Academic Freedom, Harassment and GC academics - ask me any questions

Would I be right to surmise that Dr Blaxter may have a more than academic interest in this subject?

Looking at the few comments that have been published so far, this isn't going as well as Tam might have hoped for.

Dr. Blaxter’s letter to the Times when asserting that “ Stock’s view of sex as immutable and binary is regressive and discriminatory — and at odds with science.”

Let's just say I no longer see Cambridge as a top university. He may not be a scientist but it is a basic scientific fact that I would expect any adult to grasp.

Welcome, Jo, and support for you here today if you need it. Thank you so much for what you're doing. Quite aside from my GC views, the last couple of years have driven home to me the importance of teaching the next generation critical-thinking and the value of evidence-based research. None of us should be scared to debate and critique viewpoints that we ourselves find uncomfortable. All power to you and other academics taking that on!

I looked up Tam Blaxter too, I don't know why Tam thought people wouldn't check Tam's credentials.

Because it is women that are in their way.

Absolutely. Here's Helen Joyce writing about that - an extract from Trans published in Quillette.

In Galileo’s Middle Finger, Dreger offers another insight: since autogynephilia involves a fantasy of truly becoming, or already being, a woman, any reference to it can be experienced as an insult. “There’s a critical difference between autogynephilia and most other sexual orientations: most other orientations aren’t erotically disrupted simply by being labelled,” she writes. “When you call a typical gay man homosexual, you’re not disturbing his sexual hopes and desires. By contrast, autogynephilia is perhaps best understood as a love that would really rather we didn’t speak its name.”

This explains why such rage is mostly directed at women, even though it is men who commit almost all anti-trans harassment and violence. Blanchard’s observations of extremist trans activism in recent years have led him to believe that the leaders are mostly autogynephiles. Their anger results from “envy of women and resentment at not being accepted by women as one of them,” he has tweeted. “They direct their ire at women because it is women who frustrate their desires. Men are largely irrelevant.”

It’s misleading of Dr. Tam Blaxter to use Dr. Blaxter’s Cambridge credentials in Dr. Blaxter’s letter to the Times when asserting that “ Stock’s view of sex as immutable and binary is regressive and discriminatory — and at odds with science.”

Dr. Blaxter is not a Biologist; Dr. Blaxter is a research fellow in the Language Sciences department. Dr. Blaxter is deliberately using Dr. Baxter’s Cambridge connection to pretend an expertise Dr. Blaxter does not have.

I prefer Professor Robert Winston’s statements of fact. He at least knows what he’s talking about and he has the expertise to back up his opinion.

Why do transactivists focus their hatred on gc women when the physical violence they face doesn’t generally come from women?

Support Jo and thank you all brave women mentioned in the article and countless others - also support to those silenced.

Here sharetoken for the letter:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6b143b4-2cf1-11ec-98f2-b73d74f1f44d?shareToken=494685431e2eb7faf2dc741864bf2d84

We will not bow to trans activist bullies on campus

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6b143b4-2cf1-11ec-98f2-b73d74f1f44d?shareToken=f6056c926bae52581553540172c9eb59

Does anyone have a share token for the letter linked to in the article?

Thank you for share token.

It says Jo Phoenix is preparing to launch a test case at employment tribunal against OU for failing to protect her from harrassment at work.

“Jo Phoenix, 57, a professor of criminology, is preparing to launch a test case at an employment tribunal against the Open University for allegedly failing to protect her from a “public campaign of harassment that has made my working life unbearable”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a62dde74-2ec1-11ec-98f2-b73d74f1f44d?shareToken=f19c5280a3c4ca0287785114cb45245a

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/200-academics-tell-of-death-threats-and-abuse-as-battle-rages-for-free-speech-hp99fnzjh

Could be this? I can’t find a share token sorry

Hi Jo

Can you spill now it’s officially Sunday morning?

I was considering going back to academia (I’m currently in the private sector) but I’ve decided I can’t.

I wonder how many more people they’re losing (or not attracting).

Will be watching with interest. I'm an academic and left UCU months ago because of the increasing misogyny.

Hello Jo - another one who would like to express solidarity with you and also of course with Kathleen Stock.
Will be really interested to hear what you have to say tomorrow and hoping with fingers crossed that this is some kind of turning point where we reach sunnier uplands in our universities. I think others have asked the questions I would have put to you already.