Sunday, August 26, 2012

Sexual Harassment in the (Atheist) Workspace

With all apologies to Frank Zappa.

The big deal in online Atheism of late is the issue of sexual harassment at various atheist cons and the emerging idea of Atheism+ or A+.

It all got started with this post by Jen/Blag-Hag:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/08/how-i-unwittingly-infiltrated-the-boys-club-why-its-time-for-a-new-wave-of-atheism/

Fellow Game Designer and Atheist Jeff Dee sums it up from how he sees it on his blog:
http://wwjdee.blogspot.com/2012/07/sexual-harassment-amongst-unbelievers.html

Here is the issue I have with Atheism+.  I am not sure how it is different than what I am already doing.
I have never been a "super activist" but I have always taken a stand on what I thought was right against those in power (or otherwise).  Most recently my activism was mostly on raising awareness on various cliches portrayed in the media and advocating same-sex marriage. For me all of this and my atheism come from the same place. It is all about the same thing; "People are more important than imaginary gods".

Why then am I not a Secular Humanist? I suppose I am, but for me, right now, my atheism comes first.

But it seems, painfully, that I am a rare minority, or at least part of a very silent majority.
http://freethoughtblogs.com/greta/2012/08/24/mencallmethings-fuckin-hoe-fuckin-feminazi-slut/

A non-sexual-harassment reasoning to support A+
http://www.atheistrev.com/2012/08/threatening-others-cannot-be-tolerated.html

Lots of reactions linked and listed here:
http://www.atheistrev.com/2012/08/reactions-to-atheism.html

I will continue to monitor this, but I am not likely to change what I have been doing all these years.  I guess I was just ahead of the curve.

1 comment:

  1. Well. I am not an atheist, neither I am an attorney on sexual harassment and I am a little confused of what you were trying to point out. However, I must say that I know a little thing that is why I can't see the relationship about this issue on harassment with being an atheist. Your article still makes good sense.

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