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

I agree, persistentwoman

A situation where lack of engagement in a particularly incendiary, controversial issue is seen as a 'micro-aggression' is deeply worrying IMO. For as long as this remains written into policy, criticality (and that's the least of it) is up the creek
Such an important point Mariel . As always, it's overreach - a complete lack of proportion and boundaries. This is not going to end well.

Your concern about avoidance now being seen as a form of aggression is one I share. There is something worrying coercive about this movement. It's a language women are all-too familiar with and it's so regressive as to defy belief. How could we have gone this far backward this quickly?

It's awful. Nothing is ever enough, because it's all about power and controlling others. So when one concession is made, activists demand more and more.

Do you tell your friends their hair looks awful, their dress doesn't suit them or they've put weight on?

You can not mention hair, dresses and weight quite easily. (Are you one of those strange people who thinks that's all women talk about?)

It's much harder to completely avoid ever referring to someone in the third person.

My plan is just to avoid trans people. I wouldn't have done so before all this extremism but I don't think I could deal with the stress now. However it seems avoidance is now a crime.

I really sympathise with would-be students who find themselves in this position. They will find themselves effectively silenced, in a climate in which criticality (the previous backbone of the H.E. system) has given way to a world of Newspeak, Doublethink and linguistic contortionism.

Your concern about avoidance now being seen as a form of aggression is one I share. There is something worrying coercive about this movement. It's a language women are all-too familiar with and it's so regressive as to defy belief. How could we have gone this far backward this quickly?

What has happened to teaching young adults to be robust and resilient, that people are going to have different opinions, and that the world is not there to validate them?

Agreed. What's happened to teaching itself for that matter? As another lecturer posted upthread, they don't care how students dress or present themselves: it's irrelevant to their education and contributions to seminar discussions which should be staff's sole overriding concern.

A situation where lack of engagement in a particularly incendiary, controversial issue is seen as a 'micro-aggression' is deeply worrying IMO. For as long as this remains written into policy, criticality (and that's the least of it) is up the creek.

I am not risking suspension for retaliation to your bullying and harassment from day one on this site. Do your worst

Stop lying. Being disagreed with on feminism threads is not "bullying and harassment". We are sometimes on the same threads. I'm not following you and I consider your behaviour to me constantly centring yourself in my use of MN harassment. Grow up.

You apologised for the obvious problem you have with your interactions on this site. Like several others I took it with a truckload of salt. I feel vindicated.

The inability to lie argument infuriates me.

Do you tell your friends their hair looks awful, their dress doesn't suit them or they've put weight on?

Except I would never disbelieve a victim.

Suggesting that the reason I have made it through two degrees without hearing of it in my own circles or on campus because they all must be keeping it secret and hiding it.

Ok.

Or it's not as widespread as people would have us believe.

This is a circular argument.

One is too many.

But this suggestion that random women being pulled into the shadows on campuses and raped at a high level is a fallacy.

It's far more likely in peoples homes with someone they know. That is a fact.

I am not risking suspension for retaliation to your bullying and harassment from day one on this site. Do your worst

Anyone who claims that rape and sexual assault of women rarely happens on university campuses may well find that they are the last person that a friend or acquaintance discloses assaults to.

After all, when someone shows you who they are..... you believe them.

Rape occurs at alarming rates everywhere.

It does. And so much goes unreported as well.

I'm going to uni this year, and I have to say this is one of my main worries. Like a PP I struggle with pronouns (I would find it really hard to use incorrectly sexed pronouns because I find it pretty much impossible to lie/pretend). My plan is just to avoid trans people. I wouldn't have done so before all this extremism but I don't think I could deal with the stress now. However it seems avoidance is now a crime.

What has happened to teaching young adults to be robust and resilient, that people are going to have different opinions, and that the world is not there to validate them? Where has the common sense gone?

vimeo.com/352042585

Rape occurs at alarming rates everywhere. Trying to be clever by distinguishing between rape and sexual assault to win an argument on the internet is disgusting.

Butitwasherdriveway

What happened with your apology the other day for your really quite argumentative and rude behaviour on previous threads?

Butwasitherdriveway You said:

What I am negating is the idea, which was drummed into me when I went to uni I'm a city having grown up in a small town that random women being raped in the streets is a common or alarming occurrence.

I don't believe anyone here is suggesting that - and who "drummed that" into you?

What IS widespread and commonplace is the treatment of girls and women as if misogyny, sexual assault and the rest are acceptable.

I didn't suggest you're a man - what your use of "chinned" did suggest was that you have a misogynistic way of looking at violence against women.

Fair point - but I didn't bring up the debate about rape statistics and that was a discussion before I arrived, whicj you ignored before you saw an opportunity to harass me again.

It appears derailing is only derailing if it's a point you don't agree with in your world.

This one is about restrictions on language imposed on university staff.

Anyway.

Back to micro aggressions :)

Those two have it in for me personally hence why the post goes over my head. Anything I write is derailing in their world.

Can we not pretend that I could write a thesis on women's rights and you two would still arrive to criticise and pick on me as you have since day one?

At least be transparent

In the place I am from, that word is used in that context.

I'm sure even you with your consistent harassing of me across threads while not actually making many points of your own and then talking about derailing wouldn't take issue with that.

Completely agree Mariel.

That was in response to the post about the thread being derailed.

This policy applies to staff alone. And I agree that the 'avoidant behaviour' caveat is coercive and extremely worrying.

YY. It is an attempt to frame women's boundaries even when nothing is said, as transphobic, and control their behaviour to an oppressive level.