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I do want to address the more juicy gossipy issue about Dawkins and how he addressed Rebecca

Watson. So let me just say something quickly about that. After Dawkins addressed her that way

she wrote this post called the privileged delusion and in the first paragraph she wrote thankswealth old heterosexual white man. I appreciate what you've done here talking about privilege,

how it skews perceptions and so forth.

I do want to say it's not good to write people off based on their being privileged becauseDawkins is wealth and he is old and he is white and he is a guy. Not necessarily so good because

if you think what he really did wrong and I agree he did something wrong. He was dismissive.

He had a lack of empathy for her. He may not have known what it's like to be a woman in anelevator with a guy who is hitting on you. I think I understand that. I think all of the women in

this audience understand that. However, I think empathy is a two way street. When to read what

Dawkins said and to immediately write him off as a wealthy male blah, blah, blah, that is not

empathic either. I think there is kind of a duty to look into it and ask, why did he say that? What

was the debate? What was on his mind? My prequel is going to shed light on that.

But I want to call to your question one sentence from what you saw on the screen earlier. This is

from Dawkins. And you Muslima, you have misogyny to worry about. For goodness sake, growup. At least grow a thicker skin. Now why did he use the word misogyny there. What does that

have to elevator. It has a lot to do with it. Because Watson had talked at three events prior to this

Pharyngula debate. And she had used the word misogyny over and over again. In fact she hadused it in a panel discussion in Dublin and Richard Dawkins was sitting right next to her. So he

was accustomed to hear her talking about misogyny and I think he thinks she uses it too much.

And calls too many things misogyny. Now that's not to excuse him that's not to say you shouldexcuse that elevator story but a little bit of understanding is a good idea even if he is a wealthyheterosexual white male.

After I read that at Pharyngula I really sorta thought to myself, what is the prequel, what's the

back-story, it seemed to me he was uncharacteristically dismissive. So I looked into it and nowwe are gong to get into the meat of the prequel and try to rise above this gossipy juicy thing and

get into some more serious content.

So, the prequel, at the global atheist convention, in Dublin, on June 4th, this is that day of the

elevator incident, this is elevator eve. There was a panel on female atheist activists. And RebeccaWatson was not on this panel. The moderator asked why are there far fewer women at atheists

events, and she said her range was 30 - 35%. The first speaker was Paula Kirby, who is a

colleague of Dawkins, who interacts with him and interacts on his website, she said that she did

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not think it was because of bad behavior on the part of atheist men. She didn't give a theory on

why not. She said that in her experience over the years she had not.

Then, two hours later, there was another panel, on communicating atheism, and Rebecca Watsonwas on that panel and so was Richard Dawkins who was sitting right next to her. Rebecca

Watson was so upset by what Paula Kirby had said at that she interrupted the topic of that second

panel to respond to her. And she said, that Kirby was just making an argument from ignorancebecause she hadn't experienced these things herself and so was drawing too many conclusions.

And she gave some examples of very nasty email she had received from atheists, which she

called misogynists.

Then several weeks later, and this is all still prior to the Dawkins outburst, Rebecca Watson

talked again at a conference, CFI conference in Amherst about this issue as to why there are sofew women at these conferences. And she once again and she attributed it to bad behavior

among men. She said:

"You know, since starting Skepchick, I've heard from a lot of women who don't attend events

like this because of those of you who have this attitude. They're tired of being objectified, and

some of them have actually been raped; quite a number of them have been raped, or otherwisesexually assaulted. And situations like the one I was in, in an elevator, would have triggered a

panic attack. They're scared, because they know that you won't stand up for them. And if they

stand up for themselves, you're going to laugh them back down. And that's why they're notcoming out to these events."

She said quite a few women have talked to her about this. They've said that men do stuff that

makes them uncomfortable. I think the crucial thing is the last sentence. And that's why they are

not coming out to these events. So, on all three of these occasions she talked about this sorta badbehavior and how it drive women away.

Now just to address the gossipy juicy thing again, I think that is the background for Dawkins

dismissal of what she said about the elevator (garbled I assume she meant incident). And on thatvideo BTW if you start it from the beginning she talks about Kirby, she talks about that panel she

is giving that elevator story, not as a cry in the universe, as gee this sucky thing happened to me.

She's presenting it as data to support this theory she's been advancing it over and over again.