If you’re looking to share your nudes online, then that’s great! It can be very empowering as a woman to share nude pictures. I do it myself every day. I have taken hundreds of naked selfies in my time, all over the world, with men and women alike.

I frequently upload my photos to the Asian nude girls section on sites like Asian Sex Dates or Twitter, which are popular places for Asian girls to share nude pictures. This is what I’ve learned about the art of taking sexy pics:

1) You need to get comfortable with your body.

If you feel ashamed of yourself or don’t think you look good, then don’t take any pictures at all. You won’t enjoy looking at them later if they make you uncomfortable when looking back at your past self. The most important thing is to love yourself first before trying to share it with others. Remember that you are beautiful just the way you are. It takes time and practice to learn to love yourself, but once you do, anything is possible!

2) Take lots of pictures!

Don’t worry about how many people see them, because there will always be more. Learn to embrace your flaws, and to appreciate the beauty in your own body. If you’re not happy with what you see in the mirror, then you should take a lot of pictures until you find the ones that best represent you.

3) Get creative.

Think outside the box and try new poses and angles. Experiment with different lighting and backgrounds. Try posing in different positions so you can discover which ones look the best on you. Have fun and play around with your camera.

4) Find models that inspire you.

Look up celebrities who wear their bodies well and model your looks after them. I’m a big fan of the Kardashians (Kim, Khloe and Kourtney), especially Kim. She has amazing curves and knows how to pose for the camera.

5) Make sure you have proper lighting.

Natural light is usually best, but if you don’t have access to that, use a camera flash!

6) Smile and laugh.

There’s nothing sexier than seeing a girl really enjoying herself in her photo. Be playful and explore your sexual side.

7) Take pictures from multiple angles.

Your camera will probably have an option to rotate images. Use this feature whenever possible. If you want to see how your butt looks in a certain position, then just take two pictures from slightly different angles.

8) Remove all distractions.

Take as many pictures as you want, but only upload the best ones. Delete or trash any that aren’t flattering. Focus on having fun and experimenting with your camera, instead of worrying about how you’re going to look in the picture.

9) Don’t worry too much about how you look.

Just relax and let your natural features shine through. You don’t need to put on makeup or do your hair perfectly. Enjoy the moment and let your body speak for itself.

10) Take nude pictures with your partner(s).

Naked bodies are beautiful no matter who you’re with. As long as you’re both comfortable with each other, then it’s fine to take pictures together. If you’re doing it with someone new, ask them first if they’d be okay with it.

In Conclusion…

Take your time. Experiment and find out what works for you. I hope these tips help you to discover the perfect way to take nude pictures that makes you feel sexy and confident. It took me years to figure it all out, and even now I still experiment with poses and angles constantly. So go ahead and give it a try!

Dating is hard for men and women alike, but women face some issues that men typically don’t. If you’re looking to chat and meet local girls for sex as a man, and you’re wondering what you can do to improve your chances, then this guide is for you. We’ve written this guide for men from a feminist’s perspective to give you some tips on how to date, meet, and fuck with local girls successfully and respectfully.

The Best Dating Apps For Finding Sex

Nowadays many men get their internet/smartphone/social media fix through apps like Tinder or Bumble. These dating apps aim to increase the amount of online dating sites out there, yet this only makes the overall pool of potential partners smaller.

Additionally, online dating makes it easy to give up trying to pick up women on the street. In order to get local women’s attention, you sometimes have to meet them in real life, not through the convenience of an app.

Have you ever met a woman at a party, coffee shop, or other setting, and found out they’re not single or that they aren’t local? One app is putting an end to the guessing games with online dating when you’re just looking for a fuck buddy, and it’s called LocalSex. This app is just what the name implies, and it delivers where dating apps usually fail. Not only do apps like Tinder often fail to get you any dates, but they normally don’t get you sex either. Local Sex is an app just for people who want to meet local people and fuck as soon as possible with no strings.

What Women Think Of Local Hookups

In general, women don’t have many rules, especially when it comes to men. They have a few basics, which include: don’t sleep with a guy within a week or two of meeting him; don’t sleep with a guy before he meets your family and friends; and don’t sleep with a guy unless you know he’s gonna treat you well.

Other common guidelines for women include: Date for a while before sex. Send guy’s cell-phone number and/or email Be polite (don’t be a bitch!) Don’t hook up with guys you know are losers (i.e. guys who come from a criminal background or have a lot of ex-girlfriends).

Get to know a guy before having sex (don’t just sleep with a guy who shows up at your apartment unannounced). Get his family’s approval first.

Common Online Dating Mistakes

Dating has changed a lot in the last few years. Websites like OkCupid, Tinder, Match, Plenty of Fish, Christian Mingle, and more have changed the way people date and connect with people in their area.

But a lot of the confusion is due to the fact that each site has a different way of interacting with people. Some sites have a strict theme, whereas others are more open.

Also, it’s easy for you to get into a pattern of meeting and messaging women with a predefined type, which can keep you from getting out of your comfort zone and having actual conversations with women that are different from the stereotypes of women that you’ve been exposed to throughout your life.

There are many other ways of meeting women through our modern technology, but the online dating scene isn’t for everyone.

Applying Online Dating Etiquette Correctly

Most of the time when you’re talking to a girl on Tinder, she’s really super cute and all of her pictures make her look like the perfect girl next door, the girl you’d walk home with on a chilly night after a movie. It’s so easy to overlook that she might just be a complete psycho, and that you need to watch your own behavior. Especially on Tinder.

Don’t just swipe right on any girl who asks for it and then quickly message her. Or the girls who don’t usually have too many pictures up. They may be crazy and will only want to talk to you to find out more.

Always make sure you are looking for anything strange with the girls you chat with on Tinder. This includes body language, how they dress, and if their online behavior matches their real-life behavior.

Conclusion

So there you have it. We’ve tried to list some ideas to help you improve your dating success. Now you’ve just got to take the first step and go out and meet people. If you have any questions or problems with this guide, feel free to email us.

Complete Fuckbuddy Handbook For Men

Ready to learn everything you need to know about a fuck buddy relationship?

Good, because that’s exactly what’s going to happen. Fuck buddies are the hottest thing in the casual sex scene, and if you’re a red-blooded guy who wants to enjoy all the fun without the hassle, you’re likely already using fuckbuddy dating services like Tinder or Fuckbuddy VIP.

Don’t worry, because this article is going to cover everything in full. From finding a fuck buddy to establishing ground rules to being the best damn casual sex partner a woman could ask for. Here’s your ultimate Fuck Buddy Handbook.

What Is A Fuck Buddy?

