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Original poster

Work/study at a university? Great collection of guidance (by Kathleen Stock)

35 replies

FanEffinTastic · 30/12/2020 13:14

kathleenstock.com/highlights-of-trans-policies-in-uk-universities/

Lots of excellent behaviour-policing, but my favourite (from university of Leeds) is unashamed thought policing:
"“Think of people as being the gender that they self-identify as.”

OP posts:
Original poster
FanEffinTastic · 30/12/2020 16:19

@JoodyBlue
Yep. There's always been a decent argument that organised education essentially equates conformity and high achievement. The transparency of this now is breathtaking. The value of uni education is highly debatable, and I'd be careful of recommending it to young people in general.

OP posts:
GCAcademic · 30/12/2020 16:01

JoodyBlue - we need parents to start asking questions at open days. You have more power than we do as, ultimately, all university management cares about is income. Ask what the culture is around academic freedom. What would happen if students or staff tried to no-platform a speaker? Does the university demand that tutors teach modules that take a pre-determined position on controversial issues (e.g. the Oxford Brookes policy that is quoted in the link)? What rights does your daughter have to a single-sex bedroom (if there is any shared accommodation) or changing room at the gym?

JoodyBlue · 30/12/2020 15:07

I am seriously thinking again about the value of a university education. The costs, the treatment of undergraduates during covid, the teaching of lies, the lack of backbone of the academy. At one time the argument was that a degree would denote free thinkers, confident in intellectual argument, skilled in foundational thought. I don't see it anymore. Moreoever, as parents, the costs are phenomenal. I am not clear what the route is to making change, but as parents supporting kids at uni we are partly supporting this dangerous nonsense.

midgeghost · 30/12/2020 14:34

@ErrolTheDragon

I had to read ‘bigender’ twice.

That's a Lilliputian computer scientist who works on network protocols rather than processor architecture, of course.

(Sorry... I suppose I ought to read the piece but that may be my most cogent argument on this thread)

Thanks !
GCAcademic · 30/12/2020 14:26

@thereplycamefromanchorage

Wow, just wow. Truly captured. Have a dc who will shortly be applying for uni - would love to hear that there might be unis out there who don't subscribe to this nonsense.
Good luck finding one. Having said that, I did spot the trans officer at my university having a Twitter tantrum because the senior management had refused to pander to their latest demands, so there is hope that some more measured individuals are perhaps starting to realise that things have gone far enough.
gardenbird48 · 30/12/2020 14:07

@thereplycamefromanchorage

Wow, just wow. Truly captured. Have a dc who will shortly be applying for uni - would love to hear that there might be unis out there who don't subscribe to this nonsense.
The bit that would also concern me is unis with a single gender policy in shared accommodation. If a female student got allocated a shared room in halls they could be put in with a self identifying male-bodied person. My dh initial reaction was ‘well you could pay to have a single room’ but it is not always as simple as that - despite it being something to need to do every year there still seem to be issues with a lack of accommodation and students often get housed in whatever is available so that wouldn’t be a solution. Also when I went to uni, the girls who shared (as long as they got on) had a great time bonding so it would be so sad if girls miss out on that potential experience because they can no longer rely on single sex allocation.

The difficulty as well will be that few freshers will have the confidence to complain and risk being labelled as a raging t*sphbe at the start of term. I really do worry for the girls with that and the mixed sex toilets.

thereplycamefromanchorage · 30/12/2020 13:52

Wow, just wow. Truly captured. Have a dc who will shortly be applying for uni - would love to hear that there might be unis out there who don't subscribe to this nonsense.

ColourMagic · 30/12/2020 13:45

University of Kent:

"... Demigender: A person who feels partially, but not completely, connected to a particular gender identity.

Demifluid: A person whose gender identity is partially fluid whilst the other part(s) are static.

Demiflux: A person whose gender identity is partially fluid, with the other part(s) being static. This differs from demifluid as flux indicates that one of the genders is non-binary.”

De Montford:

"... Gender-neutral pronouns include: they/them/their/themselves; che/chim/chis/chimself; E/Em/Eir/Eirs/Emself; Per(person)/pers/perself; Xe/ hir/ hirs/ hirself. Language is continually shifting and previously used terms may no longer be appropriate”

THAT is what we are losing our sex based rights to ?????

ErrolTheDragon · 30/12/2020 13:38

I had to read ‘bigender’ twice.

That's a Lilliputian computer scientist who works on network protocols rather than processor architecture, of course.

(Sorry... I suppose I ought to read the piece but that may be my most cogent argument on this thread)

gardenbird48 · 30/12/2020 13:28

I had to read ‘bigender’ twice.

I still don’t understand how they a) have identified infinite genders b) how someone can know that they identify as infinite genders (pangender). Also how does pangender relate to pansexual?

There seems to be a lack of consensus on the number of genders - I wonder how they will resolve that.

So glad I’m not at uni now and praying that they sort this stuff out before dd s are ready to go.