all male panels - not just religions' problem

Last month, I saw an announcement for a panel on "Spirituality and Humanity: An Interfaith Conversation" in the greater Portland metro area, where I live in Oregon.  Of course, it was an all-male panel - I mean, how could WOMEN know anything about religion, enough so as to be speakers on behalf of such, right?

I made sure to submit the Facebook graphic I saw for the event, posted to Harris Zafar's Facebook page, to Congrats, you have an all-male panel!, so it would get the David Hasselhoff seal of approval:

I love to make fun of religious types - whether Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, whatever - and their consistently dismissive attitude regarding women, especially when it comes to leadership.

But I also have to acknowledge the reality that atheists aren't much better when it comes to recognizing female leaders. 

Here's a Facebook group that the Facebook algorithms recommended to me recently. Notice anything? 

There are female atheists who are amazing speakers and thinkers. Like comedian Julia Sweeney, formerly of Saturday Night Live and featured on Showtime with her show Letting Go of God. Or Rebecca Watson, founder and contributor of the hilarious, insightful blog Skepchick and co-host of the podcast The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. Or Lori Lipman Brown, the founding director of Secular Coalition for America, the only lobbying group for atheist, agnostic and humanist Americans. Or Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and current co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization devoted to upholding the separation of church and state. Or Amanda Metskas, now the executive director of Camp Quest, a summer camp for children of parents with naturalistic worldviews. Or Lyz Liddell, who for many years directed campus organizing for the Secular Student Alliance. Or Debbie Goddard, director of African Americans for Humanism and campus outreach coordinator at the Center for Inquiry. Or Kathleen Johnson, founder of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

But "Atheist Safehouse" doesn't seem to know any of this...

Sexism, whether among the religious or the non-believers, makes me angry. So I'll pass on "Atheist Safehouse" membership.

Also see:

Atheist tells women they should approve sexist photos

and

You don't need religion to be sexist

Atheist tells women they should approve sexist photos

A post from Skepchick / Rebecca Watson "to illustrate my ongoing point that there are too many atheists (/skeptics/humanists/freethinkers/etc) who value their ignorant, messed up idea of what 'free speech' is way, way more than respecting women as more than objects."

"This is probably the tenth example I’ve seen this week of atheist men being overly sensitive and crying every time someone points out that it would be cool if they treated women like people."

I love motorcycle riding. It's a passion. I'm particularly fond of traveling by motorcycle.

But I'm not fond of most of the motorcycle gatherings out there. They seem to either have way too many bare titties for the "entertainment" of the audience, or they are über Christian and/or patriotic. And sometimes both. It's adorable to hear the same people defend all the naked women imagery at their events become outraged over nudity by men at gay pride parades - naked women good, naked men bad bad bad.

You would think a Facebook group called "Free Thought Motorcyclists" that bills itself as a community for atheist / secular humanist motorcyclists would be a perfect place for women atheists motorcycle riders, because you would think people on that group, that claim to be rational and focused on humanist philosophies that stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems, would want ALL atheists / secular humanists to feel welcomed on that group, and, therefore, would never post photos or comments that objectify women, or perpetuate sexist or racist stereotypes - and if such was posted, would post a severe condemnation, affirming that all members, including women, should be respected.

Sadly, as this story shows, you would be wrong. Atheists can, most definitely, be sexists. As Rebecca Watson has tried to illustrate so many times.

Religious paper removes Clinton from iconic photo

A religious newspaper removed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from the now-iconic Bin Laden raid Situation Room photo - and the edit was brought to my attention by Jezebel.com, which said about the incident:

"The religious paper never publishes pictures of women, as they could be considered 'sexually suggestive.' Apparently the presence of a woman, any woman, being all womanly and sexy all over the United States' counterterrorism efforts was too much for the editors of Der Tzitung to handle... Audrey Thomason, the counterterrorism analyst seen peeking out from behind another onlooker in the back of the original photo, was also airbrushed away, due to all of the sexy man-tempting that her very presence in a photograph would do."

The paper in question is the ultra orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung. But it could have been any of a number of religious newspapers - there are sects of Christianity, Islam and who knows what else that believe the same thing about the evils of women (though they usually justify it as respect for women - go figure that one out...).

The comments on the Jezebel.com post are interesting as well. While everyone wants to be respectful of different belief systems, what about respect for WOMEN?! And what kind of outrage would there be if this was a newspaper that had removed President Obama, saying that their readers would have been offended to see a black man in a room with white people - including white women? Southern newspapers in the USA and newspapers in South Africa would have never published such a photo once upon a time for that reason, and outrage would have been oh-so-loud. But it's okay for religion to discriminate against women, but not okay to condemn them for that 'cause, you know, then you aren't being respectful to religious beliefs.

Another day I'm Joyful To Be Atheist.