Right off the bat, let’s clear up what fuck buddies actually are. Prior to contrary belief, it’s not just some slut who you hook up with when you’re drunk. Your fuck buddy is someone with whom you share a mutually-beneficial relationship based solely on casual sex.

She’s not your girlfriend and you’re not her boyfriend. You two should only meet up when one or both of you are in the mood to fuck, and you should treat each other with respect and politeness. You don’t have to do lovey dovey things like dinner dates and you’ll need to keep all feelings and emotions at the door.

Finding A Fuck Buddy Relationship

First and foremost, you need to know where to meet these elusive fuck buddies, and your first point of call should be online platforms. Social media, dating sites, specialized forums. There are a lot of places you can use to find that perfect person for you.

First, try a trust-worthy site like Tinder or Adult Friend Finder. If nothing happens, hit the more niche platforms like Hinge or Bumble. Don’t shy away from the more ‘traditional’ dating sites like Match either. There are plenty of people on there looking for casual relationships too.

Ignore Your Usual “Type”

Everyone has a preferred kind of partner, right? The kind of person who ticks all your boxes, be they sexual or anything else. Sure, this is good if you’re looking for someone long-term, but not ideal for a casual situation.

When searching for a potential fuck buddy, throw your usual chicks out the window. If your ideal woman is Victoria Beckham then focus on the girls who look nothing like her. There are a handful of reasons for this, but the most important one is that you don’t end up falling in love. In friends with benefits relationships, it’s very easy for love and lust to overlap. Avoid it any way possible.

Establish Ground Rules

This is the most important one of all. If you want to keep a successful fuck buddy relationship alive, then you need to know where the boundaries are. Casual sex arrangements blur the line between friendship, relationship and mutual disconnection, so what things are off the table?

Is pillow talk allowed or should you leave once the pleasure ends? Will you be meeting each other’s friends or parents? Should you still email each other funny cat videos? Is a naughty trip to Milan together out of the question? These are the questions you need to ask.

Don’t Tell Your Friends

Fuck buddy relationships thrive under discretion and privacy. The more people who know about your relationship the more likely you are to part ways sooner rather than later.

One of the most important rules is to keep your arrangement on a need-to-know basis. When other people get involved, they’re likely to try and influence your relationship decisions. How many of your friends have tried to give you relationship advice in the past? Probably a lot, and taking unsolicited advice regarding a FWB arrangement isn’t a good idea.

Kick The Jealousy Habit

When you’re fucking someone for a while, it can start to feel like they belong to you. Sex releases dopamine and dopamine conjures up intense emotional feelings. However, jealousy in a casual sex relationship is the kiss of death.

It’s important to understand that your fuck buddy is probably doing other things with other guys. The chances of you being her sole lover are pretty slim and there’s nothing you can (or should) do about that. The whole point of being casual with each other is that can make good use of other people too.

Be Respectful

Respect goes a long way in this world. Sure, she might just be the women you contact when you’re horny (and vice versa), but always keep in mind that she’s a real person with real feelings and emotions. Even though you only use her for her body, be aware that there could be times when she doesn’t feel like meeting up.

She might have something else to do, like work or studying. In addition, she doesn’t want to be talked to like she’s just an afterthought, whether it’s before sex or after. You are both giving yourselves to each other in the most primal of ways that’s a reason to respect your partner if nothing else.

Don’t Be A Fool

…wrap your tool. Sure, sex is fun, and casual sex is even better. But don’t forget that promiscuous sex comes with risks for both you and her. Be mindful that you might not be the only person she’s having her wicked way with.

Disease, pregnancy, herpes. The casual sex scene is full of it for obvious reasons. I encourage the rule that every man should keep a condom in his wallet at all times just to be on the safe side. No one wants to fuck someone with an STD.

Fuck Buddies Don’t Last Forever

All good flings come to an end. It’s a harsh truth of life. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you’re from, you and your friend with benefits are eventually going to go your separate ways.

This is something you need to be aware of right from the get go. Keep it in the back of your mind at all times because, not only does acknowleding its limited shelf-life heighten the sexual experience, but it will ensure that your heart stays in tact when it all ends.

Now, more than ever, America is divided, and there’s no question it’s affecting how we date. Generally a liberal and a conservative might hookup, but will struggle to build a long term relationship due to the conflict in beliefs. Here’s a quick guide on how to date a conservative (or trump supporter) if you’re a liberal.

Why Conservatives are more likely to be conservative

First off, not all conservatives are crazy conservative. Just like all humans, there are varying degrees of conservatism. Liberals are, in general, more likely to be left-leaning liberals, and conservatives are more likely to be right-leaning conservatives. How to find a liberal If you’re looking for a liberal, you’re probably looking in a college city like San Francisco, or New York City. Smaller cities or suburbs are not the best for finding conservative people. How to date a conservative If you’re looking for a conservative, you need to keep in mind some stereotypes: Conservative people will act like they’re an authority on you. You will be constantly on trial. And also, they might claim to be experts on almost everything.  According to adult dating site https://fuckfree.app conservative men and liberal women are more likely to simply have a one night stand, then to build a long term relationship.

Understand the political spectrum

What I mean by that is that you need to understand the way political parties and ideologies work. That means not assuming they’re all bad or good, but simply understanding the goal behind each party. Conservatives want small government, free market policies and a society of strong leaders. Liberals want government to address and provide solutions for social and economic issues, such as healthcare, education and poverty. To understand their beliefs, you need to understand their ideals and goals. Once you’ve gained that knowledge, you can more easily try to reason and discuss. Gather information For starters, educate yourself on conservative policies. I highly recommend Alexia D’Addario’s well-researched book The Allure of Trump, as well as Hillbilly Elegy.

Understand that liberals and conservatives have differing views

Don’t expect the conservative to abandon his or her beliefs just because you like the other person. Understand that conservatives and liberals have different views on science You will likely find the conservative constantly questioning climate change, evolution, etc. This can be frustrating, especially for someone who is science-literate. Understand that you will be on the opposite end of the spectrum As a liberal, you may be eager to have the conservative over for dinner and to explore shared interests, but you should expect a slow change in your date’s view on issues, and to be challenged by the conservative’s lifestyle.

Understand that conservatives have different views than liberals

Different sides of a debate have opposing ideologies, and as I learned in the Breitbart-report, liberals think conservatives are racist while conservatives think liberals are stupid. It’s tough to find common ground there. One thing I learned was that if a conservative says they’re a “traditional family,” they might have no problem having three kids with three wives, but the liberal may feel differently. Everyone has their opinions. Communicate, and get to know your conservative friend’s belief system first Being a conservative can be a confusing, scary, and intimidating prospect. I think most conservative students would be surprised to know how many different conservative groups there are on campus and what people’s beliefs actually are.

