There was an event on feminism at the university last night featuring Milo Yiannopoulos and Christina Hoff Sommers. It was free. I went. I tweeted. I Storified, with additional information. Storify included below the fold. If it doesn’t load properly for you, you can read it here.
Stephanie Zvan is one of the hosts for the Minnesota Atheists' radio show and podcast, Atheists Talk. She serves on the board of Secular Woman. She speaks on science and skepticism in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions.
Stephanie has been called a science blogger and a sex blogger, but if it means she has to choose just one thing to be or blog about, she's decided she's never going to grow up. In addition to science and sex and the science of sex, you'll find quite a bit of politics here, some economics, a regular short fiction feature, and the occasional bit of concentrated weird.
Oh, and arguments. She sometimes indulges in those as well. But I'm sure everything will be just fine. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.
You do understand you just told me you like Hoff Sommers better because she makes contradictory arguments and hides evidence that undercuts her point, right? But you have fun with Werleman.
Feminists who ask for–or provide–accommodations for rape survivors with PTSD are really just saying that no women can handle anything tough in the world.
Fuck that shit.
I’m an abuse victim. I worked hard through that shit, worked hard in therapy while finally getting that damn degree. I’m much tougher than anything CHS and Milo will ever see.
Re “manslamming”: When I was in the US, I would often play what I called “sidewalk chicken,” which is pretty much the same thing. But you don’t play by barging down the center of a sidewalk and expecting people to cede the entire thing to you. You start by moving far enough to one side so that if the person coming at you down the center of a sidewalk moves the same amount you can pass safely, if uncomfortably closely. If they move away more, you reciprocate and give each other more space. But if they don’t move an equal distance and continue on like they expect you to cede them the entire sidewalk, you’ll end up checking them with your shoulder. (Obviously, you don’t try to do this with people who might be taking up more space because of disability.)
So at least the way I play, it’s not actually some unreasonable invasion of other people’s space. In fact, it’s not really “playing” anything. You merely invite the other person to respect your right to an equal share of public space but refuse to back down if they don’t. Not backing down shouldn’t have to be a game or experiment because giving up extra space isn’t something that should be expected of women in the first place.
RE: PTSD, Trigger Warnings, and Special Snowflakes
The way I see it, my asking for a heads-up on potentially triggery matters in class wasn’t just for or about me.
Sure, it helps me by letting me know to be prepared ahead of time with coping strategies and have an escape plan in place if I need to do a runner. It also helps the other students, as a freak-out on my part is going to disrupt the education that they’re also paying for.
Better that I sneak out and miss five minutes than fuck up everybody’s class-time because I’m panicking hard.
+WMDKitty what would be an example of a potentially triggery topic that would come up in an academic setting? Can you give me an example of what a trigger warning might be that could be helpful for students?
Thank you
Stephanie — Thank you! I don’t mind answering, though.
TAPP — I’m a survivor of domestic violence, and I was taking paralegal courses. Sometimes DV stuff would come up in class. Specifically, I couldn’t handle reading sample reports of assaults.
While I haven’t read any of Christina Hoff Sommers’ books yet, she seems to be to feminism what C.J. Werleman is to atheism (minus the plagiarism).
Hmm. Interesting comparison. I’d say she’s a lot more careful in what she says, though. Of course, as a woman, she has to be.
Five in six people attending were women? That seems a bit off.
Yep. I was working hard enough to estimate the numbers, I forgot to pay attention to the wording. Thanks. Fixed.
You nailed it. I love CHS even more now. Thanks for the heads up about C.J. Werleman, I expect I will enjoy him as well.
–TAPP
You do understand you just told me you like Hoff Sommers better because she makes contradictory arguments and hides evidence that undercuts her point, right? But you have fun with Werleman.
Fuck that shit.
I’m an abuse victim. I worked hard through that shit, worked hard in therapy while finally getting that damn degree. I’m much tougher than anything CHS and Milo will ever see.
Re “manslamming”: When I was in the US, I would often play what I called “sidewalk chicken,” which is pretty much the same thing. But you don’t play by barging down the center of a sidewalk and expecting people to cede the entire thing to you. You start by moving far enough to one side so that if the person coming at you down the center of a sidewalk moves the same amount you can pass safely, if uncomfortably closely. If they move away more, you reciprocate and give each other more space. But if they don’t move an equal distance and continue on like they expect you to cede them the entire sidewalk, you’ll end up checking them with your shoulder. (Obviously, you don’t try to do this with people who might be taking up more space because of disability.)
So at least the way I play, it’s not actually some unreasonable invasion of other people’s space. In fact, it’s not really “playing” anything. You merely invite the other person to respect your right to an equal share of public space but refuse to back down if they don’t. Not backing down shouldn’t have to be a game or experiment because giving up extra space isn’t something that should be expected of women in the first place.
RE: PTSD, Trigger Warnings, and Special Snowflakes
The way I see it, my asking for a heads-up on potentially triggery matters in class wasn’t just for or about me.
Sure, it helps me by letting me know to be prepared ahead of time with coping strategies and have an escape plan in place if I need to do a runner. It also helps the other students, as a freak-out on my part is going to disrupt the education that they’re also paying for.
Better that I sneak out and miss five minutes than fuck up everybody’s class-time because I’m panicking hard.
“Calm down!”? Shouldn’t that be “Calm down, dear.”?
Incidentally, is “based” pronounced baysd og bay-sed?
+WMDKitty what would be an example of a potentially triggery topic that would come up in an academic setting? Can you give me an example of what a trigger warning might be that could be helpful for students?
Thank you
–TAPP
You have a resource for trigger warnings in this very post. Try it.
Stephanie — Thank you! I don’t mind answering, though.
TAPP — I’m a survivor of domestic violence, and I was taking paralegal courses. Sometimes DV stuff would come up in class. Specifically, I couldn’t handle reading sample reports of assaults.