Opinons on the T-Shirt at TAM

[Balstrome]

It seems that this T-Shirt made a "famous" skeptichick cry and run home early from TAM.

I think that maybe it was a bit irrational and over dramatic, but then that is me being a male, what do I know.

For an unbiased report on these events, have a look here
http://freethoughtblogs.com/butterfliesandwheels/2012/07/in-your-face/

 

[Laurens]

I can't dictate what people do or do not find offensive. However, I do think leaving in tears is a bit of an overreaction to a t-shirt.

EDIT: Although its worth pointing out that the t-shirt might have been the straw that broke the camel's back as the saying goes. Perhaps she was feeling emotionally strained for other reasons, and the t-shirt just took the biscuit... Who knows. Personally I can't see what could possibly be so upsetting about it, but then again I have no access to the inner thoughts of "skepchick", and I hope people aren't going to start going around and construing this as some kind of evidence that women are over emotional and unreasonable.

 

[televator]

Okay... now this is starting to get embarrassingly childish. Not the crying part (I imagine Laurens might be right), but the larger community's general lack of being able to take some serious criticism without resorting to school yard behavior. It's painting a bad picture of the people who attend these meetings. I certainly don't want to associate with it. If this is what "skeptics" do, then I'm certainly not one of them.

 

[Dustnite]

Who gives a shit?

The issue has gotten so convoluted I don't even know what it's about anymore. I don't think this person does either. Isn't all this disagreement gone past the point of an actual conversation and landed firmly in meme land?

 

[Dogma's Demise]

Out of curiosity, did this also make her cry?

Yes, that's what a panelist said.

 

[WarK]

I bet no one cried.

 

[Dogma's Demise]

And this is why it's hard to take skepchick seriously.

I mean even the word "chick" can be interpreted as offensive (not always, just sometimes).


They don't seem to have really thought a lot of things through. One can even argue that panelist violated sexual harassment policy of skepchickCON, it is technically an "offensive verbal comment related to gender".

I mean I don't personally find it offensive, I can take a joke, but others will not find this amusing.

 

[australopithecus]

Who seriously gives a fuck? Seriously?

 

[Laurens]

Who seriously gives a fuck? Seriously?

I think perhaps the only reason to give a fuck is that thunderf00t is already all over this like a wet flannel and bringing it into his whole scuffle with PZ...

Not much of a reason to give a fuck, but still...

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

A female brain is a male brain damaged by estrogen.

 

[Laurens]

A brain is meat damaged by thought

 

[WarK]

BRAINS!!! OM NOM NOM NOM.

 

[Dustnite]

BRAINS!!! OM NOM NOM NOM.

Wark just won the internet!

On a related note I think this is appropriate to this thread:

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

To be frank and honest, I don't really understand what the damned deal is.

It's certainly not "sexual harassment" by any bar - I'm going to take a stretch out on the United States Military definition of Sexual Harassment and coin it as:
Unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: submission to or rejection of such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of a person's job, pay, or career; or submission to or rejection of such conduct by a person is used as a basis for career or employment decisions affecting this person; or such conduct interferes with an individual's performance or creates an intimidating, hostile. or offensive working environment.

It's not demeaning, degrading, nor creating a hostile environment - if you define the declaration of one's self not being part of a set group as "hostile" then, by all means, please tell me more about the fact this is at a convention explicitly set out to set the population apart from the rest of it is not a contradictory thought process. - then what is left?

This is either someone who can't stand deviation from a group mentality to the point that she literally breaks down crying, or it's a devious ploy to make her own ends met.
Neither one of them screams "I'm a fairly-reasoned and skeptical mind!"

 

[ImprobableJoe]

I think it is important to remember the overall context, and remember that "the straw that broke the camel's back" was THE LAST STRAW in a giant pile.

You guys understand and accept that global warming/climate change is real, and man-made? Then you understand and accept that there's such a thing as a tipping point. You understand and accept that there's a natural cycle of up and down, but that it doesn't take much to tip things slightly and cause a cascading effect that is more than the sum of its parts. You understand and accept that there's a problem that can't be traced to one instance, one polluting factory, one car... but when you add it all up you get a problem.

And you should also understand that people are the same way. So you can't pretend that there hasn't been something going on for a long time, a problem that has been brewing for at least a year, and that each individual person can and probably will reach their own tipping point where they can't take any more.

 

[)O( Hytegia )O(]

Of course, the pretexts aren't actually public - if there are any at all, I'm not aware of them.
And I'm not going to bank that the supposed emotional breakdown was based upon a line of pretext and that this simple T-Shirt was the "Straw that broke the camel's back."

Given no actual public pretext, my conclusions are actually 100% valid given the facts presented.