Understand that conservatives don’t necessarily hate liberals

Even though conservatives have a reputation of not wanting to associate with people who don’t agree with their party, you should be prepared for your conservative date to think that they “hate” liberals. But that doesn’t mean they actually do, it just means that they’re used to seeing liberals acting aggressively, therefore making them believe that everyone on the other side is like that. Follow these tips: Keep politics out of the conversation The best way to have a civilized conversation with a conservative is to avoid using the topics of religion or politics altogether. This won’t happen, but you should definitely be on your toes if one of them starts to bring them up.

Understand that conservatives have different values than liberals

Even though they both tend to believe in equality for all (tax cuts for the wealthy and education for everyone), the conservative worldview is about more than just material things. They generally believe in a strong national defense, adherence to the rule of law, traditional gender roles, capitalism, self-reliance, and a greater interest in family. While liberals often subscribe to those values as well, they apply them in different ways. For example, liberals tend to prioritize environmentalism, tolerance, internationalism, and more. Conservatives tend to view the world through a more conservative lens; they value personal responsibility and independent thought over all else. This can make it difficult to understand each other, especially if you want to change someone’s mind.

Understand that conservatives have different life goals

Most are highly religious, yet most don’t believe in social welfare. That means they probably want you to stay at home or avoid working at all. They want you to stop having sex or masturbating (or both), they want you to stop watching R-rated movies, they want you to refrain from drinking alcohol, and they want you to stop putting extra salt on food. If you don’t agree with them, you’re not conservative, you’re a hippie liberal or a leftist. Limit expectations Most conservatives are very set on how a relationship should be. The conservative wants to be in control. It’s essential to understand that the conservative wants to be in control because they hate anyone who’s not. They’re not looking for someone who’s passive. They want someone who’s able to boss them around.

Understand that a liberal and conservative might get along

Liberal and conservative ideologies may be opposite, but there are still some people that share a lot of the same beliefs. The key is to talk about these issues with the person. Hear their point of view, and debate the issue and try to convince them of your side. It’s not uncommon for both the liberal and conservative to have a different opinion on the big issues, like homosexuality, abortion, drugs, crime, etc. Try to stay aware of the politics while you’re dating and try to have a civil debate with them. Support them Sometimes liberal and conservative people are from different sides of the political spectrum, but they just want the same things. Try to support them. Go to their rallies or speeches if you can. Work together on something to get your point across.

The Dating Advice 1. Just be open-minded and understand where they’re coming from. Don’t judge them based on their political views, or what social values they hold. Just try to meet their politics halfway and understand where they’re coming from. The Republican party and it’s supporters is not the enemy. They’re not just going to change their political views, and Trump will eventually stop alienating them. There’s good reasons to vote for Trump. Just be willing to hear out their reasoning. Also, understand they’ll have different beliefs when it comes to social issues, so their views on guns, and life and death issues may not line up with yours. 2. Pick up on their cues. If they say they’ve voted, then maybe they have.

The mid-nineteenth century in the United States was a time of turmoil. The Civil War, fought to end slavery, resulted in over 600,000 deaths of soldiers. Over 400 women served as soldiers, disguising themselves as men. Both men and women joined the abolitionist movement. Most notable of the women abolitionists were Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Harriet Tubman, Mary Todd Lincoln, Lucretia Mott, Clara Barton, and Susan B. Anthony to name just a few. Many of these women became the forefront of the fight for women’s suffrage after the war. What is perhaps less well known is the number of these women activists who were also atheists. Below are a few salient facts about some of these women drawn from Annie Laurie Gaylor’s book, Women Without Superstition: “No Gods-No Masters” published in 1997 by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. All quotes are drawn from this book unless otherwise indicated. These were brave women. Some were arrested, jailed, and ostracized from their families and communities. Just by speaking out, they were violating the tenets of the Bible:

“Let the woman learn in silence in all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” (I Timothy 2:11-14)

Anne Hutchinson

As Ms. Gaylor outlines in her introduction, the first “female heretic” in the “American” colonies was Anne Hutchinson who arrived in 1634. Remember that at this time in this Puritan colony, there was no separation of church and state: the church ruled. Hutchinson began by inviting women to her home to listen and discuss her critique of the male ministers’ sermons and ideas. People became more alarmed, of course, when men began to join her. It is not surprising that she was banished from the colony for “sedition and heresy in 1637.” What is perhaps most interesting, however, is that she and her followers established a community on Aquidneck Island where they adopted a secular government. What courage she had to disagree with virtually everyone in her community and at the cost of banishment! I strongly doubt whether I would have had her strength. Becoming an atheist in Western democracies can mean losing friends and family, but it is not a crime. I am always impressed with the pioneers of a movement. They risk everything, but they persevere. We always owe a great deal to the women who came before us, whether that is in expressing anti-religious beliefs or becoming the first woman scientist, astronaut, lawyer, etc. If they had not blazed the trail, we could not have followed. Other outspoken atheists prior to the Civil War were Anne Newport Royall and Frances Wright.

Ernestine L. Rose

Gaylor characterizes Rose as “nineteenth-century America’s most outspoken atheist.” Her early life must have prepared her to fight the battle of religion. She was raised by a rabbi, lost her mother at sixteen, made a legal case for refusing to marry an older man her father had chosen for her, appealed to the Prussian king regarding the restrictions of travel for Jews, and started a business. Whew! Any one of those things would have been considered difficult even for the men of her day. Once in the United States, she became a woman’s rights activist and was instrumental in achieving the passage of the Married Woman’s Property Act of New York passed in 1848. Part of that act reads as follows:

“The real and personal property of any female who may hereafter marry, and which she shall own at the time of marriage, and the rents issues and profits thereof shall not be subject to the disposal of her husband, nor be liable for his debts, and shall continue her sole and separate property, as if she were a single female.”

In a time when education was limited, especially for women, and society preferred the demure, obedient housewife, it is truly amazing that a woman such as Ernestine Rose could do what she did. She also worked with others to gain women’s suffrage and was an outspoken atheist. In a lecture entitled “A Defence [sic] of Atheism” she writes the following:

“But believing as I do, that Truth only is beneficial, and Error, from whatever source, and under whatever name, is pernicious to man, I consider no place too holy, no subject too sacred, for man’s earnest investigation; for by so doing only can we arrive at truth, learn to discriminate it from Error, and be able to accept the one and reject the other.”

We can only wish that our politicians today who want to curtail women’s reproductive rights, refuse to accept climate change, and cling to their Iron Age religions were as intelligent as she was.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton

If ever time travel becomes possible, I would like to travel back and meet this woman. She is one of my heroes. I am using the following quote from her for the introduction to my next book.

