue of discrimination against women scientists and engineers—it is, after all, where the École Polytechnique murders occurred in 1989 (major trigger warning! That is the coroners report, containing a detailed, dispassionate description of a man hunting down and butchering women), one of the most horrendous crimes against women in recent history, in which a gunman singled out women engineering students for execution, killing 14. During this time, Lépine moved a little closer to the group of 9 girls who were standing…
From the current issue of _American Educator_, fascinating research on Equality issues by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (PDF alert!) that shows that greater economic and social equality don't make things better just for the bottom: It may seem obvious that problems associated with relative deprivation should be more common in more unequal societies. However, if you ask people why greater equality reduces these problems, the most common assumption is that greater equality helps those at the bottom. the truth is that the vast majority of the population is harmed by greater inequality.…
I would like to propose a new law for consideration by our legislature, which I am calling The Minnesota Anti-Texan Act of 2011. I need to work on the formal language for it, but I can give the gist of it here. If any person within the boundaries of the fine state of Minnesota exhibits any of the signifiers of a Texas origin — wearing a cowboy hat, for instance, or Big Hair, or having a drawl, or chewing tobacco — you can shoot them. You catch someone listening to Clint Black on the radio, bang, blow them away, you've got a justifiable defense. Someone says "sheeeeeee-it" instead of "uff-da…
Admit it. You all have wanted to see Daniel Craig in a dress. That's a fantastically effective spot, and also…Craig looks damned good in that dress. Another interesting thing is that the MRAs are enraged by it. I did think this comment was amusing: Craig's Bond is faggy anyway. Sean Connery not only would've NEVER posed for these drag pics, he would've told the gay publicist to "sod off and suck my knob, mate." Then punched him. So the MRA masculine ideal is violence and angrily demanding gay sex? I am not surprised. (Warning: if you follow that link, it contains links to the Spearhead, a…
Several readers have noticed that lately we've had a plague of whiny, entitled, childish Men's Rights Activists in the comments. They're usually clueless and petty and annoying…and now I've found out why. And the source of my information is unimpeachable: it's Whirled Nut Daily. According to Kay Hymowitz, whose new book, "Manning Up," was featured prominently in the Wall Street Journal in February, "legions of frustrated young women" are dealing with a new crisis in America: modern men refuse to grow up. It appears the 21st-century male is living a kind of extended adolescence. In the past…
The economy sucks, so why are Republicans making such obnoxious noises over abortion and birth control lately? (That was an entirely rhetorical question, and it's obvious why: they've got no solutions other than feeding the rich some more, so they're carrying out a massive campaign of distraction.) Look what Nebraska is poised to do! Last week, South Dakota's legislature shelved a bill, introduced by Republican state Rep. Phil Jensen, which would have allowed the use of the "justifiable homicide" defense for killings intended to prevent harm to a fetus. Now a nearly identical bill is being…
Hey, this is a really good idea: No Chicks No Excuses is a speakers' bureau that specializes in delivering expert women for speaking engagements. The only catch is that it seems to be entirely full of Australian women, who are spectacularly brilliant, of course, but there must also be plenty of brilliant American or European women, too. Does anyone know of an equivalent service that operates north of the equator?
Here's a personal testimonial. Meanwhile, the Republicans play games with women's lives, and Christians build bait-and-switch centers to deny women appropriate health care.
As I feared it would, the thread on sexist atheists has bloated up remarkably, and yet more clueless angry men have shown up to tell the women what they can do to be appreciated more, so I'm shutting it down and allowing it to continue here. Carry on, mansplainers!
The latest furious argument going on in the atheist community is over this panel at an American Atheists meeting in Huntsville, Alabama. The subject was what atheist groups can do to attract more women, which is a good and important question. Kudos for asking it. Here, go watch the video before you read further. Try to see the problem that got some people rather irate. Done? OK. Now go read what Sharon Moss and Lyz Liddell had to say about it, their subsequent clarification, and Ophelia Benson's comments. Listen. To. The. Women. I've got a simple suggestion for my fellow men. Learn to shut up…
Justice in the UK apparently regulates all kinds of things. The 41 year-old had been in a relationship with a man whom he lived with and told officials "it would make me feel happy" for it to continue. But his local council decided his "vigorous sex drive" was inappropriate and that with an IQ of 48 and a "moderate" learning disability, he did not understand what he was doing. A psychiatrist involved in the case even tried to prevent the man being given sex education, on the grounds that it would leave him "confused". Mr Justice Mostyn said the case was "legally, intellectually and…