Atheists turning to cult behaviour?

[Jenny A]

I've been puzzling over this thread all morning. Mostly because I have mixed feelings about it.

I don't find sexism or homophobia on this forum, particularly not perpetrated by atheists. And I don't see it watching the Atheist Experience. And I don't find anything anti-feminist in Dawkins' books and he is outspoken about genital mutilation of women (hint--he's against it).

I'm sure on the other hand that Watkins experiences are real. Most skeptic groups are predominately male. If you go there as a woman and begin to preach about not making sexist comments, there will be a backlash from the type of guy who makes sexist comments. And there's certainly some ugly stuff out there.

One of Watkins blog entries shows screen shots from Reddit of atheism male comments about a teen age atheist girl who posted a picture of herself with a Carl Sagan book. http://skepchick.org/2011/12/reddit-make...-atheists/ And yes the comments are appalling.

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And no, I don't think the girl did anything to provoke such comments. BUT, I think this has to do more with on-line culture than atheism. I've heard similar complaints from women posting on auto-restoration forums too. And I've seen the comments and they are equally bad. Yes, something should be said. No, it doesn't have to do with atheism or auto-restoration. It has to do with on-line culture.

I will add that I spent most of my working and school life in predominately male groups. Yes, I did get propositioned from time to time, but then if you are the only women in a group of 30 men it goes with the territory. What I didn't feel was threatened. The internet allows some cowardly sexists to threaten in a way they would not in person. It's the internet.