Maybe People Should Not Look Up To YouTube Atheist

[Psykhronic]

Now I think we're finding real common ground here.

Yes, I think gamer culture has misogyny in it, no doubt. I've heard it thrown at me a time or two when I'm playing World of Warcraft and I've had other geek/gamers who are actually really surprised that I'm a girl gamer and I'm pretty good (I kinda like that, though, because it makes it so much more satisifying to beat them).

But I also think there's certain feminists who have a bad habit of making misogyny where no misogyny actually exists and this is a problem... and it should be seen as a problem to other feminists. Specifically, it starts to turn into a boy who cried wolf thing. If they call eveyrthing misogyny, people are going to start dismissing them whenever they talk about misogyny. When that happens and real misogyny rears its ugly head, nobody is listening to them so it's kinda hard to do something about it.

Ohhh I get that satisfactory feeling, even though I do not identify as a woman, I dont want to constantly explain nullgender to people online so I say 'my sex is female'. Beating people up after that does feel so good if it's not expected and then some people are just like 'lol cool' which makes me go 'aaaawwww yay'.

There are definitely blurred lines with misogyny as well, and you are right that feminists should evaluate and ensure that something is truly misogynistic. Yeah I think we definitely found common ground. I am also very happy that this did not turn into some ugly argument, which with these topics there is a tendency to happen.

[NoraBrimstone]

This is the thread with the video I was talking about: http://atheistforums.org/thread-21040.html?

[TaraJo]

This is the thread with the video I was talking about: http://atheistforums.org/thread-21040.html?

Yeah, saw it. It does bring up some interesting subject matter that it would be interesting to talk about in a level and reasonable discussion, but it's so difficult.

Can people take steps to avoid being raped? Absolutely. It's why I don't go to parties with people I barely know and get wasted. It's why I try to stay aware of my surroundings. It's why I try to associate myself with fairly stable people. And it seems to have worked since I haven't really been the victim of rape (unless you're going to expand and dilute the definition of 'rape,' under which circumstances it goes into the boy crying wolf territory again).

And, yet, if ever I were to mention one of these things that could be done to avoid being raped, I'm accused of vicim blaming or that I'm saying the victim deserved it.

I had a friend a few years ago who liked to go to the bar on Friday and/or Saturday nights, dance, party and get drunk. She always went there alone and she didn't keep an eye on her drink. Eventually she was drugged and raped. No, she didn't deserve it, but afterwards, she continued to go to the same bars, she continue to go alone and she still didn't keep an eye on her drink. It wouldn't have been victim blaming for me to point out the things she could do to keep herself safe; in fact, I would be a terrible friend if I didn't poin those things out in an effort to keep her safe.

[Bad Wolf]

I've only watched 4 minutes of the video and I already think, Nora, that saying he thinks women deserve to get raped is wrong. You have taken that too far. I agree with him so far. He is basically saying, bad people exist, bad people do bad things, you need to protect yourself from bad people. Just telling bad people to stop doing their bad things doesn't work.
Do you blame a person for getting robbed? Of course not, but if they left all their doors and windows open and left the house, well then you become a bit less sympathetic towards them. You still aren't blaming them for getting robbed, its totally the thieves fault, but thieves are going to steal, everyone surely knows that.

[EgoRaptor]

I used to love Thunderf00t till he turned out to be a misogynistic cunt who thinks women deserve to be raped.

I'd love to know where he said that. All he said was women can take precautions to avoid rape, the same way people can take precautions to avoid theft & mugging. Go back to tumblr!

[Bad Wolf]

Yea sorry Nora but I just watched the whole video and, I think you are just being irrational and have completely missed the point of the video. How much of it did you watch? I think you need to watch all 18 minutes.

[EgoRaptor]

Also, I personally watch & enjoy both TJ & Thunderf00t.

[TaraJo]

I will say that Thunderf00t has gotten annoying, though. I mean, before, when he was mostly about science and refuting creationists, he was great, but ever since he was kicked off Freethought Blogs, most of his vids are about attacking feminism. Since that whole thing came up, he seems to have made 70 videos. I don't think he made any on gender issues before that. Since then, he's had 19 videos about it in just a little over a year. It's a little frustrating; I'll still watch when he goes into science and refuting creationists and/or fundamentalist Christians, but listening to him whine about more and more batshit crazy feminits are worth dismissing.

[Psykhronic]

@Marx, Why should these precautions only apply to women? Why are we focusing the burden of rape onto women?


I will never blame a victim of rape for their rape. Ever. I think we do need to address why rape occurs more so than tell victims to be careful. But a few tips to be safe are alright, provided nobody will blame the victim for the existence of rapists. And provided these safety tips actually make sense.


And when most rapes occur with those who are acquaintances or have some relationship to the victim, how can we possibly expect safety tips alone to do shit about that? How does anyone avoid building relationships and acquaintances?

[Bad Wolf]

As it said near the end of the video, you can take every precaution against being raped and yet still be raped, all it does is lower the probability. The fact that we are all going to have to live with is that rapists exist and always will and there is nothing we can do to stop that. Its like shouting: DON'T TELL ME NOT TO APPROACH A WILD LION, TEACH ALL WILD LIONS NOT TO KILL PEOPLE.