Rationalizing

on

I am back to columnizing while I panic about the big move. Reminding myself: break it down, do it little by little, stop looking at the enormity of it all! Applies to both subjects, I suppose. Sigh.

Atheists, Rationalists & Rape

By K. A. Laity


The “rational answer” depends entirely upon your starting point.

While most of the hubbub on both sides of the pond focuses on various egregious examples of tabloid mayhem (depending on whether you hate Nancy Grace or Rupert Murdoch more), there’s been a smaller but just as shocking story developing in the rational (not necessarily to distinguish it from tabloid) world.

At a student leadership conference where she had been invited to talk about the religious Right’s War on Women,“Skepchick” blogger Rebecca Watson had an unpleasant encounter:

You may recall that last week I posted this video, in which I describe an unpleasant encounter I had with a fellow atheist that I thought might serve as a good example of what men in our community should strive to avoid – basically, in an elevator in Dublin at 4AM I was invited back to the hotel room of a man I had never spoken to before and who was present to hear me say that I was exhausted and wanted to go to bed.

 What she was unprepared for was an atheist community—both men and women—who dismissed her discomfort with an unsolicited sexual comment and accused her of everything from outlawing sexuality to “constantly” telling men ” how sexist and destructive they are”…

Read the rest at BBHQ.