Should I email my Uni Lecturer about this?

We already know what our lecturers think.
They think we’re ignorant terfs if we don’t agree and we’ll be excluded for making people feel ‘unsafe’

This is so frustrating. I'm just starting a Master's and I have enough to cope with in my own life without being there to make anyone else feel "safe", though clearly I won't be rude or abusive! The people who don't feel safe need directing to appropriate support to help them feel more safe and deal with tricky situations, and I say that as someone who has also felt unsafe much of my life due to a traumatic childhood.

My take on the JK Rowling tweet was that she might share the way I define my own womanhood. In a wider sense it might be called a gender identity, though not in the sense the ideologists use that term:

I am a woman because my body is female and because living in a female body affects so much in my life, both directly and indirectly (as others treat female-looking people differently from male-looking people). That 'identity' is embodied and something that has developed over time because of the experiences I have had.

So when I read that it is 'people,' in general, who menstruate or give birth or experience menopause, my identity is invalidated. On Twitter doing that invalidation to a transgender person's identity is called erasure, so one might argue that I am being erased.

I am no longer allowed to be of the gender I have always been told I belong to, and I am told that this change is so that the identities of others are being honoured! This feels like a kick in the stomach.

And then I am told that I should define being a woman on the basis of something like femininity. Googling the term suggests that it means being passive, submissive, emotional and nurturing! I refuse to be identified as passive and submissive, and the idea that progressives expect that is horrible.

I have no idea if Rowling thinks that way, but what she has written on the topic matched my feelings.

@EdgeOfACoin did you hear the one Triggernometry did with Professor Hicks? It was a good analysis of where we are. Pretty chilling though.

Of course. I'm a uni lecturer and would expect that challenge.

We cannot expect single students to come out against their (almost) entire cohort and lecturers and the University body.

This lecturer has shown you who they are and your card is marked now, that’s the reality.

I haven't read whole thread but my DS is at a uni where he dare not speak up. He says he would literally be thrown out. I would proceed with extreme caution. DS asked a fellow student why she was calling JK Rowling a terf and she went ballistic. Being a terf is seen in the same light as being a racist homophobe. Tread carefully.

@EdgeOfACoin

We already know what our lecturers think.
They think we’re ignorant terfs if we don’t agree and we’ll be excluded for making people feel ‘unsafe’.

Those lecturers who are secretly GC - will remain secretly agreeing with us - in secret- in order to keep their jobs.

Yes you should ask this, even asking to explain why the lecturer thinks this. Up to you how you phrase it.

People have to speak up. I was listening to Konstantin Kisin's interview with Benjamin Boyce yesterday. He made the point that if nobody challenges this stuff, it's not going to get any easier. It will get worse.

If nobody says anything, ask yourself what society will look like in 10 years time? What are your children being taught in school? What do laws in this country look like?

Kisin was talking more broadly than just trans ideology, but his point still stands. Abigail Shrier made a similar point recently too - doctors who are worried about what is happening to teenage girls need to start speaking out. It's no longer enough to hide away and keep your critical thoughts to yourself.

It will take a lot of people pushing back, questioning the ideology, making their lecturers and bosses think. Otherwise, the future of critical thinking and open discussion looks very, very bleak.

Obviously - he has contracts with stonewall.

@yetmorenamechanging

We currently have a recording online in our course module of a male who runs his own business centring in diversity.
He talks about how he has worked historically to support children who work in sex work to ‘ make better choices’ -
no - that would be child sexual exploitation and is not a fucking choice
The same male also discusses how it can be difficult working in schools so ‘you have to really engage and show that your listening to parents and staff in order to get them onboard and agree with you

He’s recruiting and the uni see him as good.

I was thinking about something related the other day. I’m amazed by the amount of ucas personal statements where female applicants nail their colours to the mast on this subject. I lecture on a very female centric subject. I’m as GC as they come. I think so many people live in such a woke bubble they assume everyone else is as woke as they are. Just seems a bizarre thing to get so “political” in an application when there are polar opposite views on the subject. Obviously I’m non biased and wouldn’t let anything like that influence my decision.

With the current students I’d like to think we’ve had intelligent, calm, respectful discussions on the matter. Nobody has put in a complaint about me or my colleagues calling us “terfs” yet anyway!

It's unbelievably offensive all of this. To even have someone given time to tell everybody how victimized they feel even when they've not actually been victimized yet, while silencing the women in the room who undoubtedly have been actual victims is sick.

Just want to say sorry for "going off on one". OP I don't think you should sacrifice yourself to the ideology. I am just so shocked. I had no idea it was that bad. But it bodes very worryingly for the future doesn't it? Will stop ranting

Another student here, different area of study, but we have course material that clearly is not critically presented..unless you understand critical in an academic context as biased.

It's incredibly difficult to challenge it when the people marking your work - or worse, the ones who'd be involved in deciding which band you'll be in for the end of the course/degree if you're on a grade boundary - are the ones you'd complain to.

I like the idea of searching peer-reviewed material on mermaids! It depends who this person is connected to though.

@Magpiemavis

If you expose a problem, you pose a problem

Is this a hill you’re prepared to die on ?
You won’t receive any support.

I absolutely would not recommend op take this further if she wants to complete her degree.
I’m currently studying an MA and they ALL openly discuss terfs, I’m called cis without question, open discussions about disgusting transphobia (dissenters from their opinion) - I’m required to put pronouns on introductions.
A particularly harrowing module concerning violence by men against women was hijacked by a biological female - but non binary student- who presents as male, pronouns they - them.
We were giving a warning at the beginning to be nice’ and that they’ were finding it very difficult that the sex they present as was being represented so negatively. At the end they were provided a platform to talk about how they are the real victims. They have never experienced actual violence, but they feel it around them and the potential is there.

That is just the first module.
It goes in and on and on.

I'd be tempted to search your university library for peer reviewed articles of Mermaids then when you can't find any, email back saying you can't find anything re Mermaids could she send her sources over so that you can do some further reading. All done out of interest of course.

I would report him to the colleges/uni for hate speech and misogyny
This. Don’t let him (or her) get away with some mumbled excuse. Make a formal complaint and say you’re offended.

Academics and students, do you hear what you are saying? Why are there no mass walk outs? Sit down demos demanding freedom of thought? Students are customers here? Prof Stock's OBE this year might give some confidence. I'm sorry but I don't believe what I'm reading. What are you paying your £££ for? I apologise if I seem belligerent but putting up with it is part of the problem.

I have recently returned to university after a long gap. When I was at university the first time round, healthy debate was encouraged and people listened to opposing views without being constantly offended, which gave a broader understanding. This is no longer the case and you have to be extremely careful what you say, which I find really sad. Students today are bombarded with 'Woke' agendas which shut down all other forms of thinking. I don't think I would be brave enough to challenge a lecturer or the university as would fear it could backfire.

There’s absolutely no way I would do this (as a fellow student). Much as I might disagree, obviously, because she isn’t, it’s just not worth the aggro in the ridiculously woke-left environment that is higher education. I need a good grade

Montgomerie

At least it wasn't the Katie Monthomerie essay :)