Some videos are now online from two of my recent conferences. First up, here’s the panel I was on at Women in Secularism, with Annie Laurie Gaylor, Sikivu Hutchinson, Ophelia Benson, and Jen McCreight:
Second, here’s the talk I gave to the European Atheist Convention (thanks to commenter FontyMMX for uploading and bringing it to my attention):
Want more? Here’s Susan Jacoby at WiS:
Taslima Nasrin at Euro Atheists:
PZ Myers at Euro Atheists:
And Michael Nugent at Euro Atheists:
Woo, that’s me asking Rebecca stuff at 25:50. I hate my voice and my accent now, had no idea i had them like that.
Don’t mind the way you speak. You dared to ask a question in front of everybody and it was concise and to the point. On PZ’s Q&A, some questions went on for a minute or so and I couldn’t figure out what the question was. So I cut them all out, including my own, and just let PZ give the answers. :)
Also great to finally see Taslima’s talk which i had missed.
I look forward to watching these as soon as I get home!
I wanted to thank you for posting the link to “Aren’t You Making It Up? Why Women Don’t Report Harassment”
https://ashleyfmiller.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/arent-you-making-it-up-why-women-dont-report-harassment/
I have been to many many technology conferences. I have sometimes been the only woman in the room, and often been hit on despite my wedding ring. Once I was “date rape” drugged at an evening social event and barely made it to the bathroom before passing out. I woke up six hours later when the janitor found me on the floor of a stall. I reported this to the police who said that since I admitted to having one glass of wine (apparently via which I was drugged) at the evening event, I was obviously simply drunk and there was nothing that they would do. They offered no assistance of any kind. I know this is not uncommon (I have been a volunteer counselor at rape crisis and battered women’s centers for years and think I have heard everything).
Did I report it to the conference organizers? – no, it never once occurred to me. What would they do if the police refused to do anything? Looking back now, I probably would let someone know, so at least they couldn’t say “that never happens.”
Come to think of it, that’s the last conference I went to, of any kind. I am not opposed to going to more, but the cost/benefit analysis tells me it’d have to be a pretty great conference.
The talk Sikivu Hutchinson gave was wonderful. She’s actually talking about issues that pertain to me and my community. I rarely see these issues discussed on feminist blogs that are not specifically focused on women of color. I’d love to see more of this.:3
Thanks for posting, I just listened to the CFI panel discussion, fascinating.
Quick aside: no idea who to ask, conference organisers? but it would be great if these could be released as audio only files. I tend to listen to this sort of stuff while driving, cooking etc, and it would be great not to have download the video and rip the audio etc. Good for the hosting site too.
Yay for videos! I simply can’t afford cons, so I just wait for the videos to come out and listen to the talks while I try to build an undersea kingdom in Minecraft or something.
The panel discussion was great throughout, but I especially agreed with Jen’s closing comments, and I think they should be broadcast on a loop at every convention until people get it.
Also: Susan Jacoby is awesome.
Also also: Rebecca, I LOVE your hairstyle.
Thank you. I would not have gotten to see these had you not posted them.
I second Benjaminsa’s request for audio files. I travel a great deal and I split my down time between reading and listening to podcasts. These types of talks would make great podcasts.
A topic that arose a few times was that there were fewer women in the atheist movement than men. I have noticed that much discussion of atheism happens online. Do women use the Internet as much as men do? If not, could that be part of the cause of the apparent lack of women? I took a minute to look up statistics on Internet use by gender, but couldn’t find information about time spent online or types of online activities. All I found was that 78% of men use the Internet vs. 75% of women.
Also, thank you for posting the video with Sikivu. I was not familiar with her, but I look forward to reading her work.
I feel conflicted every time I read Rebecca’s blog posts or see videos of her talks, because on the one hand, it makes me want to start blogging and speaking out, but on the other hand, I feel like I could never organize my thoughts in such a concise, compelling, and entertaining way as she does.
I used to make videos on YouTube that just turned into absurd rambling rants halfway through, and I’ve considered taking it up again, if only I could figure out how to not look and sound like a complete asshole vlogging from her bedroom. :P