Atheism and misogyny

As an atheist, I find the idea of an 'atheist community' an odd one. I suppose it might make more sense in the US, where atheists might find they share more similar experiences. In the UK, I think atheists are too disparate to be described in any way as a community.

I think it is important, if you are an atheist, to consider if sexism and sexualisation of minors manifests itself in a particular way when combined with atheism. I don't know if that is the case with the awful response to this particular girl, or if it is just generic sexualisation of minors, but I think it is important to discuss if there is a particular atheist type of behaviour.

The assessment of the situation by most on this thread is that the reaction the girl got was revolting.

I;m not really sure where the argument is.

chibi "given that thread is 500 comments long"

2085 comments long, actually. I don't really rate your assessment of it if you can't even follow that.

SQ please stop telling me that I'm blaming the victim for getting rape threats because I'm not. Please stop telling me that I haven't condemned the rape posts when I have. Please stop telling me that I can't reply to posts made by other posters because it's off topic. Please stop suggesting that my explanations for why her post was badly framed in the context in which she posted is somehow condoning the responses. And please stop misreading my posts and putting words into my mouth.

i have read it thanks, noble.

funnily enough, i don't feel up to counting the precise number of shitty comments, and cross checking them against numbre of upvotes and downvotes recieved etc etc, given that thread is 500 comments long

maybe you could make a spreadsheet?

God it's like banging your head against a brick wall.

Noblegiraffe "I disagree that they were representative of atheists in any way." I AGREE

However please give it a rest with the victim blaming. It is simply GRIM.

I believe that the thread did point out that had she been a male, posting a photo would not have drawn comments on appearance or that misogynistic graphic of object and object posted by a female. And it is for this reason that it is sexist and should be addressed by all those striving for gender equality.

"They were misogynistic and sexist. And why this needs repeating ad nauseum is beyond my comprehension."

I don't know why you're repeating it, because no one disagrees that the comments were misogynistic and sexist.

I disagree that they were representative of atheists in any way.

Sounds like carelessness to me.

"how funny then that this seems to have been the majority of posts on that thread"

chibi, the majority of posts (the vast majority of posts) on that thread were not rape threats. Have you read it? Read it here

If sexism and misogyny are 'rife in atheist communities' and also rife in religious communities(according to other threads),and if one in four men are gay how did all my friends find decent men?

Dworkin, for the billionth time, it wasn't just posted to an atheist community, it was posted to potentially 25 million general internet users of unknown religious affiliation.

"NG so now you are seriously suggesting that the girl set out to elicit comments of a sexually explicit nature. Possibly including rapey ones."

No. I don't think she set out to elicit rapey comments. How many times do I need to say that rape threats would not nor should not be the expected response hmm?

I don't know whether she set out to elicit comments relating to her attractiveness. Probably not, is my reckoning. If she was a regular user of reddit, she should have known her photo was likely to get personal comments, but as I said she is 15 and could just be naive.

NG so now you are seriously suggesting that the girl set out to elicit comments of a sexually explicit nature. Possibly including rapey ones.

Really? I mean, really?

"No, they were talking about how sexist men who are athiests thought processes might work."

I don't think I ever said that anyone was arguing that all atheists are sexists. I was arguing against the idea that their atheism and sexism are somehow connected, and that misogyny is a particular problem in the atheist community, because it's an atheist community.

Like I said, I have read plenty of atheist literature and never seen anything making any connection. I believe that atheist misogynists are misogynists who just also happen to be atheist and that the two have nothing to do with each other.

like, for instance, i think certain posters on this thread have some pretty spurious arguments

i have not threatened, jokingly or otrherwise, to violate their bodily integrity

it was fairly easy to avoid, doing so tbh

there are a million ways in which they could have taken the piss out of her or mocked her had they not thought her serious or worthy of engaging with her in good faith which would not have involved making rape threats about her

how funny then that this seems to have been the majority of posts on that thread

"But she was merely posting an innocent thread about a book she got from her mum and was only after a discussion about atheism, wasn't she?"

How would you tell? How could you tell the difference between a troll posting a WOHM thread and an innocent poster not seeking to stir up a spat?

Given that she is only 15, it is possible that she was merely naive. Btw, she did know about karma whoring, she mentioned it in a post.

"Which isn't without reservation. "

No, you're (deliberately?) misreading my posts. I have unreservedly many times condemned the rape threats. But other comments that were not strictly on the topic of atheism are a different matter.

So what if some of her comments may have been open to being misconstrued, she is a child and no one deserves to have those disgusting comments targeted at them. She didn't post on a dating site, she posted in what she believed to be a forum discussing serious matters. I do not believe how she could have expected such responses.

The only people in the wrong here were the posters of the violently misogynistic remarks and they should be unreservedly pulled up on them.

i don't think there is a link between atheism and misogyny

i do think that our culture is on the whole endemically misogynist, and that any community therein whether atheist or otherwise will exemplify this

i would have been as unsurprised to see these comments on an atheist thread as i would on any other. the precise nature of the comments might change, but the misogyny would be the same

No, they were talking about how sexist men who are athiests thought processes might work.

You can tell because they kept saying "lots of" rather than "all".

How stupid do you think dworkin and forkful are that they would take that thread to conclude that absolutely every male athiest in the world is a sexist who likes to spout rape fantasies at underage girls. I mean just FGS.

"NG not when no-one on the thread is making that link, no."

That's funny, because those comments that I copied and pasted into my post above making the link between atheism and sexism sure seemed to look like it. Male atheists take their cues from biological determinism, the logical extension of evolution, male atheists have a scientific background and know the cause and effect of controlling women. Do you not think there is even a hint there of 'atheism and sexism are linked'?