From the comments I expected some over the top display, but she wasn’t flaunting anything.

Yup.

Jeremy & This Is A Name, point taken. You did address the immaturity of the “BOOOBS!” posts in your initial posts. To that extent, I apologize.

Thank you.

That said, what you did was start with saying “This is just how guys are,” as if you were defending the boorish behavior, and then as if it were an afterthought, tacked on briefly a note about how immature some of the above comments were. That said a lot about your priorities.

I can’t stop you interpreting it like this, but you shouldn’t infer that I consider the issue low on my priorities. It was posted as an aside at the end because I had little to say on the issue and had considered the matter dealt with; I was merely reiterating what had been stated earlier. If I had posted much earlier in the discussion it would have been one of my first – rather than last – points, as is perfectly reasonable. You should not leap to such a conclusion about my motives and priorities so quickly.

As I had little new to add, I instead focused on attacking the irrationality displayed elsewhere.

Notice that it isn’t defending anyone’s bad behavior, not even partially. Nothing that can easily be read as a dismissive “boys will be boys.”

But I did not (and still do not) consider my comments in any way defending such behaviour. I am not going to limit myself to spelling things out blatantly because others are not able to grasp the subtleties of what I said; that’s their loss not mine. And even if I did, given the lack of reasoning displayed by certain posters elsewhere, I would expect even extremely obvious statements to be misconstrued and taken out of context; this has already been demonstrated.

Maybe now you know why you had multiple people inferring that you were defending the previous comments.

I take the rebuke with humility.

Do you happen to be the same J J Ramsey that posts on Rosenhouse’s blog?

That said, what you did was start with saying “This is just how guys are,” as if you were defending the boorish behavior, and then as if it were an afterthought, tacked on briefly a note about how immature some of the above comments were. That said a lot about your priorities.

This would be a saner response to Jen saying, “it isn’t going to make female commenters on this blog feel comfortable knowing that that is the first thing men think about when women discuss atheism.”:

Hey, the problem isn’t when it’s the first thing men think about, so much as when it’s the main thing.

Notice that it isn’t defending anyone’s bad behavior, not even partially. Nothing that can easily be read as a dismissive “boys will be boys.”

Jeremy: “I didn’t feel like I had to defend myself until I had multiple people inferring that I was defending the previous comments”

Maybe now you know why you had multiple people inferring that you were defending the previous comments.

My initial point was that she jumped from the conclusion that if a guy notices a woman’s breasts (even if she does flaunt them), then that automatically meant he was a sexist pig who objectified women, which is nonsense. I didn’t feel like I had to defend myself until I had multiple people inferring that I was defending the previous comments; my only goal was show the absurdity of equating a guy noticing breasts to sexism.

Another thing. What is really telling is that it was only in the past few comments that Jeremy and This Is A Name conceded that the “BOOOOOOOBS!” comments were immature, whereas earlier on, Jeremy was defending such comments as thinking out loud, and This Is A Name appeared to be defending such comments as well on the grounds that men just natural notice women’s looks.

Uh … I readily stated my opinion on these comments in my very first post here. Take a look.

Jeremy also clearly hinted that he didn’t approve in his “this males thinking out loud” comment, and next comment after that one immediately clarifies his position and spelt it out for those that didn’t seem to get his subtle comment. This was way before my first comment.

So, to say it is only in the past few posts as if we’ve only just picked up on it is false. What’s really telling is that you failed to realise this, particularly with my comments where I mention this from the instant I started posting on this topic.