I'm not a token, and here is why

Posted by Hayley on Nov 4, 2010 in feminism, Skepticism | 0 comments

Earlier today twitterer Trinoc_ brought to my attention a comment that had been made on the SGU listeners forum in which I was referred to as the token female host of the Righteous Indignation Podcast.

They said:

I also listen to the Righteous Indignation podcast which also the one token woman in a bunch of guys.

They went on to say:

“She’s the only one of one type of thing (woman) amongst a larger amount of other, although similar, types of things (men). That makes her a token woman in my book. I mean that in the nicest possible way. She’s great. I dig Hayley, were I to ever have forewarning about an impending meeting with her i would gladly bake her a cake or crumble pie*”

I am not blogging to have a dig at the person who said the above and called me a token woman because I don’t believe they said this as an insult, they simply didn’t think through what they were implying by saying I was a token woman; a title that is both incorrect and unfair. To label a person – male or female, as a token undermines their work and effort put into a project (in this case, the podcast).

It also presents the idea that the person in question has been asked to be involved with a project because of their gender, and not their ability to do well in that project/role or to contribute their skills and insight.

This is why I was initially quite angry and annoyed to see myself being referred to as a token female host. I don’t think that lowly of my co-hosts to think they would do such a thing and I certainly wouldn’t allow myself to be in a position where my gender was the thing that got me there.

I don’t intend to go into how I came to involved with Righteous Indignation in the first place as I have covered that before, however, I should probably point out that when Righteous Indignation first started there was myself – a female host, and Trystan – a male host. Was he the token male skeptic? No, and he wasn’t seen that way either.

Marsh came along a bit later and just fitted with the show – we didn’t decide to ask Marsh to be a permanent host because he is male, we asked him because of his sense of humor, his ability to tackle big stories and interviews in a purely brilliant manner and the fact that he just gelled into the show with us.

There have been other things I have been involved with in the past for which I was the only female, or the only skeptic but I have never been asked simply because of what I am, but because of who I am and what I do and am able to do.

The picture to the right is me as a bratty child. Despite the long blonde hair and blue eyes I grew up a “tomboy”, I didn’t have a problem getting stuck in with fights, climbing trees in the neighbourhood or taking part in dangerous bike races. Being girls was never a problem for me and my friends when we were growing up and I think it’s quite remarkable being the only girl in a group of friends or in a game was never as significant as it is now that I’ve grown older.