The Civil War Within Skepticism

[Coito ergo sum]

No, I saw that. My fault.

Weird.

[Pappa]

Anyone ever read "Why People Believe Weird Things". The whole debacle strikes me as one huge witch-hunt / alien abduction scare / Boston Gasser....

[Coito ergo sum]

That's the book by Michael Shermer, right? I read that a few years ago. Pretty good.

Shermer is great. I first learned of his existence in the 1990s. He did the Phil Donohue show here in the US when he went up against the Holocaust Denier clan. Shermer illustrates the best facet of skepticism, and he has no fear in facing even upsetting claims and theories head on.

[hadespussercats]

What gets me is that the woman wearing the t-shirt, which simply states that she sees herself as a skeptic, not as an automatic representative for Skepchick simply because of her sex, was, IIRC, the first woman medic ever in the Air Force. She even wrote a book about her fight to get to do that sort of work. And here these skepchicks are trying to claim that she's some tool of the patriarchy, selling other women down the river to cozy up to men, simply because she doesn't approve of the doings at Skepchick and would like to separate herself from them.

Because apparently you can't be a feminist and continue to think for yourself. You particularly can't be a feminist and a skeptic and continue to think for yourself. If you don't give over your thoughts and opinions to the Skepchick platform, you're giving over your thoughts and opinions to the patriarchy.

Those are the only two choices.

[Animavore]

[geehigh]

So, am I right that the hullabaloo is about a woman who wore a t-shirt that said she isn't a skepchick, or a woman skeptic, she's a skeptic? Did someone really make a big deal of this? I didn't see any of the articles, except what T-foot wrote through the link above.

Did one of the Skepchicks really have to cancel her appearance or cut it short because of that t-shirt?

The second link, earlier, brought you straight to her article. What happened?

Looks like the entry has been removed for reasons best known to the blog owner.

Possibly too many Potential RapistsTM were looking at it.

[JimC]

Is there going to be a wet t-shirt Skepchicks competition?

(I may have got the facts in this thread a little muddled...)

[mozg]

What gets me is that the woman wearing the t-shirt, which simply states that she sees herself as a skeptic, not as an automatic representative for Skepchick simply because of her sex, was, IIRC, the first woman medic ever in the Air Force. She even wrote a book about her fight to get to do that sort of work. And here these skepchicks are trying to claim that she's some tool of the patriarchy, selling other women down the river to cozy up to men, simply because she doesn't approve of the doings at Skepchick and would like to separate herself from them.

I am way not as important as Harriet Hall, and I've been accused of exactly the same thing. I didn't join the Society of Women Engineers, and I got attacked for it because I chose to spend my time in groups that did things that interested me. I've never found anything interesting in sitting around talking like what it's like to be a 'woman engineer'. It's just like being a fucking 'man engineer', except that they don't sit around blathering about it all god damn day.

Because apparently you can't be a feminist and continue to think for yourself. You particularly can't be a feminist and a skeptic and continue to think for yourself. If you don't give over your thoughts and opinions to the Skepchick platform, you're giving over your thoughts and opinions to the patriarchy.

If I had a nickel for every time some uptight whiner accused me of being a 'tool of the patriarchy' because, gasp, I actually get along with the men in my field, I'd be a billionaire.

Those are the only two choices.

Then patriarchy it is.

[hadespussercats]

What gets me is that the woman wearing the t-shirt, which simply states that she sees herself as a skeptic, not as an automatic representative for Skepchick simply because of her sex, was, IIRC, the first woman medic ever in the Air Force. She even wrote a book about her fight to get to do that sort of work. And here these skepchicks are trying to claim that she's some tool of the patriarchy, selling other women down the river to cozy up to men, simply because she doesn't approve of the doings at Skepchick and would like to separate herself from them.

I am way not as important as Harriet Hall, and I've been accused of exactly the same thing. I didn't join the Society of Women Engineers, and I got attacked for it because I chose to spend my time in groups that did things that interested me. I've never found anything interesting in sitting around talking like what it's like to be a 'woman engineer'. It's just like being a fucking 'man engineer', except that they don't sit around blathering about it all god damn day.

Because apparently you can't be a feminist and continue to think for yourself. You particularly can't be a feminist and a skeptic and continue to think for yourself. If you don't give over your thoughts and opinions to the Skepchick platform, you're giving over your thoughts and opinions to the patriarchy.

If I had a nickel for every time some uptight whiner accused me of being a 'tool of the patriarchy' because, gasp, I actually get along with the men in my field, I'd be a billionaire.

Those are the only two choices.

Then patriarchy it is.

Yup!

[mozg]

Yup!

While the feminists sit around complaining about how hard it is for women to be engineers, I was busy being an engineer.

When they complained in their women's studies classes that there weren't enough women in the hard sciences, I asked them 'Why don't you major in math or science or engineering disciplines?' and they said 'We don't want to. We want OTHER women to be able to. Because they should. But not us, cause that shit is hard.'

[Coito ergo sum]

You see, folks? That's what I've been banging on about! :-)

[Jason]

You want to be Holmes to her Watson?

[orpheus]

(Uncle Orph'sTM popcorn - "making the world a better place" )

[Pappa]

Coito and Rebecca
sitting in a tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G

[Coito ergo sum]