Rebecca Watson is an American
blogger
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order s ...
and
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...
host. She is the founder of the blog ''Skepchick'' and former co-host of ''
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
''The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe'' (''SGU'') is an American weekly skeptical podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, along with a panel of contributors. The official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, it was named to evoke ''The ...
'' podcast. She also previously co-hosted the ''
Little Atoms
''Little Atoms'' is a website, podcast and magazine dedicated to ideas and culture. The radio show broadcast weekly from London on Resonance FM 104.4. It is hosted by Neil Denny. The website is edited by Padraig Reidy. The first edition of '' ...
'' podcast.
Career
Watson blogs about
atheism
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
politics, and has been particularly active in critiquing the modern atheist movement (sometimes called "
New Atheism
The term ''New Atheism'' was coined by the journalist Gary Wolf (journalist), Gary Wolf in 2006 to describe the positions promoted by some atheists of the twenty-first century. New Atheism advocates the view that superstition, religion and irrat ...
") from within, especially regarding the lack of attention given to the role of women in the movement. Primarily active online, she was described by ''
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...
'' as "the first major atheist whose rise has occurred on the
web
Web most often refers to:
* Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal
* World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system
Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to:
Computing
* WEB, a literate programming system created by ...
".
''Skepchick''
Watson founded the blog ''Skepchick'' in 2005, describing it as "an organization dedicated to promoting skepticism and critical thinking among women around the world".
The same year, Watson released ''The Skepchick Calendar'', a
pin-up
A pin-up model (known as a pin-up girl for a female and less commonly male pin-up for a male) is a model whose mass-produced pictures see widespread appeal as part of popular culture. Pin-up models were variously glamour models, fashion models ...
calendar featuring pictures of
skeptical
Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...
women for every month. Proceeds provided the attendance fee for several female applicants to attend the James Randi Educational Foundation's
The Amaz!ng Meeting
The Amazing Meeting (TAM), stylized as The Amaz!ng Meeting, was an annual conference that focused on science, skepticism, and critical thinking; it was held for twelve years. The conference started in 2003 and was sponsored by the James Randi Educ ...
.
Originally the site consisted of a forum and a monthly online magazine, ''Skepchick Magazine'', which was launched in January 2006.
In February 2006, Watson created a blog titled ''Memoirs of a Skepchick'', as an addition to the magazine.
Eventually the blog, now simply titled ''Skepchick'', became the main site, as Skepchick Magazine was discontinued in July 2006.
''Skepchick'' has a focus on science and skepticism in general rather than atheism in particular. , the site, whose stated goal is "to discuss women's issues from a skeptical standpoint", hosts over 20 bloggers from around the world.
In 2010, ''Skepchick'' partnered with the Women Thinking Free Foundation to host a vaccination drive with the help of the "Hug Me!" campaign at the
Dragon*Con
Dragon Con (previously Dragon*Con and sometimes DragonCon) is a North American List of multigenre conventions, multigenre convention, founded in 1987, which takes place annually over the Labor Day weekend in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia ...
convention in
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...
.
Public health staff allowed members of the public to receive a
TDAP
The DPT vaccine or DTP vaccine is a class of combination vaccines against three infectious diseases in humans: diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough), and tetanus. The vaccine components include diphtheria and tetanus toxoids and either kille ...
vaccination free of charge, as well as educational literature promoting immunization.
In 2011, ''Skepchick'', the
James Randi Educational Foundation
James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an American grant-making institution founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. As a nonprofit organization, the mission of JREF includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of ...
(JREF), and the Women Thinking Free Foundation partnered to offer a similar vaccination clinic at
The Amaz!ng Meeting
The Amazing Meeting (TAM), stylized as The Amaz!ng Meeting, was an annual conference that focused on science, skepticism, and critical thinking; it was held for twelve years. The conference started in 2003 and was sponsored by the James Randi Educ ...
9 in
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
.
The site was the 2012 winner of The
Ockham Awards
QED: Question, Explore, Discover (also called QEDcon or simply QED) is an annual skeptical conference held in Manchester, England. QED is organised by North West Skeptical Events Ltd (NWSE), a volunteer-owned non-profit organisation originating ...
for Best Skeptic Blog.
