(August 30, 2012 at 3:21 am)Vincenzo "Vinny" G. Wrote: So the REAL reason Atheism+ came about was because the women were feeling victimized. Some idiot did something stupid while drunk at a conference. Someone said "I'll rape you." in some Modern Warfare 2 lobby to some girl. Some internet trolls sent death threats. And women are now living in constant fear of being raped and murdered. Through Xbox microphones. Or something. And all of a sudden all of the atheist world is taking sides over this issue. My response is kinda two-fold over this whole thing.
1) Do all women really have it all that bad? Compared to everybody else?
2) Why are isolated incidents that happen to women just milked for weeks and months for the emotional drama?
3) Now I know on one side you will be white knights who truly see women today as worse off than pre-abolition African-Americans.
And there are others who see women as the privileged class.
Is there any common ground to be found here? Any compromise? Any attempt to at least see and understand the other point of view while disagreeing with it?
The egalitarian-ness (is that a word?) of a society is often linked with the privileges it allows women. Remember, women got the vote here in the US after former slaves did. Also, how well educated a person is correlates more closely to how well educated their mother is rather than their father. Which makes sense because women are often the primary caregivers for children.
Women in most western countries don't have it bad. Women in Afghanistan do. A lot depends on where a woman lives, and even what culture or sub-culture she operates in. That being said, women in western countries are subjected to more threats and harassment, stemming solely from their gender, than men are. Here in DC we recently had a string of gropings where a man would pull up on his bike, grab a woman's crotch, then pedal away. This kind of violation doesn't happen to men so much as women. Women are more likely to be physically violated, though newer stats are showing men are admitting to being physically violated (especially in childhood) in greater numbers. But I see this as contributing to an overall impression on the female cultural psyche that typically doesn't seem to present itself amongst males. For instance, when going out for an evening, I know that I've thought about the length of my skirt, kind of makeup I wear, how I fix my hair, etc. in relation to the amount of attention I want (or don't want) to deal with (both for good, desired attention, and in terms of unsolicited and unwanted attention). I don't think men typically go through that same process. I think on a conscious or unconscious level a lot of women understand that they could be violated. I think most women read a news article (like the aforementioned groping incidents) and realize that it could be anyone, both the victim and the perpetrator, and on some level they go on the defense. If a woman you know personally seems to dwell upon reports of women being physically violated, I would guess that it's likely she is coping with her own trauma. Current stats are 1 in 4 (and some are as high as 1 in 3) women have been physically violated, though many do not report such crimes.
Personally, I haven't had my feminist sensibilities stepped upon by atheist writings/views/whatnot. I don't see the sexes in terms of one being better than the other, nor being equal. Women have their strengths and men have others, and there is a lot of overlap. What I mean by this is men are typically attributed with higher scores in math and science, but that's not to say that women can't and don't excel in these fields. Similarly, some women are not very empathic, as is typically ascribed to their sex, whereas some men are very empathic. I view the sexes as complementary rather than at odds. But on the having babies front, women kick men's asses.
