I’m glad I never had atheist heroes

If I had, and they went by the name of Richard Dawkins or Michael Shermer, I’d be deeply disgusted with them.  Oh, wait, there’s another name to add to that:  Sam Harris.

I also asked Harris at the event why the vast majority of atheists — and many of those who buy his books — are male, a topic which has prompted some to raise questions of sexism in the atheist community. Harris’ answer was both silly and then provocative.

It can only be attributed to my “overwhelming lack of sex appeal,” he said to huge laughter.

“I think it may have to do with my person slant as an author, being very critical of bad ideas. This can sound very angry to people..People just don’t like to have their ideas criticized. There’s something about that critical posture that is to some degree instrinsically male and more attractive to guys than to women,” he said. “The atheist variable just has this – it doesn’t obviously have this nurturing, coherence-building extra estrogen vibe that you would want by default if you wanted to attract as many women as men.”

Atheism-it’s more of a guy thing (reminds me of Shermer’s comments a while back).  No Sam Harris, atheism isn’t a guy thing. It isn’t a masculine thing.  Having a “critical posture”-whatever the fuck that is-isn’t something intrinsic to men that women lack.  Hell, critical posture-or what he more than likely means, critical thinking– in general is something everyone has to work at. I’d hardly say it’s intrinsic to anyone.  It’s a tool that has to be learned and honed.  Atheism, like “critical posture”, doesn’t have a testosterone vibe, as you seem to think it does and it’s both insulting and deeply sexist to claim otherwise.  What about all the women out there who are atheists and are good at critical thinking?  Do they count for nothing?  Are they of no value to you?  If they are atheists-and generally I take women at their word when they self-identify-what does that say about your belief that atheism is more attractive to men?

But wait, there’s more:  Harris is a believer in gender essentialist bullshit.  Women aren’t inherently nurturing. They’re reared in a society that pushes that as a virtue for them.  Moreover, men can be and often are, nurturing as well.  Men and women are not as different as Harris seems to think:

Physical strength between men and women using data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s long jump, high jump, and javelin throw competitions shows distinct differences between the sexes. Assertiveness as based on self-reported measures of competitiveness, decisiveness, sense of superiority, persistence, confidence, and the ability to stand up under pressure does not show the same gender gap.

For 122 different characteristics, from empathy to sexuality to science inclination to extroversion, a statistical analysis of 13,301 individuals did not reveal any distinct differences between men and women.

Gender can be a predictor for stereotypic activities like scrapbooking or boxing, but men and women don’t think about their relationships in “qualitatively different” ways, no matter what self-help books like Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus may claim.

While there are average differences between the sexes, they aren’t consistent enough to accurately characterize the entire group. Just because a man or woman fits into one stereotype for their gender doesn’t mean they will fit into another.

“The possession of traits associated with gender is not as simple as ‘this or that'” the authors write.

I’d also criticize the writer of this piece, Michelle Boorstein, for asking the question in the first place. Perhaps the public face of the atheist movement is largely male, but atheists in general?  Does Boorstein have evidence of that, or was she making an assumption?  I suspect the latter.  If so, you know what assuming does…

****

Update:

It seems I was right to question whether or not the vast majority of atheists are men.  It turns out they’re not.  Over at Greta Christina’s blog, she reveals some interesting information:

According to the WIN-Gallup International “Global Index of Religiosity and Atheism 2012,” August 6, 2012 (PDF, Table 8, page 20 of 25), when asked, “Irrespective of whether you attend a place of worship or not, would you say you are a religious person, not a religious person or a convinced atheist?”, 60% of men and 57% of women said “A religious person.” 23% of men and 23% of women said, “Not a religious person.” 12% of men and 14% of women said “A convinced atheist.” (“Don’t know/no response” got 5% from men and 6% from women.)

{advertisement}
I’m glad I never had atheist heroes
{advertisement}

One thought on “I’m glad I never had atheist heroes

Comments are closed.