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Original poster

Launch: Open University Gender Critical Research Network

65 replies

Deathsquito · 17/06/2021 06:31

Hello everyone!

I’ve been a lurker on these boards for the last year or so. I’m a mature student at the OU and was made aware of this whole debate when I was warned to be very careful what I was saying by my (friendly) OU tutor. He told us that what we were discussing may get us threatened online. The whole tutor group was told this.

This was because we were discussing a group experiment we were doing for the module. One involving using biological sex as an independent variable. Like comparing male/female heights.

We had what I thought was a considerate, polite discussion around how best to make sure the data was correct. We decided on asking for biological sex rather than gender as we all understood it to be a different thing.

It was quite a shock to realise this (what I thought was) widely accepted scientific view would get us publicly hung, drawn and quartered, even by other students in the sciences.

I haven’t posted in here before, mostly because I haven’t had anything new to say. But I came across this on Twitter this morning and thought it may be interesting to some.

The OU has launched a GC research network and podcast. The podcast can be viewed on YouTube and after being scared to speak my opinion in real life/my OU studies it has restored my faith in the OU!

Launch: Open University Gender Critical Research Network
Launch: Open University Gender Critical Research Network
OP posts:
Beowulfa · 17/06/2021 11:12

Best of luck with your OU studies, OP. I really enjoyed my time with them.

Beamur · 17/06/2021 07:55

Thanks for posting OP. This is really cheering to see.

Original poster
Deathsquito · 17/06/2021 07:51

@JustOneMoreStep my tutor was really good and quite friendly about it all. It was during an online tutor session.

You are right, sorry if I didn’t convey it properly! He warned us not to discuss what we were talking about in wider student circles/online. He was worried we would receive abuse. He also missed it out on the final ‘confounding variables’ list.

It was that that brought me to mumsnet, and this section, to ‘lurk’. One of our tutor group decided to discuss it (very politely!) on the wider ‘unofficial’ group WhatsApp. She was called a number of very unpleasant things and likened to a nazi, and also accused of being radicalised on mumsnet.

I decided to check it out for myself and see if I really was suddenly a bigot.

OP posts:
JustOneMoreStep · 17/06/2021 07:37

@Deathsquito did you misunderstand what your tutor was saying? Was it intended as a 'yes we can talk about sex in this way here (in an academic setting which is safe) but a piece or advice is perhaps to avoid it where possible online as you may become a target for TRA' type of thing? Eapecially as an undergrad where, as a generalisation, many students may be particularly sensitive to defending their point of view (as opposed to post grads where defending views and our work is part of the territory).It just surprises me that the OU would outright try to shut you down.

Personally, I've found the OU to be absolutely brilliant and very level headed around sex/gender and being gender critical which is an overlap of my own area of research.

dianebrewster · 17/06/2021 07:28

As an ex OU student, then tutor, then full time member of academic staff - my reaction is YEAH OU! 🎉

Thanks for posting this.

NecessaryScene · 17/06/2021 07:27

Indeed. But the Forstater judgment gives everyone an opportunity to level up (as Maya is fond of saying).

Nappyvalley15 · 17/06/2021 07:24

Maya's case has been extremely important but don't forget some of these academics have been out as gender critical for some time and have received a lot of grief for it.

highame · 17/06/2021 07:16

So Maya's case has made a difference, they must have been waiting in the wings for the outcome. It may not be a landmark case, but it has, hopefully, stopped the rot

ArabellaScott · 17/06/2021 06:51

This is really interesting, thanks for sharing, OP.

Original poster
Deathsquito · 17/06/2021 06:45

I think we most likely have Maya Forstater to thank for this. Hopefully other academic institutions will follow.

It seemed insane to me that students had to be careful not to talk about the reality of biology...during the first stages of a biology degree. Hopefully this means it will now be more acceptable to discuss these things.

OP posts:
GiantToadstool · 17/06/2021 06:45

Just had a look and what an amazing collection of people!

Sophoclesthefox · 17/06/2021 06:41

Well done, OU.

I’m astonished at the concept that when students are being threatened, the preferred option is to tell students not to bring threats on themselves, rather than, say, going to the source of the threats and making them stop Confused

The 2020s are quite an odd time.

Vanishun · 17/06/2021 06:40

Amazing - off to have a look now.

GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman · 17/06/2021 06:37

That's great news. Very brave of the OU in the current climate.

GiantToadstool · 17/06/2021 06:34

Wow good on the OU. This is in stark contrast to the cancel culture of mnsy universities. Genuinely surprised.