{"id":3058,"date":"2013-06-25T20:53:16","date_gmt":"2013-06-25T20:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/?p=3058"},"modified":"2013-06-25T20:53:16","modified_gmt":"2013-06-25T20:53:16","slug":"inconsistency-irony-and-intrigue-in-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/2013\/06\/25\/inconsistency-irony-and-intrigue-in-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Inconsistency, irony, and intrigue in Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"en.wikipedia.org\"<\/a>

en.wikipedia.org<\/p><\/div>\n

While preparing for my trip to the Empowering Women Through Secularism<\/a>\u00a0(EWTS) conference — thanks to a fundraiser<\/a> graciously promoted and funded by supporters — I failed to notice any type of anti-harassment policy listed on the conference\u2019s website and am thus quite befuddled. I praise conference organizers for not implementing an anti-harassment policy, but cannot help but note inconsistency within some speakers at this upcoming conference.<\/p>\n

According to a select group of bloggers and their commenters, anti-harassment policies in various flavors are required for women to feel safe, welcome, and invited at conferences throughout the secular community [and beyond] because, as they claim, conferences are unsafe places for women. The secular community is allegedly rife with misogyny and only with anti-harassment policies may women be protected from sexual harassment and \u2018creepy men\u2019 which are allegedly common at conferences.<\/p>\n

At least three individuals who have been fiercely engaged in rhetoric surrounding the necessity of anti-harassment policies will be speaking at this conference and, as far as I know, they have made no objections concerning the lack of an anti-harassment policy although other conferences and conference organizers have been under extreme fire – characterized as “anti-woman,” “not caring about diversity,” “not caring about women,” “siding with harassers,” “misogynistic,” “sexist,”etc.<\/p>\n

One particular EWTS speaker — according to a recent interview<\/a> — established two requirements for her speaking at conferences: at least 35% women speakers and an anti-harassment policy.<\/p>\n

Perhaps because EWTS is a conference primarily concerned with women there is no need for an anti-harassment policy? Not so…at least when considering the recent Women in Secularism 2 conference<\/a> which heralded its prized conduct policy<\/a> — trumpeted by and invoked by speakers scheduled for both Women in Secularism 2 and EWTS — included on the conference’s main page.<\/p>\n

In October of 2012, Atheist Ireland<\/a>, one of the organizations responsible for and\/or working to make EWTS possible released a statement<\/a> noting another organization — Atheist Alliance International — instituted an anti-harassment policy and encouraged member organizations to adopt similar policies…but there is no policy at the EWTS conference nor does Atheist Ireland, as it seems, have such a policy.<\/p>\n

Since EWTS has no anti-harassment policy, why is it the case that — since anti-harassment policies, according to a select group of bloggers and their commenters, are so important — there has been no outrage directed at EWTS and its organizers although outrage was directed at other conferences and conference organizers?<\/p>\n

How can speakers objecting to the lack of anti-harassment policies at other conferences, and even refusing to speak at conferences lacking anti-harassment policies, be ethically justified in speaking at EWTS and saying nothing about the lack of an anti-harassment policy? Why the double standard? Perhaps flights from the United States to Ireland, fame, and speaking to audiences are enough to compromise principles?<\/p>\n

I must, though, applaud organizers of EWTS for not falling into the \u2018anti-harassment policies are necessary for women to feel safe from ‘creepy men’ and the secular community is rife with misogyny\u2019 false narratives.<\/p>\n

Instead of infantilizing women and demonizing men by instituting a bogus, worthless, and pandering anti-harassment policy which provides an illusory safety net, women are left to be empowered by their own assertiveness, Irish laws, and venue regulations…unless the intrepid and suspiciously-placed security team\/personal bodyguards which were rumored to have been put in place by Melody Hensley at Women in Secularism 2 because of \u201cconcerns\u201d due to my Washington D.C. appearance may mysteriously appear in Ireland.<\/p>\n

The conference which was home to the alleged \u2018elevator incident\u2019 has no anti-harassment policy and the woman involved in the supposed \u2018elevator incident\u2019 — although she stipulates that conferences she speaks at must have anti-harassment policies — \u00a0is scheduled to speak at this conference lacking an anti-harassment policy with no complaints. Inconsistancy, irony, and intrigue indeed.<\/p>\n

As always, feel free to add your thoughts below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While preparing for my trip to the Empowering Women Through Secularism\u00a0(EWTS) conference — thanks to a fundraiser graciously promoted and funded by supporters — I failed to notice any type of anti-harassment policy listed on the conference\u2019s website and am thus quite befuddled. I praise conference organizers for not implementing an anti-harassment policy, but cannot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,63,60,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogosphere","category-ewts2013","category-gender","category-women-in-secularism-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/justinvacula\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}