9 September 2012

Atheism, feminism

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Over lunch recently, someone from the SSA was telling me about the minor schisms that have been cropping up between feminists and atheists. I don't follow the scene that closely, so I miss out on the drama. io9's got a good summary of the three most notable incidences from ReaderCon, The Amazing Meeting, and DefCon. Dawkins comes off looking the worst in the TAM aftermath. A shame. DefCon security staff creating a game to get conference-goer to coax women to show their tits was pretty awful too. The response--rugby penalty cards handed out to creepers--was perfect (Some of them proudly displayed the cards they'd been given on their name tags. "That's fine -- let them make themselves visible," KC said. "That way we know who to avoid.").

Nico Lang's got a great summary of the Kristen Stewart thing. Another scene I would not normally follow without the keen analysis. Chris Brown can publicly beat the hell out of his girlfriend but ... if you ever cheat on your boyfriend, your life is over and no one will ever want to be associated with you. And the way that young women are turning on her is almost too Lord of the Flies to be believable. (Although, I am tempted to get a "Kristen Stewart is a trampire" t-shirt for novelty reasons.)

I'm about to dive into My People's sacred texts (The God Delusion, God is Not Great, The End of Faith). I'd previously avoided them because there's only so much preaching a choir wants. Reading books five years after they're popular: I'm the bizarro hipster.

[ posted by sstrader on 9 September 2012 at 11:06:18 AM in Culture & Society | tagged io9 ]