Atheism and misogyny

Indeed. Look at the science section of Reddit, isn't it dreadful?

Oh no, it's actually a regularly updated collection of the most fascinating science stories from around the world.

Judging reddit from the actions of some utter tosspots who comment on it is like judging the whole internet as horrible because there is some objectionable content. Even the Skepchick article reinforces that some parts of reddit are great.

Btw, before you start, karma whoring takes many forms and men do it too.

Why should I provide a link that gives an example of atheist misogyny on reddit? Eh? Is that not your job since you started the Atheism and Misogyny thread?

Perhaps you need to understand that on reddit, it is not uncommon for women to post pictures of themselves with a cute cat or geeky t-shirt or whatever ostensibly to show off the cat or shirt but actually to entice comments as to their attractiveness and upvotes for this reason. It is part of something called karma whoring. So if a pretty girl posts a picture of herself with a geeky book and in the comments refers to her anus, it would not be surprising if posters replied with banter that was not a serious philosophical discussion of her Carl Sagan book. Not justifying the posts on that thread in any way - reddit has some horrifically misogynistic content.

Dworkin, one of your links contains the words 'the wrong response'!

I'm not attempting a derail. I am attempting to point out that this particular reddit thread should not be used as an example of atheist misogyny given the massive audience of potential contributors.

Seriously, being told that your response isn't the correct one is one of the things people keep complaining about when talking about the Mumsnet feminism section.

Shall I repeat myself?

Not justifying the posts on that thread in any way - reddit has some horrifically misogynistic content

forkful, I am not saying that there aren't misogynistic atheists at all. What I am saying is that saying that that thread makes you hate atheists in general is unfair.

It would be like starting a thread on Mumsnet feminism, having that thread (beyond your control) cross-posted to AIBU and Chat and their much wider audience, then having some offensive crap posted on your thread and writing a blog post 'Mumsnet makes me hate feminists'.

It wouldn't be unheard of, tbh alwayswild. Reddit has a very very large audience. Some of them have a very strange sense of humour, some of them are plain weird, some of them go out of their way to be offensive....and some of them are gay.

A shame that skepchick decided to make her whole post a downer on atheists (when, as I said previously, the post probably made the front page of reddit and thus had a far wider audience).

So to noblegiraffe -presumably some of the responses on the skepchick blog are also not evidence of misogynist athiests either as we can't guarantee they are athiest.

I guess Rebecca knows who here regular commenters are and whether they are athiests or not and if she says there is a big problem then I believe her.

Have you looked at the youtube video noblegiraffe? Vague sense of deja vu now re the thread on AIBU re misogynist attacks on female bloggers

Any context? Really? You think if a man had made a reference to his anus the other men on there would want to talk about fucking him?

Dworkin, I said that there was no justification for the comments she received, just that referencing her anus wasn't helpful in encouraging serious replies. It is exactly the sort of thing that redditors would pick up and run with in any context.

Here is the 15 year old girl's response thread to the furore:
"Many people have messaged me apologizing for the creepy/sexual comments I received. Many others messaged me claiming I deserved them for saying "bracin' mah anus", which they thought was the green light for getting hit on. I just wanted to say a few things.
First of all, I want to say thanks to the people who were concerned about me and how I felt about r/atheism after the whole incident. I haven't lost my faith in all atheists (oh the irony!) but I did learn a little about how reddit and other websites work. As a girl, it's difficult sometimes. People assume things. They think I'm unintelligent, shallow, or desperate for attention. I got a lot of people voicing that to me after I made the post, including one of my friends in real life. One thing I want to clear up is that the intention of the post wasn't to get attention for being pretty. That wasn't even remotely it. The picture was originally intended for facebook, showing me smiling with a Sagan book my religious mother bought me for Christmas. Browsing reddit, the idea came across to me that it would be a touching thing to post, in light of the holiday season. A tale of an accepting mother and her daughter, perfect right? Apparently not.
Secondly, I can sort of understand why saying "bracin' mah anus" could have been construed sexually, especially with the comments surrounding it. When I orignally wrote that however, there were only a few comments on the post, and none of them had gotten sexual yet. I said it as a funny alternative to bracing myself (I'm fifteen. Saying anus is hilarious.) I can be a serious person, but most of the time I like to joke around. When the comments started to get more personal, like "what are you doing later", I replied with "hanging out with my boyfriend :D", the purpose to assuage the comments regarding me and my appearance . I'm in a really wonderful relationship but that's besides the point. When they replied with "WRONG ANSWER" I jokingly said something about being naked and single in a penthouse. People started to get sexual, and I think I can understand why, but what I don't understand why they would when I had just said I had a boyfriend, and the penthouse comment was obviously sarcastic.
A major topic of controversy was the fact I posted my face. I'm sorry I didn't realize I should have to wear a burka on r/atheism. That is all. Thanks for reading!
tl;dr: read the post you lazy bum"

She seems to have dealt with it rather well. A shame that skepchick decided to make her whole post a downer on atheists (when, as I said previously, the post probably made the front page of reddit and thus had a far wider audience) without making any comment on how well and articulately the 15 year old has dealt with it.

It's just utterly depressing really isn't it.

Well some wanted to fuck her and some wanted to rape her.

But then if she's 15 and doesn't know them then it amounts to the same thing.

She just wanted to have a conversation about religion / philosohpy / athiesm and was met with that. What were they thinking? Well we know what they were thinking, and giving a flying fuck about how a 15yo girl might feel being on the receiving end of all that wasn't it.

And even if she had said something sexual, she is 15. Is it OK for men to post things at underage girls even if the girls are joining in in the same vein? What do ceop think?

Basically this was hundreds of men saying they wanted to rape her and they knew she was only 15 - there isn't any excuse for that at all.

Is that not slang for something, rather than a sexual reference? The people commenting at the end seemed to think so, I admit that I am not personally au fait with internet slang amongst teens.

On the comments at the end someone said that if a teenage boy wrote "well fuck me" would that unleash a torrent of graphic / aggressive sexual comments?

The people posting on that thread weren't necessarily atheists. Popular reddit/atheism posts are also posted to the front page of reddit which opens them to a massive and non-specific internet audience.

Not justifying the posts on that thread in any way - reddit has some horrifically misogynistic content, but the post she made referencing her anus wasn't helpful in encouraging serious replies.