FtB conversation

The latest controversy to embroil freethoughtblogs is over the James Randi Educational Foundation's big yearly meeting, The Amazing Meeting, or TAM for short. After DJ Grothe, the president of the JREF, announced his concern that, despite the fact that he'd done a fine job of making the roster of speakers well balanced, at roughly half and half men and women, the registration of women in the meeting was significantly down from last year. What to do? Well, he could have asked big boosters of TAM, like Skepchick and Freethoughtblogs, to rally together and help get more women involved, as Skepchick has done every year. Instead, in a bizarre twist, he basically accused Rebecca Watson and a certain blog network, ours, of scaring women away with our horrible stories of sexual harassment. He also denied that sexual harassment had ever occurred, a story that has been steadily unraveling over the last few weeks. Then, to make matters worse, a number of poorly informed people have been ranting that we, that is people like Rebecca Watson and Stephanie Zvan, want to "harm TAM" — another weird claim that ignores the history of our involvement with skeptical and atheist meetings. So the point of our session today is to clear the air, get our position expressed, and maybe vent a little frustration.

• Category

  People & Blogs

[PZ Myers]

If you don't know, why were you watching an hour-long video of them?

[skat1140]

BEING HIT ON ONCE IN AN ELEVATOR =\= TAM HAS SYSTEMIC HARASSMENT.

[luftpirate]

PZ and FTB, thanks for allowing your egos and extremist political views to destroy much of what many have has have worked so hard to gain in this movement over the past few years.

[blahdob]

Post

[AeonsOfFrost]

Yes. Equal opportunity will not always = equal outcomes, though they also might in other cases.

[velourkungen]

jesus fuck i should have held my tongue..... i just saw the yeti and its name is ophelia benson.. no wonder these bitches are so angry they cant have gotten a stiff cock in years. yes i know that ewok pz prob tries to fuck em but i said a stiff cock and its obvious that he hasent had an erection this side of the new millenium

[velourkungen]

holy fuck zvan in one ugly cunty bitch

[Sebastian Nitu]

So if African American attendance drops in a conference, that means it's racist?

[Sebastian Nitu]

This is dumb.

[firstatheist]

What reports? What documentation? produce the documentation and evidence or shut the fuck up with your ridiculous cock hunt.

[firstatheist]

It's entirely due to the small print that's been inserted under the word "feminism" thanks to PZ and friends. In a reductionist satirical summary RW's brand of feminism is:

You're wrong because you have a dick!

[firstatheist]

She never said that he was ALREADY rejected in her account last year. There was no mention of RW already telling him she wasn't interested or what not. I call Bravo Sierra on that. When an entire population of women who are at risk of being shot in the head for seeking a basic education is addressed, I'll be happy to hear about RW's dating problems.

Until then kindly take your 1rst world fringe gender politics and go fuck yourself...if I may be so bold sir/mam. 

[firstatheist]

So PZ, your comment and ratings ban is apparently not retroactive.