Gender Study Ban

Speaking of gender studies, have you seen this?
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/surveys_students_non_profits_and_start_ups/3457221-Final-call-for-all-parents-of-a-3-7-year-old

Why is this a good thing? Is it not just #nodebate from a different perspective?

The concept of gender is useful to pick apart the power hierarchies which operate in society along biologically-based lines. It is useful to pick apart that the way ideas of femininity and masculinity or femininities or masculinities shape every day experience and how individuals challenge, negotiate or reject them.

I understand the point that gender studies has de-politicised women’s studies but that is not the argument Orban is making. He is saying there are two sexes, not two genders, which is a fundamental misunderstanding of how gender theory works. There are multiple ways of expressing or presenting feminity, for example, which are social and cultural, and same for masculinity. How can we talk about toxic masculinity without the language of gender, for example? How do we work out why some behaviours are seen as more valuable by society and how this links to biological sex without the language of gender?

I agree that the theories and language of gender can often obfuscate matters and there is a need to be clear about the framework of analysis being used. But simply saying there are two sexes, as Orban does, is not a useful tool for understanding social interaction and cultural meanings ascribed to behaviours of those sexes. How on earth are we supposed to understand power and agency without talking about gender?

I think gender can be used as short hand for different things which is why it is problematic, but the fundamental point about understanding socially imposed hierarchies on biological bodies is important.

He's not staying people can't study it, just that tax payers won't fund it so people need to fund it themselves, which for a course that promotes gender as a concept and therefore gender stereotypes is a good thing. This nonsense doesn't benefit society. Gender as a word and concept should be scrapped.

Gender - You’d probably be best doing English Literature or History and choosing modules on women’s writing / history (there are usually quite a large number available, so you can easily specialise in this area within a broad BA or Ma programme). I think Sociology is pretty much a lost cause, though there are a couple of openly GC senior Sociology academics.

So if someone wants to study Feminism and politics and philosophy around it, what courses in uni would they apply for...outside of gender studies?

(I’m engineering from decades ago)

Well if gender studies is being taken over by trans ideology I can't say I'm too disappointed. It's not a ban though, just not funded by the public purse. Poor old George Soros will have to step in. Meanwhile, we get the Loughborough PhDs.

Nobody said they thought Orban's move is grounded in liberal thinking reflectant. Believing sex is binary is pretty traditional! But it's the TRAs who are being totalitarian about things with their #nodebate, Orwellian gaslighting and attempts to compel speech. Orban's going #nofunding in return. Interesting to see two sets of males up against each other on this one.

GenderIsAPrison - Women’s Studies basically doesn’t exist any more, only in a couple of universities like Oxford and York, where it’s an interdisciplinary centre rather than sitting within a department.

Does women studies come under philosophy and politics in universities?

If you think that anything Viktor Orban does is grounded in progressive, feministic, liberal thinking, you're insane. He's a fascist. Hitler and Stalin banned wide ranges of study, too, and for approximately similar reasons.

Women's studies were taken over by gender studies because it was more male friendly.

Gender studies is a nebulous field. I'm not sure it should be completely eliminated, but I am sure it should never have been used to eliminate women's studies.

And

Fantastically grounded decision. No public funding by tax payers.

We need to look at learn.

It’s not a science
That’s the way to do it

💪