“Take the snake, the fruit-tree and the woman from the tableau, and we have no fall, nor frowning Judge, no Inferno, no everlasting punishment – hence no need of a Savior. Thus the bottom falls out of the whole Christian theology. Here is the reason why in all the Biblical researches and high criticisms, the scholars never touch the position of women.”[1]

She was the person who wrote the text of the Nineteenth Amendment guaranteeing women’s right to vote. As Gaylor explains, Susan B. Anthony gets most of the credit for women’s suffrage. Stanton was more well-known at the time, but her “outspoken criticism of religion” relegated her to a position below Anthony’s in the history books.

Women abolitionists, such as Stanton, had to suffer the fact that they were not the equal of men. Her honeymoon took her to the World’s Anti-Slavery Convention in London where the women were separated from the men. In addition, they were not permitted to speak. Isn’t it amazing that at a convention to talk about liberating the slaves, women were not seen as needing equal rights? At that time, men just couldn’t make the leap to human rights for all.

In a sermon in London rendered in an article in the Boston Investigator in 1901, she states the following:

“According to Church teaching, woman was an after-thought in the creation, the author of sin, being at once in collusion with Satan. Her sex was made a crime, marriage a condition of slavery, owing obedience; maternity a curse; and the true position of all womankind one of inferiority and subjection to all men; and the same ideas are echoed in our pulpits to-day.”

We all owe her a debt of gratitude for exposing the superstition of religion. If only her views had held sway, we would not be in the situation today, 100 years later, of still having a society whose dominate views center around a supernatural god who rules over the lives of its people.

This is just a small sampling of the women Gaylor portrays in her book. She does a short biography on each and then includes their original works if available. Great resource!

Karen L. Garst

The Faithless Feminist

Dressed in my cotton print dress with two scratchy crinolines underneath, I hold my mother’s hand as we enter the gathering area for Sunday school classes. After an opening song, we split up by age group. Cautiously, I enter the first grade room. Fortunately, I know at least three kids. Thank heaven! The teacher, Mrs. Johnson, informs us that each week we will learn about a different story from the Bible. I’m just learning to read at public school and love it when someone reads out loud to me. Sunday school sounds like it’s going to be great! I shouldn’t have worried so much.

Both my mother and father have shared some of the stories from the Bible with me and I’ve seen my father open his black leather Bible every night. But coming to church seems different. I’ve been to church before and everyone is quiet when the pastor speaks. I don’t understand much of what he says, so I hope Mrs. Johnson will be easier to understand, just like my teacher at school.

After she asks us to calm down and sit quietly in our chairs, Mrs. Johnson explains the story of Adam and Eve. She skips over the creation of the earth and goes right to the garden part. Eve eats from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge and boy is God mad! She and Adam get kicked out of the Garden of Eden and now Eve becomes the cause of all the sin in the world!

All right, I don’t remember this episode exactly, but it probably happened in a similar manner. There I was, an eager young girl, ready to learn about my faith. And what was I hit with? Women are the cause of all evil. Seriously?

It is hard to underestimate the role that the story of Eve has played in the treatment of women in Western Civilization. She comes to symbolize all that is wrong with humankind. She represents disobedience, pride, arrogance, lust, and sin. While previous patriarchal societies, even those with female deities, had treated women as subordinate to men in terms of property ownership, the right to choose a spouse, and access to education, the portrayal of Eve brings that subordination to a whole new level.

Prior to Israelite monotheism, women weren’t always portrayed as the epitome of evil. Carved clay figurines dating from 25,000 years ago may have symbolized the awe and mystery of new birth. These figurines, mostly female, often with pregnant torsos and pendulant breasts, were found in the living spaces of our hunter-gatherer ancestors. These figurines represented, in all likelihood, the regenerative power of the female, who was responsible for giving birth to new members of the clan. These clay representations were probably used also to promote the fertility of the land when the tribes moved from hunting and gathering to simple agriculture. Referred to as clay pillars, similar female figurines have been found extensively in the area of the Israelites’ settlement in Canaan dating to the 7th and 8th centuries BCE.

Virtually all religions prior to Judaism also had women in them: Greeks had Aphrodite and Artemis; Romans had Minerva, Venus and Diana; and the Babylonians had Ishtar and Ninlil just to name a few. Even the Canaanites worshipped the goddess Asherah along with the male gods Ba’al and El. But this new Israelite religion, the first strictly monotheist religion, is going to be different: no women. Just one god (for now) and he is MALE.

But let’s get back to Eve. Banishment from paradise isn’t the only punishment for Eve. In addition to putting her under the rule of man from this time forward, god tells Eve that she will also endure great pain in childbirth. Instead of venerating fertility as other religions had done, the Bible equates it with sin. In the 1800’s, this passage about punishment of pain for women was used by clerics to attempt to deny women any anesthesia during childbirth![1] What omniscient, omnipotent god would make the wonderful and amazing event of giving birth a painful punishment?

But how about the Christians? Did they carry this story forward? As the followers of Jesus were Jewish, they knew the Tanakh well. Tanakh became what Christians now call the Old Testament. Even though Eve is not mentioned anywhere outside of Genesis, early Christian leaders weren’t going to let go of that imagery or the opportunity to further subordinate women – in the priesthood, in her role in the new church, and in virtually all aspects of their lives. Tertullian, a prolific Christian writer (155-240 CE) in the Roman province of Carthage, was just one of many to expand upon the biblical account of Eve to further denigrate women:

And do you not know that you are Eve? God’s sentence hangs still over all your sex and His punishment weighs down upon you. You are the devil’s gateway; you are she who first violated the forbidden tree and broke the law of God. It was you who coaxed your way around him whom the devil had not the force to attack. With what ease you shattered that image of God: Man! Because of the death you merited, even the Son of God had to die…Woman, you are the gate to hell.[2]

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons in Gaul (modern-day France) in the second century (ca. 115 – ca. 202 CE) summed it up well, “Eve, having become disobedient, was made the cause of death both for herself and for all the human race.”[3] Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus (ca. 315 – 403 CE) noted ironically:

For Eve was called mother of the living after she had heard the words, “You are dust and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19), in other words, after the fall. It seems odd that she should receive such a grand title after having sinned. Looking at the matter from the outside, one notices that Eve is the one from whom the entire human race took its origin on this earth.[4]

19^th century atheist and woman suffragette Elizabeth Cady Stanton commented on the pivotal role this story has played in the subordination of women.

