And Then This Happened

[Content Note: Misogyny; disablism.]

In my ongoing (and never-ending) series about why this female atheist (*points thumbs at self*) has no interest in movement atheism, I present this exchange, in comments at Libby Anne's place, between Lunch Meat, a self-identified religious woman, and Jack Kolinski, an atheist man who "want[s] to cure religion and [has] written an easy-and-fun-to-read book explaining how everyone can cure themselves and others of this insidious, malevolent mind disease."


Libby Anne has written extensively about that comment thread, and the dynamic of atheist men full of white knight sexism who want to save religious women from themselves, here. Go read it, because it's really great!

There are a lot (a "small but vocal minority," I'm sure) of atheist men who believe that they need to rescue religious women because they are too stupid or brainwashed or weak or some other charming underestimation to know what is best for themselves. (Protip: When your "feminist" argument is indistinguishable from anti-choice rhetoric, you have derailed from anything resembling feminism.) Obviously, this is objectionable to religious women.

But it is objectionable to me, too. Even though I am an atheist woman who has written about the specific harm I experienced being raised in a particular religious tradition. Because my experience is not universal. And because I am keenly aware of the colonialist and racist dynamics that underwrite much of this white male atheist savior bullshit. And because I am a feminist, and thus I want to give women choices, and trust them to make the best choices for themselves.

I don't have any interest in telling women what they should do, or what they should believe.

Because I don't own women. And neither does Jack Kolinski. Nor any of his oppressively chivalrous brothers.