The Women of Atheism
Offline In my extensive experience with online communities, there's usually one thing you can count on: they are predominately male. And being that this community is atheist, that is probably even more the case. This brings along with it many characteristics of males. There's a lot of arrogance, beating of chests, lots of dorky talk, and a dislike of all things "emo." Not the ideal environment for a woman to participate in.
Sometimes women are afraid to speak up because they are wary of causing confrontation. This distaste for confrontation makes they valuable additions to communities. They keep the ego-thirsty men in check and often understand compassion while others can be blind to it.
Women are in the minority, and since males are usually the ones in leadership positions, they can feel largely unheard. We would greatly benefit, though, from having more women active within the community. Their addition would provide greater balance and input.
So, in consideration of all this, I invite the women of atheism to come out. Feel welcome here! We will benefit greatly from your participation!
Prominent women of atheism
Julia Sweeney
Amanda Bloom
Kellym78 (RRS)
Help me with this list 
The Enlightenment wounded the beast, but the killing blow has yet to land...
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Janine Garofolo (sp)
Anne Gaylor & Anne Laurie Gaylor
I grew up mostly around guys but still manage to retain my girliness so I don't have any problem being a minority in that sense. Also, I was in the Navy for four years and usually the only girl in my shop (jet mech on tf-34/s3b aircraft). But yeah, I kinda noticed the lack of females here (other than the 10 or so that commonly post).
I've always been "hanging around with the boys." I was an engineer with AT&T for a lot of years, the only female (other than administrative assistants) in a group of 60 men in my department.
Interestingly when I got into I.T., it was just changing from being predominantly male to predominantly female. I confess that I liked it better the old way. Believe it or not, there was less arrogance and virtual beating of chests back then.
There were also fewer birthday cakes and pot luck lunches.
How about Ellen Johnson, president of the American Atheists since 1995.
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Eugenie Scott and Barbara Forrest come to mind.
How about Mythbuster Kari Byron. Who was also voted Sexiest geek by wired magazine
Jodie Foster
Kristen Lems
Sorry to derail, but what is known about the religious/non-religious affiliations of the rest of the Mythbusters?
Götter sind für Arten, die sich selbst verraten -- in den Glauben flüchten um sich hinzurichten. Menschen brauchen Götter um sich zu verletzen, um sich zu vernichten -- das sind wir.
Despite this lack of women within atheist groups and discussions, it seems that women find the roles of leader quite often.
Ellen Johnson was mentioned, but let's not forget Madeline O'Hair or Margaret Downey. All three were/are leaders of organizations (American Atheists and Atheist Alliance International).
I'm all about having more female atheists around, especially now that I'm single...
I'll fight for a person's right to speak so long as that person will, in return, fight to allow me to challenge their opinions and ridicule them as the content of their ideas merit.
Celebrety Atheists, google that list. Pleanty of skeptic women.
KATHERN HEPBURN being on that list as well.
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Damn! This thread isn't what I thought it would be at all from the title!
I was hoping it was going to be a calendar . . .
Another reason why women are afraid to come out... avoidance of male sexual advancements. I was afraid that title might cause some confusion...
The Enlightenment wounded the beast, but the killing blow has yet to land...
I seem to recall something about some english (elder) women doing a nude (hidden behind fruit) calendar to raise money for the medical treatment of one of the husbands???
It does get annoying....
We must favor verifiable evidence over private feeling. Otherwise we leave ourselves vulnerable to those who would obscure the truth.
~ Richard Dawkins
Yeah, I dunno if having an atheist girl calendar would do much for us in the eyes of society.
Average theist: "Look at all those 'loose women'! They're atheists. Well it FIGURES. They have no morals."
Hahahah, all joking aside, I think a lot of girls get put off by GENERAL male behaviour online. There are certain forums that I go to, but I don't tell anyone I'm a girl. Mostly because noone believes me. I get, "Pics plz", or "prove it" or "plz cyber wit me". I enjoy flirtiness online, I mean I wouldn't have myself in a rubber nun costume as my avatar if I was a total prude! But it really depends on the forum. I like and trust most of the people on here, so I make no secret of my female status. If more video game and art forums were nicer to me I'd let them know I was a girl too.
