As the accusations of skeptical sexism start flying left and right, the rift between skeptics begins to grow. Emotions run high, people accuse each other of bigotry, and the apologists attempt their ill-fated defenses. If there's one thing that sends my skeptical alarm into red alert, its an emotionally charged argument. That's not to say that I'm dismissive of emotions like some sort of transmuted, real-life Spock like character. Obviously emotions are real, we all have them, and its a big part of what makes us human. The issue I take is when emotions are high, rationality and skeptical thought begins to crumble. This is understandably true when accusations of sexual harassment start being thrown. As with all things, I think its important to never think simplistically about any issue, to hear all the arguments from every side and absorb every piece of information you can absorb. Everyone is quickly taking sides, decrying injustice from either party.
I think its imperative to recognize a very important thing about our society at large before branding all skeptics as sexist pigs, which I've begun to hear from many people from within and outside the skeptic community. We live in a patriarchal society. Human culture has trained men and women to behave in certain ways for certain reasons and undoubtedly women have been given the shorter end of the stick over and over again (and a large portion of that reason belongs to organized religion). The reasons for this are many and I encourage you to explore the literature yourself, even to challenge this assessment. This absolutely needs to be rectified and I believe a secular humanist viewpoint/ideology should—rather must—include a feminist ideology. And this is why this rift is so fraught with emotion in addition to the horrendous nature of the allegations. How could secular humanists be sexually harassing women? The statement itself is a simplistic ad hominem against an exceedingly complex group of emotional, unbelievably diverse organization of humans. The answer can be somewhat reduced: we live in a patriarchal society. Inequality breeds sexism. We are a group existing within said patriarchal society, where men are commonly taught by society that women are sexual objects and nothing more. We're bombarded with sexual ads, pornography, a sexual superiority complex handed down to us from our bible-thumping fore bearers and note my intention is not to simply say, "Oh us poor men, we're just trained to act this way!" I'm merely attempting to place sexual harassment in its societal context and to examine the source of this abhorrent human behavior. Although our group premises make sexual harassment exceedingly hypocritical, it will undoubtedly happen (although I wish it very much to be eliminated). We are humans. We are inherently hypocritical. We make mistakes. What makes us the supposedly higher-level of primate that many skeptics, freethinkers, atheists, secular humanists think we are is how we learn from them.
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I think its imperative to recognize a very important thing about our society at large before branding all skeptics as sexist pigs, which I've begun to hear from many people from within and outside the skeptic community. We live in a patriarchal society. Human culture has trained men and women to behave in certain ways for certain reasons and undoubtedly women have been given the shorter end of the stick over and over again (and a large portion of that reason belongs to organized religion). The reasons for this are many and I encourage you to explore the literature yourself, even to challenge this assessment. This absolutely needs to be rectified and I believe a secular humanist viewpoint/ideology should—rather must—include a feminist ideology. And this is why this rift is so fraught with emotion in addition to the horrendous nature of the allegations. How could secular humanists be sexually harassing women? The statement itself is a simplistic ad hominem against an exceedingly complex group of emotional, unbelievably diverse organization of humans. The answer can be somewhat reduced: we live in a patriarchal society. Inequality breeds sexism. We are a group existing within said patriarchal society, where men are commonly taught by society that women are sexual objects and nothing more. We're bombarded with sexual ads, pornography, a sexual superiority complex handed down to us from our bible-thumping fore bearers and note my intention is not to simply say, "Oh us poor men, we're just trained to act this way!" I'm merely attempting to place sexual harassment in its societal context and to examine the source of this abhorrent human behavior. Although our group premises make sexual harassment exceedingly hypocritical, it will undoubtedly happen (although I wish it very much to be eliminated). We are humans. We are inherently hypocritical. We make mistakes. What makes us the supposedly higher-level of primate that many skeptics, freethinkers, atheists, secular humanists think we are is how we learn from them.
AUDIO ONLY (MP3)
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