Take the snake, the fruit-tree and the woman from the tableau, and we have no fall, nor frowning Judge, no Inferno, no everlasting punishment – hence no need for a Savior. Thus the bottom falls out of the whole Christian theology. Here is the reason why in all the Biblical researches and high criticisms, the scholars never touch the position of women.[5]

What has been the legacy of this portrayal of the first woman? Women in countries across the globe are still denied access to education and other rights based in part on this story. Remember that each of the three monotheist religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, all support the books of the Old Testament as divinely inspired. Even in the United States, access to education for girls was not commonplace until the late 19th century and that still depended on race and class distinctions. Today, the most vocal opponents to women’s rights to birth control, abortion, and the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment use the Bible as the justification for their views.

Maybe it’s time for women to say no to religion and to recognize the Judeo-Christian tradition not as divinely inspired but as a means for men to dominate women, for men to secure property and power, and for women to keep their place in the private sphere. In the Western World today, women have an opportunity to be equal to men: in the workplace, in the public sphere, and at home. Times have changed. As women, let’s acknowledge the role religion played in the patriarchal society of old as we work to create a society that values men and women equally. Let’s acknowledge it’s time to let go of religion. As Sonia Johnson said after her excommunication by the Mormon Church in 1979: “One of my favorite fantasies is that one Sunday not one single woman, in any country of the world, will go to church. If women simply stop giving our time and energy to the institutions that oppress, they would have to cease to do so.”[6]

Karen Garst

The Faithless Feminist

July 27, 2015

P. S. I am always looking for contributions to my blog. If you are interested in writing, you can contact me here.

[1] Gaylor, Annie Laurie. (1981) Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So: The Bible, Female Sexuality, and the Law. Madison, Wisconsin: Freedom from Religion Foundation, p. 65.

[2] Steffanelli, Al . (2012) Free Thoughts: A Collection of Essays by An American Atheist. UAF Publications at Smashwords, p. 17

[3] Miller, Patricia Cox. (2005) Women in Early Christianity. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, p. 292

[4] Ibid., p. 293

[5] Daly, Mary. (1973) Beyond God the Father. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press, p. 69.

[6] Gaylor, Annie Laurie. (1981) Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So: The Bible, Female Sexuality, and the Law. Madison, Wisconsin: Freedom from Religion Foundation, p. 132.

When I got enraged at the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, I wrote a book about why women should leave religion: Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life without Religion. I started this blog and named it Faithless Feminist. I had always defined feminist as gender equality between men and women. Three years ago, I had never heard of third wave feminism, intersectionality, social justice warrior, atheism plus, or elevator gate. Needless to say, I have learned about all of them and more since then.

Last spring I was contacted by the folks planning the Mythicist Milwaukee Conference (MMC) and asked to help advertise it by giving out free tickets to some of my blog subscribers. I had been on their podcast and did a presentation for one of their meetups and was happy to help out. In exchange, I was given two free VIP tickets for the Saturday, September 30 event. I called one of my best friends in Wisconsin and she was interested in going with me. Cool! I will admit I didn’t pay much attention to the line-up of speakers. I did notice the movie preview of “Batman and Jesus” which looked interesting. I made my airline and hotel reservations and didn’t give it another thought.

Then a few weeks ago, the shit storm hit. It turned out that David Rubin, The Rubin Report, who was initially scheduled, had dropped out and a substitute had been made – Carl Benjamin, also known as Sargon of Akkad. I had watched a couple of his videos and some debates people had had with him. He is controversial to say the least. Several people point out the problems he had caused in the past and others called on the organizers to not put him on stage. I did attend and would like to make this report.

Freedom of speech

If the organizers of MMC wanted to invite certain people to their conference, that is their business. I can choose to be interested and attend or I can choose not to. Yes, there was an expectation that they would focus on atheism and skepticism. Their vision is “a world free from religious oppression and bigotry” and their goal is to promote “dialogue about culture, religion and freedom of thought.” But like most people, I hadn’t paid much attention to the change in speakers until I saw the Twitter and Facebook posts. I still intended to go to the event. I had non-refundable airline tickets and was looking forward to seeing my friend. I also thought it would be interesting to see what happened at the conference. Controversy can lead to the growth and advancement of a movement. We shouldn’t want to spend our time in echo chambers of only people who agree with us. Some attendees, especially well known ones, decided not to attend. I appreciate their reasoning and support any individual’s decision not to attend. There were some very good speakers at the conference including Melissa Chen, Faisal Saeed Al-Mutar, and Asra Nomani – all well prepared, interesting, and with differing views. I would in particular suggest watching Chen’s talk about what happened to the values brought on by the Enlightenment. A video of MMC will be posted here. I am going to concentrate my remarks on the debate between Sargon of Akkad and Thomas Smith as it was one of the biggest mash-ups I have ever seen on stage. Most of the opposition to the conference involved Sargon’s presence.

Sargon of Akkad and Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith was originally chosen as an interviewer of David Rubin. When Rubin pulled out, he was asked to “debate” or “interview” Sargon of Akkad. I am not going into all the criticisms of Sargon because you can find them easily enough online and even on his own channel. It is also pretty clear that MMC organizers knew all about him. They mentioned on an earlier podcast that people are tired of “god is dead” debate so they went in another direction. They also called Sargon an entertainer. I am not at all sure that he would appreciate being characterized as such. I think he sees himself as an intellectual commentator on social issues and politics.

The “debate” ended up being about feminism, social justice warriors, and intersectionality. Sargon claimed that gender equality now exists and that any difference in outcomes for people “is an indication of freedom.” He stated that “95% of CEO’s are men because they wanted to be a CEO.” In response to a question from Smith, he added that “affirmative action is discrimination.” He stated that you can’t focus on the group, you must focus on the individual. Now this is a lot to unpack in a short blog post. But it reminds me of the myth of Horatio Alger. Alger was a prolific 19^th century author who wrote about how hard work and determination as an individual could get you anywhere. It is now often referred to as “the myth of Horatio Alger.”

But let’s take a look at women’s rights. Did women win the vote because they individually went to the voting booth and asked to vote? No, winning the right for women to participate in the US democracy took the combined efforts of many like-minded men and women who believed women were the equals of men. It took an amendment to the US Constitution to bring it about. How did we defeat the terrible Jim Crow laws in the US? Martin Luther King was a powerful leader, but he could not have won the civil rights battle by himself. Many, many disparate people came together to get the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed. If you want to assert your rights as an individual, you must have some rights in the first place and virtually all of these rights are gained by collective action usually for a group as a whole.