''The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe''
Watson's first appearance on the podcast ''
The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe
''The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe'' (''SGU'') is an American weekly skeptical podcast hosted by Steven Novella, MD, along with a panel of contributors. The official podcast of the New England Skeptical Society, it was named to evoke ''The ...
'' was on episode 33 (March 9, 2006), where she was interviewed about her work on ''Skepchick''. She returned on episode 36 (March 29, 2006) as a regular member of the panel.
On December 27, 2014, she announced that she had recorded her final show prior to leaving the organization.
Public Radio Talent Quest
In May 2007, Watson entered the Public Radio Talent Quest, a contest aimed to find new public radio hosts.
The contest reported receiving more than 1,400 entries.
Watson's entries won the popular vote in every round,
and she was declared one of three winners who each would receive $10,000 to produce a public radio pilot.
Watson's pilot, ''Curiosity, Aroused'',
was an hour-long program focused on science and skepticism.
It featured interviews with
Richard Saunders of Australian Skeptics and Mystery Investigators, and
Richard Wiseman
Richard J. Wiseman (born 17 September 1966) is a Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. He has written several psychology books. He has given keynote addresses to The Royal ...
, author of Quirkology and Professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the
University of Hertfordshire
The University of Hertfordshire (UH) is a public university in Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. The university is based largely in Hatfield, Hertfordshire. Its antecedent institution, Hatfield Technical College, was founded in 1948 and was ident ...
. She also investigated claims of poisonous amounts of lead in lipstick, went on a ghost tour in
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
and visited a Psychic Fair.
Her show was the only one among the three winners not to receive funding by the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is an American publicly funded non-profit corporation, created in 1967 to promote and help support public broadcasting. The corporation's mission is to ensure universal access to non-commercial, ...
for being turned into a one-year show.
""
Watson speaking at NECSS 2011
The controversy that came to be known as "Elevatorgate" originated with a video Watson made following the June 2011
World Atheist Convention in Dublin, where Watson spoke on a panel, which also included biologist
Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins (born 26 March 1941) is a British evolutionary biologist and author. He is an emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford and was Professor for Public Understanding of Science in the University of Oxford from 1995 to 2008. An ath ...
, about her experience of being
sexualized
Sexualization (or sexualisation) is to make something sexual in character or quality or to become aware of sexuality, especially in relation to men and women. Sexualization is linked to sexual objectification. According to the American Psychologi ...
within the atheist movement on account of her gender.
According to Watson, several members of the panel and audience later gathered for drinks in the hotel bar, which Watson left at around , saying she was going to bed. In a
vlog
A video blog or video log, sometimes shortened to vlog (), is a form of blog for which the medium is video. Vlog entries often combine embedded video (or a video link) with supporting text, images, and other metadata. Entries can be recorded in ...
posted following her return from the trip, she described how a man from the group, whom she had not spoken to before, followed her into an elevator and, once inside, asked her to go back to his room for coffee. Watson said this proposition being made in the confined space of an elevator made her "incredibly uncomfortable" and advised, "guys, don't do that".
She went on to say:
A negative response by the online atheist community to Watson's account of the elevator incident, which was a brief part of a longer video about other topics, soon spread across several websites, including
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
, and became highly polarized and heated.
Writer and biologist
PZ Myers
Paul Zachary Myers (born March 9, 1957) is an American biologist who founded and writes the ''Pharyngula'' science-blog. He is associate professor of biology at the University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) wrote a post on his blog ''
Pharyngula
The pharyngula is a stage in the embryonic development of vertebrates. At this stage, the embryos of all vertebrates are similar, having developed features typical of vertebrates, such as the beginning of a spinal cord. Named by William Ballard, ...
'' about the incident, and the debate steadily grew to include the overall status of women within the secular movement, with most of the movements's prominent figures offering their opinion on whether the elevator incident was
sexual harassment
Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...
. Religious scholar
Stephen LeDrew
Stephen Ralph LeDrew (born 1953) is a Toronto-based lawyer and broadcaster. He served as President of the Liberal Party of Canada from 1998 to 2003, and was a Mayor of Toronto candidate in the 2006 municipal election. He hosted ''LeDrew Live'' ...
writes that this discussion attracted "a continuing vitriolic backlash", with commenters online labeling women who spoke up on the subject as "
feminazi
''Feminazi'' is a pejorative term for feminists that was popularized by politically conservative American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
Origin and usage
''Feminazi'' is a portmanteau of the nouns '' feminist'' and ''Nazi''. According to ' ...
s" and other misogynistic slurs. Watson experienced death threats, with commenters on her blog saying in graphic terms how she should be raped and murdered.
