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Original poster

The Mary Beard Appreciation Society

368 replies

ArcheryAnnie · 16/02/2015 11:11

Professor Mary Beard was one of about 130+ people who signed a letter to the Guardian this weekend, saying broadly that universities should be a place of discussion and debate, and the current habit of "no-platforming" women (it's almost always women) some students disagree with was inimical to the very purpose of education.

Out of these 130+ signatories, Mary Beard was the one the usual suspects piled on to, and she dealt with the barrage with such grace. The attacks were mostly divided between the "OMG transphobe" type" and the "very sad to see this nice old dear who didn't understand what she was signing" type, which is breathtakingly patronising when referring to one of the most brilliant academics we have. Most of the other signatories weren't attacked at all in the same way or in the same volume, although some signatories who are PoC were labelled "tokens" by the usual suspects, which is also amazingly patronising and dismissive of their choices and their expertise.

When I grow up, I want to be Professor Mary Beard. (But I would probably have to grow an extra couple of brains to do it.)

OP posts:
FloraFox · 17/02/2015 21:12

Apparently he's now a bully for talking about this.

PuffinsAreFictitious · 17/02/2015 21:07

Peter Tatchell talks about the death threats he's received

BuffytheThunderLizard · 17/02/2015 21:02

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SunshineBossaNova · 17/02/2015 20:47

Queer Theory is ALL THE RAGE at university.

Friends started a bisexual poster campaign to combat bi-erasure. And you know what? They were defaced by people telling bisexuals (like me) how we should describe ourselves. FFS.

Therapy it's depressing, isn't it? I joined GS because I thought it was a great place to discuss ideas openly. But I STFU about certain matters as my views are infra dig. And avoid the Fem Soc.

Original poster
ArcheryAnnie · 17/02/2015 20:44

Pinched it from somewhere else instead:

"...postmodern positions which affirm that sexuality is open to reconstruction and re-inventions. This view reduces the emphasis on determining societal conditions or ideologies in favor of understanding sexual subjects in terms of personal preference and self-determination."

Emphasis mine.

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Original poster
ArcheryAnnie · 17/02/2015 20:34

Post-modern! I was told off on another thread for using that, so I will pop over there and pinch the explanation that someone else wrote much better than I ever could.

Hang on a mo...

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HouseWhereNobodyLives · 17/02/2015 20:33

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HouseWhereNobodyLives · 17/02/2015 20:31

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Original poster
ArcheryAnnie · 17/02/2015 20:30

I think there's a great big dollop of ageism in there, Buffy. I've seen people flat-out and rather gleefully say that, well, second wavers will die soon, so the pomo lot won't have to deal with them forever.

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FloraFox · 17/02/2015 20:30

That's right Archery. I saw a tweet yesterday from someone defending the no-platforming of women by saying that women are entitled to decide who to exclude from their own spaces. I nearly died of irony.

HouseWhereNobodyLives · 17/02/2015 20:30

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Original poster
ArcheryAnnie · 17/02/2015 20:28

It seems to be that if you decide who you want in an event, and that's just women, then that's terrible, terrible exclusion, but if you call it "no platforming", and it's a woman you are excluding, then it's fine, and FOR GREAT JUSTICE.

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BuffytheThunderLizard · 17/02/2015 20:25

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OfficerVanHalen · 17/02/2015 20:25

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TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 17/02/2015 20:23

I suppose what happens in the future will depend on whether the next generation of feminists after the current young one will rebel against this one by being anti-queer theory or even more queer theory than them....

FloraFox · 17/02/2015 20:21

130plus we are lucky that MN FWR is a place where women can discuss these gender theories. We have had lots of discussions on this issue which can get very heated. Last year there was an attempt by some to get MN to stop the "transphobic" discussions. To their huge credit, MNHQ did not do this, unlike many so-called feminist websites which will not tolerate any discussion other than complete acceptance of the trans dogma.

Buffy to not be a TERF you have to fully accept the statement "trans women are women" with no qualifications whatsoever. This means a penis/testes etc is a female reproductive system because it is in the body of a woman. It means lesbians are bigots for rejecting transwomen as sexual partners. It means a man called Simon can stand up when the speaker asks for questions from women and say although he presents as male, he is a woman and can take some space. It also means you can only associate publicly with people who also have these views. If you can accept all of that, you will not be a TERF, unless you are a man, in which case you may have an interesting point.

BuffytheThunderLizard · 17/02/2015 20:20

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TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 17/02/2015 20:20

'It speaks volumes imo about what is going on here that they were prepared to organise a huge demo opposing Julie Bindel coming to town to speak about being no platformed, yet many of the same people declined to attend a recent protest against Ched Evans for fear of reprisals. Feminists: we make great soft targets. On account of all that violence we don't commit.'

That is really, really interesting.

PuffinsAreFictitious · 17/02/2015 20:17

Officer...., you're talking about Sheffield and the utter twattery of trying to have Julie Bindel no platformed, for talking about no platforming?...

And yes House basically, asking questions about the contents of people's underwear, or knowing about it, or being concerned about certain types of underwear contents being in spaces for vulnerable women is all terfy and whatnot.

It would be nice to think that the letter and the abuse a lot of the signatories are still getting, along with doxxing Glosswitch and no, it wasn't just outing her name and Facebook profile, ffs, her name is on most of her work, there was other stuff too, if you've seen them saying that's all they did, they lie would raise awareness of the issue in the wider public, and it might well do, however, I don't think the wider public will actually give a shit, it's only women being hurt, and we don't count.

OfficerVanHalen · 17/02/2015 20:09

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Hakluyt · 17/02/2015 20:09

No I am an old crone, and I have believed a lot of crap in my time, but repurposed female penises is a step too far.........

HouseWhereNobodyLives · 17/02/2015 20:08

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QueenStromba · 17/02/2015 20:06

In my head the people who go for full surgery are transexual and everyone else is transgender.

I wonder if this whole thing will be a tipping point where the average person will become aware of what radfems have been talking about for years.

I wish I could say that I'm shocked about what's happened to Mary Beard and Glosswitch but it's all par for the course really.

ApocalypseThen · 17/02/2015 19:58

I am all for people reconceptualising the penis as something you can have and still present as a woman

Sure, I don't really care if people want to do that either. But pretending that that penis is now a female penis and that lesbians are bigoted for not wanting to be penetrated with it and that it's ok to be in women's changing rooms with it regardless of the feelings of non-penised women? Step too far for me.

BuffytheThunderLizard · 17/02/2015 19:50

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