“Context matters” is the title Jen McCreight gives to a recent blog post on flirting behavior at conferences, but “Incredible understatement” might have been a good subtitle. She shares a video of Rebecca Watson talking about having been propositioned very uncomfortably by a guy who followed her into an elevator at 4am after a night of drinking, then proceeds to share several experiences that she (McCreight) has had which fall squarely in the realm of obvious inappropriateness. You’d think.
It’s no surprise that there are people on the internet who will say anything. It does surprise me that there are people who will act at a skeptic’s conference, to virtual strangers, in the ways McCreight describes. That goes without saying for Watson’s experience.
The abysmal clue-resistance of a significant percentage of my skeptical brethren never ceases to amaze me.
Using evolutionary psychology as an excuse for playing the cad is done so often that it's cliché; one's analytical mind can and should reign over one's hormones. They do not understand that certain behaviors can, no, will be seen as threatening by most women, and apparently do not wish to understand. I honestly think that some of these guys don't think of women as people; I'm not sure what they think women are, but it seems they think women are a separate species from men.
Wait… you said there were women at a skeptic's conference!!?? [Looks back and forth quickly]