[#wiscfi] Liveblog: How Feminism Makes Better Skeptics: The Role Rationality Plays in Ending Sexism

I’m going to be liveblogging Amanda Marcotte’s talk, How Feminism Makes Better Skeptics: The Role Rationality Plays in Ending Sexism in just a little bit! You can follow other tweets at #wiscfi, and me at @donovanable.

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3:42 In terms of the amount of time that anti-secularists spend on arguing….gender related issues are some of the biggest topics. (and evolution is the tiny slice of the pie remaining).

Feminism was an idea that came out of the enlightenment. Mary Wollstonecraft!

The Declaration of Sentiments in 1848 was one of the ways feminism really stepped into public.

3:45 Strong endorsement for The Second Sex.  Amanda talks about how we often don’t discuss the anti-theist sentiments of the early 20th century feminists.

Experts agree: feminism can really help everyone. The millenium development goals of the UN have 8 goals specifically focused on women, including combating child mortality, the environment, etc.

Wait, the environment?

Yep, one way to ease overpopulation is to give women the ability to choose how many children they have! (Hint: providing access to contraception does this) Women who have reproductive choices will have fewer children.

Who’s to blame, asks Marcotte…then puts up slide of the Pope. Audience applauds.

3:50 Health care! Marcotte says that things like heart disease, etc are obviously not gender issues. I completely disagree–the signs we tell people to look for to know they’re having a heart attack? Those are the signs for men, not women. (Women experience pain in jaw, not chest/shoulder) That’s a problem.

With skepticism we can fight climate change, sexual repression…people who are jerks towards “fake geek girls”.

We talk about the Duggars. Blargh, I seriously hate that “Your vagina is not a clown car” meme directed at Duggars.

3:55 Plan B. Let’s talk about this.

It was invented to replace docs who were already prescribing high dosage birth control pills for the same reason. Got political in Bush administration. Sex based cults using Plan B! (Srsly, someone said this.)

Judgmental pharmacists try to prevent women from buying Plan B. Also, the “Good Boyfriend” problem, where men try to buy their partners the Plan B…and are denied. Ughhhhh. No.

4:00  2011: in which we have to talk about whether or not teenage girls are capable of figuring out how to take a pill that you put in your mouth and then swallow.

Sidebar: We talk about how Plan B works. One, it’s not an abortion. Two, no, it doesn’t make you suddenly promiscuous. (Would anyone like to offer a coherent argument about why [safe] promiscuity is wrong?)

Obama basically make realpolitik decision to try to prevent Religious Right from having a ‘loaded weapon’ when he decided to keep high age limit on Plan B.

4:05 This entire debate (Plan B) has been between irrational arguments and skeptical arguments backed by research. And we’ve been gaining ground.

A quick word on anti-feminist skeptics from Amanda
[Real talk: SOMEONE FIND ME THAT GIF SHE’S USING]

Update: SallyStrange is the best:

Straw feminists are being tilted at. It’s silly! Staaaahp! Also, don’t let the haters get you down, skeptic feminists! [insert gif parade]

Questions:

Why do you call them women’s issues? Men are impacted too.
Answer: Because it’s easier to stay away from the f-word when trying to discuss these things.

Someone asked a thing about marriage. I was inserting gifs!
Answer: Nonmarriage radical feminist speaking! Points out that she’s avoided using word ‘privilege’ in this talk.

[didn’t catch all questions, everyone talked soooo fast. phew.]

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[#wiscfi] Liveblog: How Feminism Makes Better Skeptics: The Role Rationality Plays in Ending Sexism
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4 thoughts on “[#wiscfi] Liveblog: How Feminism Makes Better Skeptics: The Role Rationality Plays in Ending Sexism

  1. 1

    Marcotte says that things like heart disease, etc are obviously not gender issues. I completely disagree–the signs we tell people to look for to know they’re having a heart attack? Those are the signs for men, not women. (Women experience pain in jaw, not chest/shoulder) That’s a problem.

    So true. So many medical standards are based on studies that included only men. BMI, for example.

  2. 4

    […] Jason/Kate covered Amanda Marcotte’s talk on how feminism makes better skeptics. She mainly talked about how patriarchal assumptions corrupt decision-making, highlighting, for instance, the opposition to Plan B, which cannot be attribute to rational decision-making at all, but is entirely faith-based. And when you look at the agenda of the theocrats of the religious right, it’s appalling how much of it is all about controlling women. […]

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