Sargon likes to brand everything he disagrees with as Marxist collectivism. Marxist collectivism is defined as “political theories that put the group before the individual.” In other words, socialism and communism. Just because people come together to achieve equal rights does not make the effort Marxist collectivism. Sargon also claims he is a “classical liberal.” If anything, he’s a libertarian. Do it on your own. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Don’t complain about the ghetto, just get out of it. How naïve. For him if one person has a mountain of barriers to climb and another can just step off the curb, he calls that freedom. If we care about equal opportunity, then let’s look at what it takes to achieve equal opportunity. It’s not Sargon’s version of Horatio Alger.

I was the first person to ask a question about this debate and stated the following: “I am the Faithless Feminist. I believe that religion is the last cultural barrier to gender equality. We need to get more women to give up religion. And it’s not going to happen if there are no women on a panel that talks about feminism and intersectionality.” Sargon responded that he would try to come next time as other than a white male, thus making fun of my comment. I guess he is just an entertainer because his groupies all applauded him and laughed. I think a woman should have debated Sargon with a moderator in between.

What bothered me most about his presentation was the response of the audience. In 2016, Sargon had commented “I wouldn’t even rape you,” to a British member of parliament who had been a victim of sexual assault earlier in her life. When Smith asked him if he thought his comment was immoral, Sargon said he didn’t care. The audience cheered and clapped. Sargon had also admitted to harassing women online and to laughing at a report that a woman atheist had been murdered. The people who clapped in the audience were mostly men – young men, white men. It is this which made me the saddest. Ironically, they were doing exactly what they complained about feminism – playing the victim card. Poor us, women are taking over. Is this what an atheism/skeptical conference has come to? Next time, I’ll be more careful when I make those airline reservations.

Karen L. Garst

The Faithless Feminist

Guest post by Zerin M. Firoze

I never believed in religion, not even as a child. Religions, particularly Islam, never made sense to me. However, I used to believe in Allah—The Almighty God who created the whole universe. After all, just like most Muslim kids, it was drilled into my head that there is no god except Allah and the prophet Muhammad is his only messenger. My imam told me to write “There is no god except Allah and the prophet Muhammad is his only messenger” hundreds of times every day and to learn it by heart. There is no way I could doubt or deny the existence of the All-powerful, Omni-potent and Omni-present Allah.

As a child, endless doubt and questions used to arise in my young mind when I used to read outdated Sharia laws and Bronze Age moral stories in the Qur’an and other Islamic textbooks. However, I quickly used to reassure myself by saying, “Maybe religions are man-made but Allah is real.” How can I or this planet exist without Almighty Allah’s grace and power?  There must be a god called Allah. My mother and imam used to scold me every time I used to doubt and ask too many questions about religion. My mother and imam used to warn me not to use the devil’s tool—critical thinking skills, that Allah is testing my faith, and that I must have faith in all-powerful Allah.  I used to feel guilty for doubting the existence of All-powerful Creator Allah. I quickly used to pray and ask for forgiveness when a bout of seasonal doubt used to attack me.

My maid and mother constantly used to threaten me about Satan and eternal hell-fire if I did not behave like a pious, modest Muslim girl.  I could not sleep at night because I literally used to believe in the existence of Allah, Satan, jinns (genies), angel Gabriel, and other superstitious mythical characters. Between age seven to ten I was extremely superstitious. My mother used to hang showpieces with Arabic writings in the living room, dining room, bedroom and everywhere in the house. I used to feel extremely guilty every time I used to stretch my legs while lying down on a sofa and my legs used to point toward “holy” Arabic writings which mention Allah’s name. I used to feel as if I were pointing my legs to god. I used to feel guilty if I accidentally used to keep my science or history textbook on top of my Islamic textbooks. I used to believe that the divine Qur’an and other Islamic textbooks were holy and should always be placed above mere science books. In fact, all the furniture in my house and at most Muslim houses are arranged in a way so that our feet never point toward the holy Kaaba in Mecca. After coming home from school, I used to watch Dr. Zakir Naik’s videos on Peace TV and at that time I used to consider him the most logical preacher.

I lived my childhood and teenage life with superstitious fear in my heart. However, I was also exposed to science and my family was pretty much secular compared to an average Pakistani/Bengali family. My parents enrolled me in the most expensive private high school of Bangladesh. My father is a scientifically literate person and is a free-thinker as well. My father always encouraged me to think critically and taught me math and science. Unlike my mother, my father never forced religion, the hijab, or the burqa down my throat. My father gave me more freedom than is ever granted to an average Bengali Muslim girl.

However, everything slowly started to change as I grew up. My parents told me that I no longer had to study and that I should drop out of high school. Even when I was in kindergarten, my dad used to constantly taunt me about my high tuition fees and used to threaten me that he would pull me out of school. However, I never thought this would actually happen.

Around 2012-2013, many of my high school friends were forced to quit high school and later were forced into arranged marriages. While in the western world, men and women alike normally use dating apps, in other parts of the world this is still common. My parents no longer wanted to educate me either. Back in 2013, a film called “Innocence of Muslims” was released on YouTube. The Bangladesh government decided to ban the entire YouTube platform just because of that one particularly anti-Islam video on YouTube. The Bangladesh government is notoriously famous for banning Facebook, YouTube, and even the whole Internet because the Internet contains atheist bloggers, cartoons of the prophet, and other anti-Islam content. I used to be very angry at my government for shutting down social media and anti-Islamic film makers and cartoonists for making anti-Islamic content. After all, I was raised in a conservative society and I was always taught that religion is a good thing. It is a holy thing and is above criticism. I deeply believed that I must respect others’ belief even though I was not religious. I folded my sleeves and aggressively logged into Facebook to give a piece of mind to white people who are insulting my birth religion Islam. I encountered many atheists on random anti-Islam pages and they spoke very rudely to me and opened my eyes.

The last time I read the Qur’an was when I was in seventh grade. Even during my grade seven days, I could not take religion and outdated verses seriously. However, I firmly believed that religion should be respected and Allah did exist.  I kept making excuses and went back to reading the Qur’an again for the first time after becoming an adult. I shook my head in disbelief. My adult mind simply could not take in the garbage in the Qur’an. I dug deeply for truth and did my own homework and research. I was also taking my A-Level exams during that time and I studied evolution for the first time in class. I was agnostic from 2013 till July 2014 and then I fully came out as an atheist on 2014. Initially, I called myself agnostic because I just could not give up the idea of an all-powerful creator. Later, I realized that the silly, sadistic gods described in the scripture cannot exist in reality. Islamic preachers’ speeches, like those of Zakir Naik’s, are full of anti-science nonsense.

My friends’ forced marriages, my parents’ refusal to educate me and their desire to marry me off, and numerous terrorist attacks and gross atrocities committed in the name of Islam forced me to seriously question my birth religion and culture again. I read the Quran and Hadith again and I found out that it contradicted my secular upbringing and scientific education that I had received at my private English high school. I first heard about the term “atheist” on 2014 and finally I found a label that suits me well.

