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Patrice Lewis Shares Letter from Misogynist Douchebag


GolightlyGrrl

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"Thanks" to Patrice Lewis from Rural Revolution I am now aware of Theodore Beale, who blogs at Vox Popoli. Apparently, he's a right wing author whose books are a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid with a fundie Christian flavor. A young, female engineering student sent him a letter refuting his anti-women claims, and in kind he replied with a condescending diatribe on how she's not that smart and is only good for getting married and having babies. Though his letter is getting a lot of support at Patrice's blog, she actually has some dissenting comments.

Anyway, I thought the exchange and the initial letters were quite interesting. You thoughts?

rural-revolution.com/2013/06/letter-from-young-female-engineer.html#comment-form

[edited by hoipolloi to make link mobile-friendly (removed DOT)]

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It's been a very long time since I've commented here at Free Jinger, but this one forced me to come out of the woodwork.

Ugh, this guy...what an asshole.

I don't know if the young, female engineering student will ever find this but if she does, here's what I'd want to say to her:

I graduated with a degree in Environmental Engineering 15 years ago. I managed to get married and have a child all without losing interest in my career. It hasn't always been easy, but its not easy for anyone. In my case, abandoning my career would have made life harder, not easier. I bet that's true for a lot of women. I am now the Chief Executive in my organization. There are a lot of successful women engineers out there. I would argue that certain types of engineering, Environmental being one example, require the holistic-type thinking that women supposedly excel at. The job requires you to keep a lot of balls in the air. By the way, its an expanding field with declining enrollment. I don't think many employers are very particular about reproductive organs these days. It's hard enough finding qualified people.

In the end its about budgets and schedules. It's the numbers that decide whether you're a success or a failure. I believe that is why women can actually be very successful in this field. You can't fake the numbers - not for long anyway. Vox Day, who displays the trademark bitterness often seen in failed engineers, clearly does not have what it takes. It's probably killing him to see a young woman succeed where he failed.

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"Thanks" to Patrice Lewis from Rural Revolution I am now aware of Theodore Beale, who blogs at Vox Popoli. Apparently, he's a right wing author whose books are a fantasy/sci-fi hybrid with a fundie Christian flavor. A young, female engineering student sent him a letter refuting his anti-women claims, and in kind he replied with a condescending diatribe on how she's not that smart and is only good for getting married and having babies. Though his letter is getting a lot of support at Patrice's blog, she actually has some dissenting comments.

Anyway, I thought the exchange and the initial letters were quite interesting. You thoughts?

rural-revolution.com/2013/06/letter-from-young-female-engineer.html#comment-form

[edited by hoipolloi to make link mobile-friendly (removed DOT)]

Well, that is a writer I will not read. I've never heard of him before this. What is his writing like?

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Whoops. For some reason, I did not remember that Vox's real name was Theodore Beale, but I did find an interesting Rational Wiki about him

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Theodore_Beale

He is a creationist and "anti-materialist" (read: "anti-science"), which has caused him to enter numerous spats with, among others, PZ Myers and Phil Plait.[5] PZ Myers has stated that Beale is “in need of psychiatric help†[6] and also that Beale is “an appallingly freakish idiot, and always a reliable source for the most amazingly inane claimsâ€.[7]

According to him, "female equalitarianism" is a greater threat to science than religion.[8][9] In response to a blog posting by PZ Myers questioning how, exactly, many of the unsavoury aspects of religion benefited women, Beale suggested that honor killings, throwing acid in women's faces and even genital mutilation benefited women because they prevent female independence and promiscuity, which he repeatedly referred to as social ills.[10]

He's also convinced that the July, 2012 theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado was the work of a Federal government conspiracy to grab guns, which makes the appeal to "science and reason" in confirming similar nutjob conspiracy theories in that same essay quite amusing to read.[11]

In addition, VD[12] is also responsible for the insight that Barack Obama is - and these are his exact words, now - a "bad black man". There's no word as to when he'll write a column accusing Obama of strangling newborn puppies and selling crack to preschoolers, though.[13]

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He is right about one thing: I don't care how he feels. I really don't. And more importantly, neither does anyone else. Maybe 200, if that, actually care what he thinks at all. The sooner he grasps that lesson, the better off he will feel. And since I don't care what he does, says, thinks or feels, appealing to his feelings when he encounters differences is not only illogical, but useless. As a result, I will not waste my time caring about his opinion, which does not matter to me. I am also not egotistical enough to believe I am more intelligent than everyone who disagrees with me. I also refuse to take any concern about someone's opinion who thinks women in the workforce is the same as men raping women and that rape causes less damage than women working and calling men useless to society, yet believes that such uncontrolled, useless beings are the only ones who should have a say in our society runs. Nothing is more illogical to me than that concept. So I refuse to entertain his worthless thoughts any longer.