Holy generalizations, Batman! J/K, props for starting this thread! I'm a life-long Atheist who just logged on today. Just wanted to speak up, say 'hello' and add my feminine presence to the ranks! I'm sure you'll be hearing much more from me.
Yeah, the pic thing can often be a dilemma in forums like this. I was going to use a different pic which i like much better, but went with the more vague/conservative one to play it safe. Hehe and I agree with GlamourKat on the calendar issue.
Despite the demure attitude adopted by the female posters so far in this thread, the number of women who exploit their sexuality for profit doesn't dwindle. Two camgirls a day send me friend requests on Myspace. My yahoo inbox is stuffed to the virtual seams with sorority sex samples. Why? Obviously because I am an easy mark. lol.
THANK GOODNESS!
It is very reassuring to see that natural selection still holds some sway over our existences. Smart, strong, attractive, capable, and compatible are all qualities to look for even when they are irrelevant to the topic being discussed.
Proof that we're all animals pretending to be human. I don't have a problem with that.
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It's always nice to have more feminine presence, imo. welcome
But don't you want to cyber? :D :
:
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists, and responsible for the banning of prayer in public schools was the most important atheist of the 20th century in America. She was succeeded by Ellen Johnson as head of the organization because she and her family were abducted, held prisoner for a month and murdered. Nothing against Ellen Johnson, that's just the way it happened for her to become the head of American Atheists. I am a longtime admirer of Madalyn and her family for their courage and brilliance. I was also a member of American Atheists for a long time. I never met the Murray_O'Hairs but wish that I had. The family suffered a lot for their principles. The older son William Murray even reacted to the persecution ultimately by going into the rackets, the religious racket. I finally let my membership lapse, mainly for financial reasons I guess. In the early years membership included their magazine but later it was a separate cost. I still have the collection. Maybe I'll be able to donate it to the college I went to one day. I actually wanted to major in Atheist Studies but it didn't exist. I didn't even find that much about atheism on the net at first but you sure can now, I'm happy to say.
Haha, I suspect that a girl who is "openly female" on a video game forum is just asking for trouble. If you sent one of them a private message, they'd probably hyperventilate for a week.
I'm kind of sad that I'll probably never get to use the term "openly female" ever again.
A place common to all will be maintained by none. A religion common to all is perhaps not much different.
Gloria Steinem, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Angelina Jolie, Jessica (AngryLittleGirI on YouTube, 10,000+ subscribers, had one of I think 3 atheistic videos to be featured by YouTube) apparently youtube celebrities tokenblackchic and LisaNova are also atheists, Margaret Higgins Sanger, Taslima Nasrin, Nadine Gordimer, Ayn Rand (sad, but true) Kathy Griffin, Julianne Moore, Kathleen Hanna, and Christopher Hitchens.
Also, I don't watch lonelygirl15, but my youngest brother does. From what he tells me, it sounds a lot like an attack on organized religion. I mean, this cult homeschools a cute, charismatic and otherwise bright young lady, causes her to cut off her non-cult-member friends, teaches her a lot of anti-science crap, demands more and more allegiance from her, and eventually kills her. Does this or does this not sound like a particular brand of christianity?
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All that said...I honestly find it much, much easier to talk to ladies online than gentlemen. In real life, it's generally the opposite. Why this is, only Rama and perhaps a few generals in his monkey army know.
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Welcome to the forums, Rheingoldi!
We'd like to get to know you a little better. When you get a minute, we'd love it if you'd hop over to the General Conversation, Introductions and Humor forum and introduce yourself.
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I've never had a problem stating I am a female in any of my forums - then again, I don't visit video game forums. I DO visit F-body forums though because I have a Trans Am (that's a Firebird with a Corvette engine in it for you non-car people.) and I don't just drive it around, it's a 6 speed. I drag and drift it. When it breaks I fix it MYSELF because I don't trust many other people to even take a screwdriver to it. This does tend to amaze men but they don't drool all over me in the forums. On the contrary, I think they feel threatened by me. Some of those guys don't do their own work. So they spend a good amount of time trying to hint that they think I don't know what I am doing. They are wrong
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Theres also Lori Lipman Brown from Secular Coalition.