It always seemed to me that Rebecca Watson had a tough skin, so I'm surprised she's being perceived as needing notes of support. Anyone been following this and know what's going on?
I'm one of the few people who've heard every episode of the SGU in order. I'm very familiar with Rebecca and the situation.
Skeptics, as a whole, are not the most socially adept people in the world. They tend to be over intellectual and over educated. In short, "nerds".
The vast majority simple don't have the social skills that your average bar hopper picks up in high school/college.
When Rebecca first joined the podcast, she regularly received proposals in the fan mail. Not one or two total, but 5-10 a week for YEARS.
Some of those emails were more than just "I love that you're on the show, marry me". Some of them were quite graphic.
In a community that is predominately socially inept mails, a young woman who is smart and funny becomes the target of a lot of unwanted affection.
So, after YEARS of this, while giving a talk about (among other things) how to get more women involved in the movement, she mentioned that coming on to them was probably not the tactic to use.
This was followed by drinks with some of the people who attended the talk at the hotel bar. One of the people there just sat by and watched. He didn't really engage in conversation.
Late at night, she went back to her room. This guy followed her into the elevator, where he said what he said.
Rebecca made it quite clear that she didn't think that the guy had any sort of "evil intent". It was just an awkward guy not realizing that this combo:
- Late at night
- After drinking
- Big guy, petite girl
- Alone in the elevator
- Proposition
Is a great way to make someone feel extremely uncomfortable. Especially after having just given a talk about how to avoid doing those sort of things.
So, she made the blog.
The backlash was MASSIVE and INSTANT.
It seems that nothing gets the nerds more riled up than pointing out that they are awkward around women. Lots of guys put themselves in the shoes of the "guy in the elevator" doing something that they would (or wish they could) try and do.
None of them seemed to even acknowledge the perspective of the petite woman who's been harassed for years through email and still puts herself out there.
To top that off, Dawkins jumped basically saying that Rebecca should be "complaining" about something that's not really an issue when there are women in Africa who are raped and murdered on a regular basis.
His position is that the event in the elevator was not a dangerous one and that she was over reacting.
He has a point, but it's an insensitive one.
The issue is that this guy made Rebecca feel uncomfortable the same way that most of the guys in the movement are likely to make other girls uncomfortable. That that was the whole point of her talk in the first place.
Her recommendation was that the nerds stop trying to hit on everything that walks through the door like a pack of rabid hyenas. My words, not hers.
The fact that Dawkins turned on her really upset her. You could hear it in her voice as she recounted the situation in the podcast.
Rebecca has thick skin. She hasn't left the movement. But, it's important for the nerds to realize that those things they did in High School which scared off all the girls are STILL scaring off all the girls only now they are a whole lot scarier.
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