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Whoops. For some reason, I did not remember that Vox's real name was Theodore Beale, but I did find an interesting Rational Wiki about him

http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Theodore_Beale

What is his marital status I wonder? I remember his father and all his crazy behavior in MN.

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What is his marital status I wonder? I remember his father and all his crazy behavior in MN.

I remember him being married, several years ago.

I hope, for the love of all that's good in the world and for the sake of that poor woman, he is no longer.

He's been around a good long while. 10 years or so ago, he was bleating on about his mensa membership and his extraordinary brain. He's always been anti-fem and conservative, but he's taken it to a whole new level in the last... well, I've been ignoring him now for, say - 9 years? so let's say - 9 years, take up to 8.9.

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He is living in the wrong country. They would love him in Afghanistan.

Apparently he lives in Italy. And he is married, wife's name is Heather.

http://woc-archive.blogspot.com/2011/01 ... by-sz.html

Theodore Beale is the eldest son of Robert and Rebecca Beale and the author of this web site. He is also the author of several novels published by Pocket Books. Although two of his books are set in Minnesota, he abandoned the frozen tundra in favor of the sunny Mediterranean shores of Italy some years ago. As much as he'd like to take credit for the idea of the newspaper ad and web site, it was the brainstorm of his PR specialist and wife, Heather.

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He is right about one thing: I don't care how he feels. I really don't. And more importantly, neither does anyone else. Maybe 200, if that, actually care what he thinks at all. The sooner he grasps that lesson, the better off he will feel. And since I don't care what he does, says, thinks or feels, appealing to his feelings when he encounters differences is not only illogical, but useless. As a result, I will not waste my time caring about his opinion, which does not matter to me. I am also not egotistical enough to believe I am more intelligent than everyone who disagrees with me. I also refuse to take any concern about someone's opinion who thinks women in the workforce is the same as men raping women and that rape causes less damage than women working and calling men useless to society, yet believes that such uncontrolled, useless beings are the only ones who should have a say in our society runs. Nothing is more illogical to me than that concept. So I refuse to entertain his worthless thoughts any longer.

:agree:

You wrote what I was thinking. Since I know no one who has ever said this bs to me in my real life, or hinted at it, then he is a minority, hopefully of one, and no one cares what he thinks.

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Wait! What? So, his wife WORKS (other than homemaking)? Sounds very un-christian to me.

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Small world of assholes apparently, as I'm pretty sure this guy was one of the douchiest comments I read on a blog by a female SF writer about the sexist shit that's been published in the SFWA Bulletin.

...And yup, same asshole! Just so happened I still had the blog post up. You can read his oh-so-intelligent and enlightened comment about women writers in science fiction here:

ecatherine.com/dear-sfwa/#comment-71

It makes me inexpressibly sad that guys like this manage to find any woman that will give them the time of day, much less marry them.

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What's with the secrecy about attending "an elite Eastern University." Would he care to name the school? I'm sure they're pleased as punch to have such a brilliant alumnus.

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Small world of assholes apparently, as I'm pretty sure this guy was one of the douchiest comments I read on a blog by a female SF writer about the sexist shit that's been published in the SFWA Bulletin.

...And yup, same asshole! Just so happened I still had the blog post up. You can read his oh-so-intelligent and enlightened comment about women writers in science fiction here:

ecatherine.com/dear-sfwa/#comment-71

It makes me inexpressibly sad that guys like this manage to find any woman that will give them the time of day, much less marry them.

But his favorite sci fi writer is a woman. I'm not going back to look for it, it was in some interview he gave. Never mind, I did go look, Susan Cooper.

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