Tuesday, July 5, 2011

On the incredible thickness of privilege

Richard Dawkins, who is someone that I normally admire, recently stepped into it.  What do you think?

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3 comments:

  1. dgnyJuly 6, 2011 at 5:02 AM

    I think I must have misunderstood. Was a woman calling a man a mysogynist for asking her into his room for a cup of coffee? Colour me confused but I'd take that as a compliment.

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  2. MrFancyPantsJuly 6, 2011 at 11:25 PM

    dgny:

    Rebecca Watson is a very well known blogger and speaker in the Skeptics community. At a recent conference, she gave a presentation investigating why there are so few women in Skeptics circles, part of which explained that the women often feel marginalized and objectified--basically that the huge number of men disregard what they have to say, and are constantly hitting on them.

    After this presentation, she and a bunch of others retired to a bar to discuss it all more over drinks. At 4:00am she said "hey, I'm tired, good night" and headed to her room. One of the men present (with whom she'd had no interaction) followed her and jumped into the elevator with her and said something like "hey, I really find this interesting, would you like to come up to my room for a cup of coffee?"

    RW later posted a video in which she briefly mentions the encounter, saying "hey, guys, really, don't do that". I.e., don't corner me in an elevator at 4:00am and make a kind of creepy request. That's it.

    PZ Myers posted that as a reason why there are so few women Skeptics. Dawkins then responded by belittling her in the resulting comment thread, basically saying that her feelings on the issue were baseless and that her discomfort at being trapped in an elevator late at night with a guy asking her to her room was exactly the same as him being stuck in an elevator with someone who is chewing gum (which, I gather, he dislikes).

    The situation has since escalated quite a bit.

    This is not dissimilar to a recent episode in which a panel of mostly men (and one woman) were discussing "why aren't there more female atheists"? They solicited responses from the audience, and one woman stood up and said basically that women don't feel welcome or respected in the conferences, with guys constantly hitting on them--to which the panel responded by ridiculing her. She left the session in tears.

    That's the executive summary. You can read Rebecca Watson's take here: http://skepchick.org/2011/07/the-privilege-delusion/

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  3. dgnyJuly 10, 2011 at 3:13 AM

    Hmm. It seems like apples and oranges to me - I mean if women really wanted to be something, they'd do it. Chances are if it hadn't been someone from her conference, some other guy would have been in the lift and made a pass anyway! Of course if women are truly bothered by men making passes, a mere 40 pounds removes all problems altogether.

    I get tired of the same old arguments - "the boys don't make us feel welcome". Maybe I've led a charmed life, but I've worked for 20 years in a male-dominated business and have never felt anything even comparable to WOMEN when they close ranks. Men, with flirtation and the occasional blonde joke are really tame and quite easily managed in comparison.

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