The panel I did at Women in Secularism with Rebecca and Jen and Sikivu is now posted.
In case you look at it, just a note – I’m really not as furious and grim as I look, that’s just the way my face goes. In my head I’m actually as mostly-amused as Rebecca looks (and is).
I’m glad to see these talks and panels are becoming available to watch, and I’m looking forward to setting aside some time to watch this one. Thanks, Ophelia.
I am definitely looking at coming over (from Australian) for Women in Secularism 2013. Looking forward to watching these vids.
I’ve just spent 80 minutes, that I really should have spent doing something else, watching this. But I don’t regret it at all; it has given me a lot to think about.
I don’t know what it says about YouTube’s ad targeting algorithm, but as soon as the video finished, up popped an ad for a dating agency called “Atheist Lover UK.” I don’t think I’ve seen that before although I may be wrong.
I didn’t think you looked grim. It was a great talk.. one of my favorite from the conference.
“I am definitely looking at coming over (from Australian) for Women in Secularism 2013. Looking forward to watching these vids.”
Won’t need to travel that far, but it’s definitely on the top of my list of conferences I want to attend 🙂
A lot of good points in there. I recognise in particular the attitude that women are unrepresented in atheist circles because women are soft and atheism is hard, not because atheist circles are excluding or unwelcoming of women. All women have to do, accordingly, is put themselves forward.
Well, I think we’ve seen that atheist circles can be as excluding and unwelcoming of women as anywhere else in our still sexist society. And although the socialisation of women may indeed make some forms of atheism less appealing to women, the fact is that we are not proactive in trying to get women involved. You just have to ask, it’s not actually such a difficult procedure.
Of course, you might start out with a handful of women getting invited to everything, and that might be tiring for them. But you have to start somewhere, and their involvement will lead to more women listening, which will lead to more women participating, which will lead to more women getting active, which will lead to more women in leading positions, all of which will lead to more diversity and less pressure on the initial handful.
By the way, the sexist Labour MP is Tom Watson (not Harris), currently making a name for himself as the scourge of the Murdochs.
Oh, gawd, I kept getting his name wrong when blogging about that tweet, too – I had to go back and correct every mention. I’m a buffoon!
Ralph, you are a disgrace to all self respecting bongs: http://www.shivaheadshop.co.uk/shop/bongs/index.html
“Ralph” needs to watch “Thank You Hater!” again. (I’m sure he’s already seen it once, because it was everywhere yesterday, and “Ralph” is a very hip clued-in guy, plus it’s addressed to him.)
http://youtu.be/uz2jbCJXkpA
I finally got a chance to watch this and thought it was great, especially the back and forth between you (Ophelia) and Sikivu Hutchinson. Too bad the part you raised at the end about the erasure of women from mainstream entertainment couldn’t have been discussed more. Even in films or television series where there is more than one woman, I’ve noticed that usually the women talk only to the men or about the men or about romance with men. If it were only one or two films or TV series this applied to, it wouldn’t be a big deal, but the ones it doesn’t apply seem to be few and far between.