In Which I am Disappointed in Hemant Mehta

Last week, I made a possibly ill-advised statement on my Tumblr, which led to quite a bit of further explanation on my part (here, here, and here) when several people misunderstood what I intended (admittedly, I worded things poorly).

After the original Tumblr discussions, I never expected to hear anything more about it, honestly, but a few days ago I woke up to find that someone had sent this screenshot of the original post to Hemant Mehta over at Friendly Atheist. After reading Hemant’s man-splaining of the sexism situation in general, I read through the comments on his post and basically hated everything far too much to be able to respond right away. I’m finally feeling at least somewhat up to that challenge.

Skeptical Sexist Bingo

So, I was planning on writing a post tonight about skepticism and home birth, but then Hemant Mehta mansplained all over something I posted on Tumblr last week and I was going to respond to his post.

Instead, after I popped over to Friendly Atheist and read the comments, I made this. It’s like regular sexist bingo, but with SCIENCE!

My response to Hemant will be incoming tomorrow, but this is all I’ve got tonight.

Queereka and Myths About Trans Women

Skepchick has a new sister site, Queereka, which looks like it’s going to be exciting. From their About page:

Queereka is a place for skeptics and nonbelievers who are interested in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer issues. We seek to promote the inclusion of LGBTQ topics, voices and individuals in the skeptic and secular community and movement, promote rational and evidence-based approaches to LGBTQ topics, encourage critical thinking about gender and sexuality, and combat misinformation and mistaken pseudoscientific, superstitious, biased, religious, irrational, unsubstantiated or bigoted beliefs about LGBTQ topics, lives, individuals and experiences.

I highly recommend checking it out; although there isn’t a whole lot to see just yet, you can sign up for their RSS feed, follow them on Twitter, and like them on Facebook.

I’m particularly interested in reading the Perspectives column, which plans to examine queer genders and sexualities from an anthropological/historical/cross-cultural standpoint, but I’ve already learned some things from a pair of posts on 13 Myths and Misconceptions About Trans Women. Part One was posted at Skepchick, and Part Two is over at Queereka. Both seem worth a read, and there is some interesting discussion going on in the comments as well.

It’s good to see a space like Queereka being built in the skeptic community, which so often fails to address these sorts of issues, and I’m looking forward to seeing it grow.

On [Not] Choosing My [Lack of] Religion

Of the numerous world religions that exist, what made you pick yours in the first place? On what basis have you decided that your particular religion is the correct religion?

I was raised in sort of a casual Catholic family, and I was baptized as an infant. My parents took us to mass most Sundays when my sister and I were small, and when we were old enough we were enrolled in the CCD program–sort of a Sunday school deal, but on one weeknight each week. I went through the First Communion/Confession stuff when I was 7 or 8, and when I was 14 or 15, it was time for Confirmation, the coming-of-age rite in which young Catholics are supposed to confirm their commitment to their faith and to the Church.

It was around that time that I first realized I was an atheist, and I told my parents that I didn’t want to go through with Confirmation because I didn’t believe in it. This didn’t go over well. They promptly threatened to not allow me to get my driver’s license if I didn’t go through with it, but they also told me that I wouldn’t have to go to mass anymore once it was over. When you are a young teenager not being able to drive in high school is a pretty big threat so, of course, I ended up going along with it, although it has never sat right with me. I felt dishonest for lying, angry at my parents, and resentful about the coercion involved, but once it was over with I got on with my life.