University staff given list of banned 'microinsults' they cannot say to trans people

I had a warning that comments with external links are less likely to get through, so I’ve started just mentioning other sites if I need to instead.

(As an aside have they changed their moderation system again? There are a lot of comments there that I wouldn't have expected to get through their fancy new AI)

Comments are interesting.

Has the actual guidance been shared anywhere?

The Times has picked it up:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fb6c1264-ab7e-11eb-bda6-057976012425?shareToken=724b8a01c1fa34fd8ab12cf543b59252

'The plans form part of the engineering faculty’s efforts to “challenge long-standing conscious and unconscious biases” among students to tackle “Eurocentric” and “white saviour” approaches to science and maths, and promote “inclusive design”.

A leaked copy of the “draft inclusive curriculum development” plan at the Russell Group institution says that “much important engineering content and curriculum resources is based on maths developed in the 18/19th century."'

My thoughts.

1. The fact that those are the theories and mathematical proofs etc that you study are because they were the ones who were able to publish them etc. I'm not sure what can be done about that? Certainly there's a point that these things could have been thought of etc by others who didn't have a platform to publish them, or maybe a widely shared maths notation to work within or share. Where does that leave us though?
2. Science generally is interested in discoveries, experiments, proofs etc. It's true that scientists have biases of course. But in the end you don't get people saying they won't teach curie because she was a woman, for example.
3. Science consumes research from all sorts of past dodgy stuff. Components of cosmetics that were tested on animals are still widely used - against animal testing means they aren't doing it on new stuff generally, not that they won't touch any of it.

1. Women have famously been excluded, ignored, had research nicked etc etc. Mary anning as an example. The fact that the scientists you tend to learn about are wealthy white men from Europe in that period of time overlooks all the other sorts of people who didn't have the means/ background/ any way to get their work noticed or taken seriously.
2. When you're learning physics ( and I assume engineering) then you're looking to understand the theories, concepts, material properties, experimental results, proofs etc that are used today. So you speak the same language (notation etc) as everyone else. If not you end up with the time NASA lost a Mars rover because some was using metric units and some 'English' units... solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/mars-climate-orbiter/in-depth/#:~:text=NASA's%20Mars%20Climate%20Orbiter%20was,translate%20English%20units%20to%20metric
3. History of science is fascinating and absolutely should cover everything from the ancient world onwards

In short. Eh? I wonder what they actually did in the end.

Thanks Pankhurst

And now it's in the Mail

She's been quite quiet lately, to be fair. Friday night Twitter has missed her.

You know who's a professor of genderwoo at Sheffield, don't you...?

Good point!

Round them up and tag them. Hold them back with one of those long poles just in case they get tetchy, pray them with water to cool them off.

(I appreciate the thread will have moved on considerably but this post made me laugh so much, I just wanted to show my appreciation to ThroughTheBars...

This is about an American university.

Would her efforts to avoid the situation be deemed a microaggression?

For the past 8 months my college has been allowing men to just use the women's shower whenever they feel like it, which forces me to wait until almost 1.30-2.00am to avoid them, or use my friend's private room almost on the other end of campus. Most of the time the men aren't even using the restroom, they are just in there "hanging out what's the big deal I'm gender neutral I swear". I've repeatedly complained to community living and title IX but all that happened is I was required to meet with the equal opportunity advisor about how I should be more inclusive. I can't do it anymore and I'm actively pursuing how to live off campus next year as a sophmore, but I'm afraid I won't be able to.

www.noconflicttheysaid.org/post/men-in-the-women-s-showers-on-campus

Did your Nigel have the real life initials AJ or are there (as I fear) more than one of them?

Absolutely, since when should anyone be compelled to spend time with anyone else?

You know who's a professor of genderwoo at Sheffield, don't you...?

I would say 'Not My Nigel!' but he married a mate of mine in the end, & I gather he's not evolved much...

The thing is, I avoided these guys out of class because they were dickheads when in drink, & we certainly weren't going to agree on much politically.

I worked & studied with them on a completely amicable basis. I just didn't want to join in with their hooray henrying.

It's chilling to think that 'avoiding socialising with people you think are bad company, for whatever stated or unstated reason' could be a situation a university thinks it could or should police.

I had the misfortune to work for "Nigel" in my early 20s - he was still doing that party trick in his 40s when supposedly a professional 🤢

I notice that on the FOI campaign to find out about the relationship between various institutions (including Universities) and Stonewall, that the respondents have repeatedly used the 'commencial interest loophole to avoid answering.

I wouldn't hire an engineer from Sheffield if Newtons have been erased

It will severely limit their career opportunities and work if they use a different term to the accepted SI unit/ or ? decide that they are an irrelevant unit in science

'A leaked copy of the ‘draft inclusive curriculum development’ to ‘decolonise’ the engineering curriculum at Sheffield University warns that Newton may have benefited from ‘colonial-era activity’. Apparently, the engineering faculty at Sheffield will decolonise its curriculum in an effort to tackle ‘long-standing conscious and unconscious biases’ among students, to challenge ‘Eurocentric’ and ‘white saviour’ approaches to science and maths, and to promote ‘inclusive design’. '

????!!!!????

*As someone similar, I further note that only people who know me well, ask me to comment on their hairstyle or anything else! That means that as a self-selecting group, they're perfectly prepared for me to say exactly what I think!

There's really no comparison between that and training oneself to consistently use a different set of pronouns in all conversations.*

Quite! And as I'm giving an opinion, I know that my opinion is not fact. So it doesn't feel like lying to me if I say 'your hair looks fine' and secretly think it doesn't. Although most of the time I either won't comment or like you, they will know to probably expect to hear what I really think.

I really don't get the comparison at all, I think it's totally disingenuous.

There's really no comparison between that and training oneself to consistently use a different set of pronouns in all conversations.

The concept of 'avoidant behaviour' is very similar to the idea that, not only can words be literal violence but silence can be violence also. It all seems to be about controlling the speech and the actions of other people and really should have no place in universities.

Yes, it's chilling.