I had a English professor who liked to say, if it is longer than it is wide, it’s a phallic symbol. He was speaking in terms of literature and art, but there are no shortage of people who will argue how man-centred the world is, and not in the good way. They have a point.
CFI had their ‘Women in Secularism’ conference this past weekend.
I didn’t go.(I had a family get-together to attend)
Neither did PZ. (He was busy at another conference) …but his ‘daughter-spawn’ did attend.
So if you missed it, she summarizes well.(Although the whole blacklisting idea worries me, regardless of the intent.)
I have to admit, even without the family event, I was probably going to skip it. While I do often find myself sympathetic to women’s issues, I tend to be more trouble than I am worth at such events. It bothered me, for instance, that no men were asked to speak. That sets a very bad precedent in my book. It may seem like a small thing, a corrective measure even, by some standards. But as someone who has spent a few years in the secular movement, and argued pretty consistently for minority and women to be included in conferences, as speakers, it sorta takes the wind out of my ‘be inclusive’ arguments. I know, poor me, rough life. I’m way too sensitive.
This is, more generally, my problem with modern feminism. It seems, at least to my phallocentric brain, that a lot of feminism(especially online) has become not so much about ‘equality’, but rather about promoting and protecting women, period. That whole tribal mindset. This is problematic for me, because although I understand the motivation behind it, that whole way of thinking tends to frame evil-menz as the obstacle to be overcome. As with atheism, there are lots of things even rational people are going to disagree on. Politics, Religion and Sex, are always the hot-buttons. Even if someone wants to claim I’m an ignorant clod(see you all later in the comments), good teachers listen to their students. Preaching to the choir is much easier of course, but it generally doesn’t get you very far. (Unless you really like choir-boys, but I digress)
I should note, I’m not generally a supporter of MRAs, as they tend to have that same confrontational attitude that just puts everyone in troll-battle-mode. And battle-mode just gets them the misogynist label, and righteously ignored, and many deserve to be. I do think men have an essential contribution to make to any serious discussion of gender/sex, but as with any good conversation, it needs to be an exchange. Atheists might like lectures, but very few like being lectured to. So it goes.