I became more confident and independent after becoming an atheist. I stopped believing in supernatural power and took complete charge of my life. I was able to stand up against a forced arranged marriage and I demanded my right to receive an education. Atheism has truly freed me from the dangerous shackles of Islam.

Zerin M. Firoze is now a nursing student in New York. If you would like to support her efforts, check out this link –  Zerin M Firoze | Patreon  Zerin’s escape and journey to the United States will be featured in next week’s blog post.

We all know that the movement called the “New Atheism” was promoted most importantly by the “Four Horsemen.” These men-Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens-all became very outspoken after the tragedy of 9/11. Each of them published seminal books in the first decade of the 21st century. A survey of the 100 best-selling books on atheism on Amazon shows each of them still in the top ten today. The number of women on that list of 100 on May 8, 2017 was two. YouTube debates between Christian apologists and atheists are dominated by men, usually on both sides of the issue, including the men mentioned above. Women atheists who take to debates about religion are few and far between. Why?

If we look at the men listed above, Dawkins was a renowned scientist with many books to his name and Dennett was a philosopher with works published as well. Both of these fields, if indeed these fields gave rise to their work on atheism and I would argue they did, have been dominated by men. Data from 2011 show that slightly over 20% of faculty teaching philosophy in the United States are women.[1] Currently, even though women make up 47 percent of the total U. S. workforce, they comprise much lower percentages in the fields of science: from a high of 39 percent of chemists to just 12 of civil engineers.[2] Hopefully the new emphasis on STEM education will bring more women into the field by encouraging girls to explore the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Sam Harris is a philosopher and neuroscientist combining the fields of both Dawkins and Dennett. His first work criticizing religion was written while he was still working on his PhD. Timing is everything they say. Finally, the late Christopher Hitchins was a well-known author and columnist on a wide range of issues. He wrote over 30 books in his lifetime including a strong critic of Mother Teresa. It is fair to say that each of these authors was well positioned to write about religion. It is also fair to attribute the renewed emphasis on atheism in the 21^st century to their work.

In the United States, women atheists have been around for centuries. Annie Laurie Gaylor, in her seminal book, Women without Superstition: “No Gods-No Masters,” chronicles the contributions of 51 women freethinkers from the 18^th century to the present.[3] Thus, one cannot argue that there are no historical precedents for women standing up and declaring their atheism. Elizabeth Cady Stanton is one of the more well-known 19^th century women who not only supported the abolition of slavery, but also the women’s suffrage movement, all the while opposing organized religion. She once said, “Surely the immutable laws of the universe can teach more impressive and exalted lessons than the holy books of all the religions on earth.”[4] Suffice it to say that she received a fair amount of censure for her views on religion but probably not as much as Madalyn Murray O’Hair who was portrayed in a Life magazine article in 1964 as “The Most Hated Woman in America.” She was the head of American Atheists and was murdered along with her son and granddaughter in an extortion scheme.

Today, Annie Laurie Gaylor is the co-president of the important Freedom from Religion Foundation based in Madison, Wisconsin. She joins other women heads of organizations such as Margaret Downey, former president of the Atheist Alliance International and founder and president of the Freethought Society, Debbie Goddard, director of African Americans for Humanism, Rebecca Hensler, founder of Grief Beyond Belief, Maryam Namase, an ex-Muslim activist in London and many others. Women atheist authors and bloggers include Sikivu Hutchinson, Greta Christina, Candace Gorham, Susan Jacoby, Rebecca Goldstein, and Valerie Tarico. And the list continues, but the problem remains. A recent Pew Research study cites that 68% of the people who identify as atheists are men.[5]

I believe that they are many reasons why there are not more women atheists. The most important involves the sense of community. When a woman participates in a church, she usually does much more than attend services. She volunteers to teach the children’s classes. She volunteers to help with events. My mother-in-law is 95 and she is STILL the volunteer for potlucks for funerals at her local Catholic parish, which means they are still depending on women to volunteer to get the work done. When my father was elected deacon of my home church, Trinity Evangelical Lutheran in Bismarck, North Dakota, he came home and informed my mother that “the wives” of the deacons, because of course the deacons were all men at that time, were responsible for the flowers on the altar each Sunday. Bless my mother, she said, “I didn’t run for deacon of the church, you did” and refused to do it. She was the exception. She was, however, a Sunday School teacher and part of the Ladies’ Aid. With volunteer work come connections. Other women become your friends. Your kids play together and know each other. You live in the same community as most religious institutions are neighborhood based. And it’s not just about Sunday. You may sing in the choir. You may attend Bible Study. For some, the church is the center of their entire social life. Marsha Abelman, one of the essayists in my first book, Women Beyond Belief: Discovering Life without Religion, said that once she and her husband decided to leave the church, NO ONE in the congregation remained their friends. That’s a tough blow that many are unwilling to take. They may have lost their faith, but they are not willing to lose their friends.

Another factor is the ability to be on the outside, to be the one who is different, and to be the one who most people, at least in the United States, aren’t comfortable with. If you are an atheist sitting in a pew and have never told anyone, you are hardly going to convince another woman to leave the church. You are even less likely to take an active role in an atheist organization. It’s not easy getting the stares and comments when you announce you are an atheist. For some atheists, like ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali, there are even threats to their lives. It is also not easy to take on the role of an outspoken atheist if you don’t already have a platform. When I wrote my first book, I had never participated in an atheist organization and had never published a book. I can assure you that it is an uphill battle.

Leadership also plays a role. Let’s face it, with only 5% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies headed by women and no woman president… yet, women are not always seen as the ones to stick their necks out and take the plunge. I remember an incident that occurred when I was in graduate school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The Teaching Assistants were an organized local of the American Federation of Teachers when we went on strike against the University. During the strike, the women teaching assistants announced a meeting of women TA’s. During that meeting, a woman stood up and said, “We need to pick a spokesperson to represent us at the membership meetings.” I was astounded and answered, “Do you think the guys are picking spokespersons? We ALL need to speak up at the meetings and share our views, just like the guys.” Here was a highly-educated set of women who just didn’t get it. Yes, it was a long time ago, but life hasn’t changed that much.

