I really like Richard Dawkins.
I know he has his problems, I do, but here’s the thing: Richard Dawkins is a feminist. No, really. No, like REALLY!
Lots of people seem to like to harp on Dawkins and use his platform to promote things against feminism. But look at what he actually says, for example, in these videos where the title claims Dawkins says “feminism is poisoning science”.
What is he complaining about? POSTMODERNISM.
His whole problem is with the POSTMODERNIST CRITIQUE OF SCIENCE. As far as I’m aware… Dawkins and I are on the same page here. Postmodernists’ critique of science is bullshit. Anyone should know that after reading it. At best, it is arguably true yet useless bullshit which conflates a methodology with the systems that enable it. At worst it’s just incomprehensible and crap.
And there are also other things he says. Like the following:
“When–when I say something like, “this kind of maltreatment of women in America is bad, but the treatment of women in Islam is worse”, I’m not saying the treatment of women in America is good. I’m just saying it’s not as bad.”
Well, you know, female genital mutilation is less widespread in America, and women’s choices and access to education is generally better, so… yeah. I mean, there’s a conflation of Islam with “some Muslim countries” here, and hey there are majority-Muslim countries that have had female heads of state, which is not the case for America. However, that matter has more to do with racism and his general ignorance of the foreign than it does with not being feminist. Or, you know, as he said it:
“But it’s terribly important to understand that because something is worse, that doesn’t mean that the first thing is good! That’s bad too![…] Isn’t that bloody obvious?”
There are more things he has said. He was asked in that video “Do you believe Feminism makes a positive contribution conducive to a positive and open scientific environment?”
His answer?
Well, uh, of course feminism plays an enormously important role. Feminism, as I understand it, is the political drive toward the equality of women. So women should not be discriminated against, nobody should be discriminated against on grounds that don’t merit discrimination. So… yes, I mean, feminism is enormously important and is a political movement which deserves to be thoroughly well-supported.
And he even goes all Intersectionalism on this shit!!
“If there is discrimination against men, or against any category like that, something… by which you can label a person. Discrimination against gays… people, as well, for example. Then, it is to be deplored.”
There’s also his twitter. Oh no, the terrible twitter! What awful things has he said on it?
Oh yeah. How terrible. What else has he said?
And then what? Bear in mind, I’m literally ctrl-f’ing “women” on his twitter and scrolling down. Oh look, he re-tweeted Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren at the same time!
He talked to Julia Sweeney, and was a perfect gentleman. They complain about religion a lot in it (because of course they do). Then he re-tweeted a Stephanie Guttormson quote, he re-tweeted WomenInSecularism.
He also read “The Girl Who Beat Isis” and reviewed it. In the review, he says things like:
“She bit him, and I’m sorry she failed to bite his finger right off.”
And he ends the review with:
“What a wonderfully gallant young woman, what a shining example to all of us spoiled brats fretting about our first world problems. Read the book, although I must warn you it’s highly distressing. But also uplifting. Never to be forgotten.”
This is followed by a bunch of retweets of The Morning Heresy, and then he signal-boosted Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Richard Dawkins is a feminist. He’s just… also terrible a public relations. He says things that are easy to misinterpret, and ignores sometimes huge contextually-important swathes of information.
I have a far easier time getting the “holy racism batman” arguments against Dawkins (he occasionally says some very misguided things, yes), and it is important to note that you can get pissed at a person you admire for saying a stupid thing and still admire them.
That said, I think the vast majority of his missteps are just wording. If Richard Dawkins had a PR person who went through all of his tweets in real time and made sure that they were properly worded, he would be a way more popular guy!
Thoughtful Spurts 