Buzzfeed published a lengthy article on Friday discussing misogyny in the atheist/skeptic/freethought movement. In it, writer Mark Oppenheimer interviews notable members of the movement, such as Amy Davis Roth, Penn Jillette, PZ Myers, Rebecca Watson, and Michael Shermer. The article revealed that the anonymous woman accusing Shermer of rape in PZ Myers’ infamous Pharyngula post ‘What do you do when someone pulls the pin and hands you a grenade?’ was Allison Smith. In that thread, Myers relates that he was asked by Smith to tell the story of how Michael Shermer plied her with alcohol and raped her:
At a conference, Mr. Shermer coerced me into a position where I could not consent, and then had sex with me. I can’t give more details than that, as it would reveal my identity, and I am very scared that he will come after me in some way. But I wanted to share this story in case it helps anyone else ward off a similar situation from happening. I reached out to one organization that was involved in the event at which I was raped, and they refused to take my concerns seriously. Ever since, I’ve heard stories about him doing things (5 different people have directly told me they did the same to them) and wanted to just say something and warn people, and I didn’t know how. I hope this protects someone.
At the time, it was unknown that Allison Smith was the woman who made the rape allegations. She asked PZ to keep her identity secret and he respected that. She merely wanted her story to be told. PZ says:
She’s torn up about it. It’s been a few years, so no law agency is going to do anything about it now; she reported it to an organization at the time, and it was dismissed. Swept under the rug. Ignored. I can imagine her sense of futility. She’s also afraid that the person who assaulted her before could try to hurt her again.
But at the same time, she doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else, so she’d like to get the word out there. So she hands the information to me. Oh, thanks.
The thread exploded. Fast. As of this writing, it’s sitting at over 4,000 comments. It was a powerful thread that grew from discussing the horrible actions of Michael Shermer and expressing support for the then-unknown Allison Smith, to multiple commenters relating the stories of their sexual assault and rape. Sadly, the thread was also filled with defenders of Shermer, people who denied Smith’s rape, people who accused PZ of trying to start drama, and people who demonstrated no understanding of Rape Culture. I know all this. I was there, for much of that emotionally exhausting thread. It seemed like there was constantly someone calling PZ an asshole for believing Allison. There were people whining that she should have gone to the police (never mind that the police often don’t believe rape victims, nor did Allison express a desire to go to the police). There were blatant sexist and misogynistic comments galore. It was a draining thread. And I’m someone who has never been raped or sexually assaulted. I know for a fact that it was triggering for many people, because people stated that in the thread. In case after case though, despite being triggered, many of these people continued to speak up in support of Smith (referred to as Jane Doe throughout the thread) and other rape survivors. These people refused to do that which PZ’s detractors wanted them to do: shut up. They refused to be silenced, and stuck with the thread and pushed back against the tide of misogynist assholes.