The controversy attracted mainstream media attention when Dawkins joined the debate. Writing in the comments section of ''Pharyngula'', he satirized the supposed indifference of Western feminists to the plight of oppressed
Muslim women
The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree a ...
:
After Dawkins was criticized by multiple commentators, he explained that, in his view, Watson had not suffered any injury, comparing Watson's experience with the annoyance one might feel while riding an elevator with someone chewing gum.
Several commentators argued that this showed Dawkins' insensitivity to gender-related issues such as sexual violence.
LeDrew writes that "For the first time since the New Atheism had risen to prominence,
awkinsfound himself under attack by many of those who had viewed him as a respected leader".
David Allen Green
David Allen Green (born 28 March 1971; 'Allen' is his second forename) is an English lawyer and writer. He is the former legal correspondent for the ''New Statesman''; writes about law and policy for the ''Financial Times''; and has previously b ...
criticized Dawkins for dismissing lesser wrongs because bigger wrongs exist.
Steven Tomlins and
Lori G. Beaman argue that the incident highlights a schism within atheism over the role of feminism, some saying it should take a prominent place in the movement and others calling it divisive.
Watson said of Dawkins, "to have my concernsand more so the concerns of other women who have survived rape and sexual assaultdismissed thanks to a rich white man comparing them to the plight of women who have been mutilated, is insulting to all of us". She stated that she would no longer buy or endorse his books and lectures,
writing:
The result of this exchange led to an extended
internet flame war that several reports dubbed "Elevatorgate".
In the wake of this and an incident at a
Center for Inquiry
The Center for Inquiry (CFI) is a US nonprofit organization that works to mitigate belief in pseudoscience and the paranormal, as well as to fight the influence of religion in government.
History
The Center for Inquiry was established in 199 ...
-sponsored event, where female atheists reported gender bias and inappropriate behavior, organizations including the
Richard Dawkins Foundation have reviewed their policies regarding sexual harassment and non-discrimination.
Dawkins later apologized, stating, "There should be no rivalry in victimhood, and I'm sorry I once said something similar to American women complaining of harassment, inviting them to contemplate the suffering of Muslim women by comparison",
in response to which Watson tweeted, "Richard Dawkins just did the blog-equivalent of coughing into his hand while mumbling 'sorry' to me. Eh, I'll take it."
Personal life
Watson was born in 1980.
She grew up in
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
and earned a
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...
degree in communications from
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...
in 2002.
While attending Boston University, Watson worked as a magician.
Watson says she "had relatively little serious interest in science" during her high school and college years but became more interested in science after being a magician and meeting with people like
James Randi
James Randi (born Randall James Hamilton Zwinge; August 7, 1928 – October 20, 2020) was a Canadian-American stage magician, author and scientific skeptic who extensively challenged paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Rodrigues 2010p. ...
.
On July 11, 2009, she and Sid Rodrigues were married in a surprise ceremony during
The Amaz!ng Meeting 7.
On April 8, 2011, she announced that she and Rodrigues were separated and seeking a divorce.
Honors
An
outer main-belt asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
discovered on March 22, 2001, by
David H. Healy was named
153289 Rebeccawatson in her honor.
See also
*
Greta Christina
Greta Christina (born 1961) is an American atheist, blogger, speaker, and author.
Early life
Christina was born in Chicago in 1961. She graduated from Reed College in 1983. She legally changed her name in her twenties, dropping her family name ...
, atheist blogger
References
External links
SkepchickTeen SkepchickRebecca Watson's PRTQ pagewith streaming of all her entries and ''Curiosity, Aroused'' pilot
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Rebecca
People from Brookline, Massachusetts
Living people
American bloggers
American feminists
American women podcasters
American podcasters
American skeptics
Feminist bloggers
American atheism activists
Boston University College of Communication alumni
Place of birth missing (living people)
People from Salem, New Jersey
Critics of creationism
Victims of cyberbullying
1980 births
21st-century American women