Finally, many church communities provide a social safety net for members of their congregation. Sikivu Hutchinson has written extensively about this issue in her book, Moral Combat, as well as other works. According to research by the Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation, 87% of African-American women said that religion was “very important” in their lives. That compares to 79% of African-American men, 66% of white women, and 51% of white men.[6] When the parents of an African-American decide not to take their children to church, Hutchinson notes that “female relatives and neighbors often volunteer to escort children of non-practicing parents to church.”[7] Stressing the support the church communities often provide to families, she states, “With blacks comprising 25% of the nation’s poor, only economic justice can truly redress the cult of religiosity in African American communities.”[8]

These are just a few of the reasons that men outnumber women in the atheist “movement.” But we can overcome these obstacles and create a more balanced voice for atheism. Wendy Marsman has started a podcast, Women Beyond Belief. She interviews women who have left religion. If you are a woman atheist, please consider speaking to her. She can be contacted at www.womenbeyondbelief.com. The more voices we have the more likely we are to attract more women. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Karen L. Garst

The Faithless Feminist

In 1987, teaching creation science in public school classrooms became illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Edwards v. Aguillard may have barred the teaching of creation science, but, shortly thereafter, the term “intelligent design” (ID) was coined as a euphemism to offer an argument against a purely scientific explanation for the creation of the world and as an argument against biological evolution of species in particular. Christian apologists now use words like “irreducible complexity” to try to refute the fact that we evolved from earlier beings. Conservative Christians formed the Discovery Institute to push ID as a theory that should be taught in schools.

But if a woman thinks carefully about her body and how it functions, she will know that an intelligent designer did not create it. Let’s take a look.

Childbirth

If a woman has been through childbirth, she can tell you that while it is exciting to deliver a child, it hurts like hell. I remember the birth of our son. My husband and I had attended a natural childbirth class. When the doctor advised that I get an epidural (after 12 hours of labor), my husband suggested I just continue to take deep breaths. You can imagine what I told him to do with the deep breaths suggestion. Then, I had an epidural and knew in an instant the anesthesiologist was my new best friend. I never had another child, but if I had, I would have asked for the epidural the moment that I pushed open the hospital doors.

The reason for the pain in childbirth is understandable with a quick lesson in evolution. When our ancestors started to walk upright, the shape of the pelvis began to change to accommodate a walking gait. Specifically, a narrower pelvis developed. Over hundreds of thousands of years, human brains gradually became more complex and grew bigger to accommodate a higher level of intelligence. The coincidence of these two changes resulted in a baby with a larger head being delivered through a narrower pelvis. Pain, therefore, results as the mother pushes a bigger baby through a smaller opening. (Today, where a child cannot be delivered through this opening, a caesarean section must be performed.)

Women need not believe that they are being punished for original sin by being made to bear unbearable pain in childbirth. There is a logical explanation for what she experiences, and the “original sin” musings of ancient believers can be set aside in favor of a more rational explanation for pain in childbirth.

Menstrual Cycle

Most women might agree that it was not intelligent to create a woman capable of getting impregnated EVERY month. (On the contrary, many women might think such a design was a cruel joke). The impact of a woman having thirteen menstrual cycles in a year is that—prior to reliable birth control—a woman got pregnant about every two years if she was having regular intercourse. I once investigated my family genealogy and the national census listed the ages of the children of one of my ancestors as 2, 4, 6, 8 and so on. You can see the pattern here: women had many children in two-year increments. This was likely not the pattern in early societies, but once nutrition reached a certain level, this became the norm. I found it very prevalent in the 19th century for example.

In general, menstrual cycles are limited to primates. But did you know that in most placental mammals, there is no shedding of the uterine lining? It just gets reabsorbed into the body—no need for tampons there. Biologists debate whether the monthly loss of blood was an evolutionary advantage or not. Whether it was to our evolutionary advantage or not, it is not serving us well today.

Clitoris

Why isn’t it on the inside? Wouldn’t it make more sense for the clitoris to be located on the inside of the vagina where the man’s penis rubs against it during intercourse? Being on the outside, the clitoris is usually only stimulated through external forms of contact that require some extra effort on the man’s part or the woman’s. The organ’s exterior location just isn’t very effective for stimulating a woman through intercourse. Don’t get me wrong, that is pleasurable of course, but inside would have been better. Its location can, in part, be explained because the clitoris and the penis both developed from the genital tubercle. A protein on the Y chromosome causes the tubercle to develop into a penis, hence, the outside location. Without this protein, a clitoris develops.

Since the first publication of this article, I have received several comments about the fact that in the last ten years, it was discovered that there are parts of the clitoris that extend into the body cavity and wrap around the vagina. Who knew? Read more here. Someone also pointed out that the clitoris inside the vagina might not work so well during childbirth.

The exterior location of the clitoris has also allowed genital mutilation to be practiced. A barbarous practice still prevalent today primarily in areas of North Africa, this involves cutting out the clitoris resulting in the female losing any pleasure this organ allows. Had it been hidden inside the vagina, maybe this practice never would have arisen.

In the same location, there is another major flaw—the juxtaposition of the urethral opening and the vaginal opening. The vagina also shares a wall with the bowel. This anatomy is responsible for urinary tract infections and fistulas. The latter often occur when very young girls give birth and endure long labors. A fistula is a hole between the vagina and the rectum or bladder. The resulting seepage causes a woman to be incontinent. The Fistula Foundation has been set up to provide repairs to these women. If a repair is not made, her community often shuns the young woman.

Breasts

Desmond Morris in his book, The Naked Ape, postulates that large breasts developed in women when intercourse moved from the man approaching the woman from the back to a woman facing a man during intercourse. In the first instance, the large buttocks of a woman were what attracted the male. In the second, the breasts evolved to substitute. Given the current status of female breasts displayed in pornography, the shunning of mothers nursing in public, and the possibility of being arrested for indecent exposure should a woman be bare-breasted in public, the obsession with a female’s breasts continues today regardless of whether Morris was right or not.

However, large breasts are not necessary for lactation to occur. In fact, some women with larger breasts encounter too much engorgement during nursing. The flow of milk is triggered by how much the baby nurses and is not dependent on a large breast, which is just evidence of a large amount of fatty tissue.[1]

It is probably hard to imagine what it would be like to have breasts like a man’s (although that is pretty close to how I was shaped as a young teen—28AAA bra). While men do experience breast cancer, this is much more prevalent in women. Man’s risk of cancer is 1 in 1,000 and a woman’s is 1 in 8.[2] As a breast cancer survivor myself, I would have happily given up female breasts to avoid it.

If you want to learn more about evolution and intelligent design, read Abby Hafer’s excellent book The Not-so-Intelligent Designer. She also outlines problems with men’s bodies. The real point of this essay, however, is to show how illogical and unreasonable the ID argument is. The facts simply do not support it.

[1] http://www.babycenter.com/404_is-it-true-that-moms-with-small-breasts-produce-less-milk_10310185.bc

[2] http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics