Sunday 16 October 2016

ADX Files 38- Women in UFOlogy

A few months ago somebody added me to a group on Facebook called "Women in UFOlogy". She said it was open to men if they she considered them trustworthy. I soon left. The reason for this was an understanding that I must be beware of falling into double standards of my own while criticizing it in others. I had just had a rant about the Royal Troon Golf Club, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/royal-troon-admits-women.html, and could hardly moan about upholding the Universal Right to Free Association if I wasn't willing to do so myself. This issue came up again on a radio show last night by a fellow broadcaster Alyson Dunlop on her ADX Files 38 in conversation with her guest Sacha Christie, see here from 29.10: http://www.spreaker.com/user/enemywithinradio/adx-files-38-sacha-christie_1, (By the way, skip the opening song if you don't want to be humming it for days; it's very catchy). The points she makes about women in UFOlogy are ones I've discussed with her before privately. We disagreed, although Alyson is a good friend of mine and our debate was completely amicable and judicious. Funnily enough I had a similar discussion with Paola Harris a couple of years ago on an old Planet X show, see: https://youtu.be/dQ7MYlXTjFM?t=1h20m25s. Alyson complains that the women in UFOlogy are not having their voice heard because they're not given a place to speak and gives the example of the two UFO Truth magazine conferences of 2016 which platformed twelve male speakers, including myself, see: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/ben-emlyn-jones-at-ufo-truth-conference.html, and no female speakers. She uses the words "equality" and "balance" without specifically defining what they would entail. She makes it clear that she would never support a positive discrimination policy, and I believe she is being sincere; yet how realistic is that? I have never heard Alyson self-identify as a feminist, but her words are those of a feminist fellow traveller at least. Feminism is an ideology that vigorously goads its adherents into committing excesses; see the background links at the bottom for examples. "More women" can so easily be translated into "fewer men" and I caution Alyson to be wary of that. The UFO Truth magazine conferences were organized by Gary Heseltine and I don't know how many people he contacted to offer places as speakers before the final bill was complete. Alyson said Gary never replied to her when she asked him about it. However I know that when organizing a conference you'll probably have to write to at least two people for everybody who confirms and therefore I would put my money on Gary having invited a number of women who then simply couldn't make it. Indeed in previous events we did have female speakers, Suzanne Hanson and Pia Knudsen. Does that count as "equality" and "balance" or not? Without proper definitions it's impossible to know and this is why I consider words like that rather Orwellian.

Men considerably outnumber women in UFOlogy and they always will. I consider this to be one of the perfectly harmless natural inequalities in life. Some inequalities are harmless because no individual is held back by them. UFO's are simply a "blokey" subject that, when generalizing, for totally benign and organic reasons, are more likely to appeal to the male psyche than the female. It's part of what makes men and women essentially different. Natural inequality is the reason why nobody ever goes up to a basketball team and says: "Why are you all black? You should sign up some white guys! We need equality on this team!" There are many exceptions of course and there is absolutely nothing precluding a woman who wants to from getting involved in UFOlogy if she chooses. Women have made enormous contributions to UFOlogy; in fact would the scene even exist without them? Paola Harris herself is one of the biggest superstars in the field and Alyson has also made huge achievements considering she is quite a recent arrival on the scene. And who can forget Butler, Street, Randles and Bruni, the "four horsewomen of Rendlesham Forest"? It is not only in UFOlogy that this myth can be found. In fact in every institution where men outnumber women, from university science departments to computer game fan clubs, the pejorative phrase: "dominated by men" will be heard and the cry goes out: "Something is wrong here! Something needs to be fixed!" They invariably assume that there is some kind of cackling hand-rubbing cabal of male chauvinist pigs actively maintaining their male exclusivity, but evidence for this is rarely found. What's more, this is certainly not the case in UFO research; I'd be the first to object is it was. Nothing needs to be fixed because nothing is wrong. In fact, as I said to Paola on Planet X, attempting to force a false balance could be highly destructive. There is a bigger picture involved here that Alyson might not yet be aware of. There is a long-term strategic psychological warfare agenda behind this falsehood that is intended to mess up out thoughts and feelings in order to turn us into a new kind of creature. This agenda breeds animosity and conflict; hatred for others and hatred for ourselves. A breakdown of families, friendships, communities and cultures. we then become a mutant ready for a new kind of social globalist uniformity; see the background links for more detail. I have no doubt that Alyson is motivated by noble intentions. I like her as a person and respect what she does as a colleague and fellow researcher. I don't hold her to blame for any of the recent personal clashes that have blown up in UFOlogy and I think some people have badly misjudged her. However on this issue I ask her to take a step back and reconsider.
See here for my own most recent appearance on the ADX Files: http://hpanwo-voice.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/ben-emlyn-jones-on-adx-files-show-2.html.
And see here for Alyson Dunlop's appearance on HPANWO Radio: http://hpanwo-radio.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/programme-173-podcast-alyson-dunlop.html.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

At the other end if the Paranormal spectrum I find women out number the men at any psychic demonstrations , in spiritualists churches, public theatre demos etc. I have been in the audience and helping out at demos and found ten to fifteen women to every bloke. Shane more blokes can't be brave enough to contemplates life after death. We may not all get to see a UFO but we all get to die.

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

Anon, I want to see as many as possible before I die! Yes, spiritualism is not exclusively female, but it is "dominated be women!" ... AHHH! I'm a victim! ;-)

Rhoda Eames said...

Hi. I just wanted to point out that ADX Files-38 was actually titled 'Sacha Christie' not 'Women in Ufology'. For whatever reason, you have chosen to give it that misleading title. The subject of women being invited to speak at UFO conferences lasted less than 2 minutes during a 72 minute programme/podcast. If you must, please write a blog about the other 70 minutes. Thank you.

Ben Emlyn-Jones said...

No thanks, Rhoda. And I don't believe the title is misleading. I never suggested anywhere that the article was intended to be a review of the entire programme.