Feminism and Online Atheism

[Revoltingest]

I'm not denying there is diversity, I'm just stating that I've never seen a feminist MRA specifically. They got diversity in the other direction for sure, however.

That is quite an odd label.
Tis no surprise that no one adopts it.

 

[Meow Mix]

I think it's important to avoid the appearance of lumping "anti-feminist" & "MRA" together.
The former is inherently in opposition. The latter might or might not be....we should allow
people who focus upon men's rights advocacy to do so, just as they should allow feminists
to focus upon advancing women's rights where needed. In short, there's room for both in
the world of progressives.
(And yes, I too am a progressive....I scored very high on the test.
Haven't received the certificate yet though. USPS is slow, eh.)

Note to some who might be surprised at my being here:
So far, my experiment (in another thread) with including "libertarian feminism" is looking positive.
I'm hoping for staff & member tolerance of this minority viewpoint.

I haven't had time to respond to everything yet but I wanted to say yes -- you're right, that was unfair to lump them together. My *anecdotal* experience probably colored that. I recognize there are good MRA's that have valid points about men's issues without attacking women's issues.

 

[Revoltingest]

I haven't had time to respond to everything yet but I wanted to say yes -- you're right, that was unfair to lump them together. My *anecdotal* experience probably colored that. I recognize there are good MRA's that have valid points about men's issues without attacking women's issues.

This place can overwhelm....I go off to do a little work, & come back to 27 alerts.
Your response is prompt....& you're always so dang reasonable.
(You set an unreasonable standard.)

 

[Polymath257]

I haven't had time to respond to everything yet but I wanted to say yes -- you're right, that was unfair to lump them together. My *anecdotal* experience probably colored that. I recognize there are good MRA's that have valid points about men's issues without attacking women's issues.

I think the point is that they are *all* human issues. Whatever brings someone else down brings me down also. Men have had some valid points with respect to, say, child custody issues. That is NO way eliminates a host of issues women have to face on a daily basis.

I look forward to a day when we don't worry about genitals or skin color except when they are relevant. And while there are times when they *are* relevant (health issues, for example), the vast majority of time they are not.

 

[Little Lunch]

I think a part of the problem lies in some atheists thinking that everyone around them are sheep and that they are therefore invulnerable to peer pressure, that every issue can be sussed out with pure logic and rationality, minus the empathy, which is required when you put yourself in another's shoes.

Also, you don't have to be left to be an atheist, nor attuned to the need for feminism and anti-racism.
You don't even have to be very smart.

 

[crossfire]

Anybody else disillusioned by the apparent surging of anti-feminist and MRA types in online atheism and skepticism? Rape apologists, misogynists, transphobic, basically every trapping of 4chan and r/the_donald without the swastikas and Pepe's?

There's Thunderf00t, Dawkins, Michael "women should stop complaining about the wage gap because things are better than they were 60 years ago" Shermer, basically every public online atheist group I've ever been a part of for a little bit... I just feel like the amount of people who use SJW and feminist as snarl words has increased drastically over the last few years. It's definitely always been an element, but does anyone else notice the fedora-ification of online atheism as well?

I could barely stomach the atheist activism before "elevatorgate," and left the community entirely when that blew up. I've adopted the "Transtheist" label, because I'm convinced this whole theism/atheism binary is more harmful than good.

 

[crossfire]

Interestingly, I didn't identify as a feminist while I was hanging out with the atheist community. The whole thing that developed from elevatorgate prompted me to start studying feminism after I left the atheist community--because what transpired then and all of the misogyny that was revealed really demonstrated the need for it!

 

[icehorse]

Anybody else disillusioned by the apparent surging of anti-feminist and MRA types in online atheism and skepticism? Rape apologists, misogynists, transphobic, basically every trapping of 4chan and r/the_donald without the swastikas and Pepe's?

There's Thunderf00t, Dawkins, Michael "women should stop complaining about the wage gap because things are better than they were 60 years ago" Shermer, basically every public online atheist group I've ever been a part of for a little bit... I just feel like the amount of people who use SJW and feminist as snarl words has increased drastically over the last few years. It's definitely always been an element, but does anyone else notice the fedora-ification of online atheism as well?

Do you make a distinction between 2nd wave and 3rd wave feminism?

One possible reason is that many atheists strive for a critical thinking approach to life. I think that 2nd wave feminism is compatible with critical thinking, but that - sadly - much of 3rd wave feminism is harder to make logically coherent.