What Does It Say?

Dear DPRJones and C0nc0rdance:

What does it say when you want to do a Magic Sandwich Show to talk about your buddy’s views on rape and you can only manage to find one female atheist you’d want on your show who is willing to talk with that buddy on the topic? What does it say when you’re so disinterested in that one woman’s point of view on the topic of rape that you won’t let her finish sentences? What does it say when you do that enough times in a row that she leaves your show? What does it say when you continue your show looking like a Republican-assembled panel on the “religious freedom” to deny women birth control?

I am curious, but I know what it says to me.

It says that the next time someone tries to tell me that sexism in the movement isn’t a problem because, well, you know, there are just a few trolls…oh, and that Thunderf00t dude who’s gone a bit barmy, but no one takes him seriously–the next time someone says that to me, I’ll point them to this. These guys over here? They were so desperate to have Thunderf00t’s unstudied opinions on rape on their show that it didn’t matter that they couldn’t find people affected by Thunderf00t’s advice who wanted to talk to the guy. It’s okay though, because they didn’t want to hear from any of those people anyway. At least they’re still taking him seriously, and I think they even still have reputations.

But I’m a bit sarcastic sometimes. What’s your reasoning here?

{advertisement}
What Does It Say?
{advertisement}

10 thoughts on “What Does It Say?

  1. 1

    Oh, but those guys, they have degrees in chemistry, biology and law. They’re surely such experts on the topic that a mere woman can never ever have anything valuable to contribute, and they are way above something as evidence, studies or things like that. Pure reason and logic destroys those things.

  2. 2

    Thunderfoot has been told enough times now that he is wrong on this matter by people close to him.

    I thought that although some members of the show started off with a default defense position, this wasn’t the case by the end of the show.(s)

    As for the women on the show, I think they suffered from not being able to get enough time.

    That happens to new people all the time though, one person says something and then three people start arguing over each other.

    I thought the woman who seemed unaware of “the rift”, made some good points that were accepted by the others. She just didn’t speak enough. If they invite her back I am sure she will be more vocal.

  3. 4

    It’s especially telling since men interrupting and talking over women is one of the more frequently studied and cited aspects of unconscious sexism, of the sort that devalues women’s contributions and creates or reinforces a chilly climate. You would think that people trying to make the case that atheism doesn’t have a problem with sexism would be acutely aware of how it looks when a bunch of men are talking over the only woman in the group.

    I’m curious to know how many of the men on the panel would have reported afterward that Lilandra dominated the conversation, or that she kept interrupting them. It’d make for an interesting little case study.

  4. 5

    The conversation reminded me of an experience I had last week. I went to a ramen shop for some noodles and while waiting looked around the place. My impression was, “Wow, the customers are almost all women! Huh.” Then I started counting: me, the group of three coworkers over there, etc.

    My count ended up 16 women 18 men.

    Not even half.

  5. 6

    I commented on the skewed sex ratio at the very start of that hangout. It was obvious, and it’s also sad that these things always seem to form up completely oblivious to the problem, and that even when the disparity is pointed out, as usual, it’s all just waved away.

  6. 7

    Seriously, they couldn’t recruit Wooly Bumblebee or Sara Mayhew or GirlWritesWhat or someone else to join the anti-feminist brigade? I know Lilandra said she tried to get others to join her, but no one would. But none of the other guys thought to do that? To have a woman join their shouting-down-dissent party? To pat Thunderf00t on the head and tell him he was right and those mean nasty feminists just couldn’t withstand his slow blade of reason?

  7. 8

    @Tom: The issue is that it isn’t the anti-feminist brigade so much as the never-occurred-to-them-they-aren’t-the-most-qualified-to-speak-on-every-topic-in-existence brigade.

  8. 10

    What does it say when you want to do a Magic Sandwich Show to talk about your buddy’s views on rape and you can only manage to find one female atheist you’d want on your show who is willing to talk with that buddy on the topic? What does it say when you’re so disinterested in that one woman’s point of view on the topic of rape that you won’t let her finish sentences? What does it say when you do that enough times in a row that she leaves your show?

    What it shows to me is that you thought you’d comment on the show you couldn’t be fucking arsed to even watch.

    Not only have some of the issues you are asking them to address already been covered (lilandra mentioned Myers ‘where are the women’ comments halfway through the show and dpr jones apologised and explained the situation, as he did for not giving lilandra enough airtime (i rarely watch the show but this seems to happen all the time with non-regulars, though perhaps you would want Jones to extend more of a paternal ‘arm’ around female guests?) but by the time Lilandra left (I agree, the guy was talking over her) there had been ANOTHER WOMAN on the show for a good hour.

    Perhaps you did not notice the voice in a higher range, the softer facial features and the long flowing ginger hair of one of the guests?

    Perhaps her answers and perspective didn’t fit in to your preconceptions enough for you to class her as a ‘female guest’?

    Or perhaps you just didn’t fucking bother to watch?

    At least some of your commentors above, whilst i may disagree with some of their comments, had clearly taken enough of an interest to notice the other female gendered person on the latter half of the show.

    Feel free to leave this comment in moderation, couldn’t give a fuck, this message is aimed purely at you anyway.

Comments are closed.