Times article on academia

LuftBalloons - I don't think you're a coward. You do what you can. But there are clearly people going along with this who are prepared to see colleagues thrown under the bus and won't do or say anything at all, even though they know it's wrong. I really believe that there is strength in numbers and the more people who speak out, the better - they can't sack everybody. But I realise everyone is waiting for everyone else to speak out - that's the difficulty.

Some of this stuff takes some believing

Luft, thanks for doing what you can. We all do what we can, given all our varying situations, histories, contexts and abilities. I think we need both bold, bald stating of facts in some instances, and more conciliatory approaches in others.

As one sociologist put it: “My priority are the people who are being harmed by this debate, who I perceive to be trans people.”'

Yeah .... I guess the 2 women a week murdered in the UK BECAUSE THEY ARE WOMEN aren't suffering much harm.

It's chilling indeed @TheKeatingFive

As a feminist academic, I try to do my bit to counter this. I teach feminist theory & history - old school - and try to introduce young women to their history as women.

In relation to being called a coward about this, I struggle with that. I want to maintain good relationships with my students - that way is better to counter the harm of gender extremist ideology. So "softly softly catchee monkee" as they say.

It's utterly bewildering, like they're treating Trans identified (women let's face it) as a sacred caste or something.

I get that some are nodding along out of fear and intimidation, but others do appear to believe this.

I hope, eventually, someone smarter than me figures out how this happened.

“These gender-critical feminists – they are intellectualising [sex and gender], and I think it’s harmful,” she added.'

And there I was, thinking it's the job of an academic to, you know, intellectualise about their subject. Well silly me!

I can't help feeling that Alison Phipps apology is proving all the points made in that article.

And the paper is archived here: (CW)

gi422conference.com/trans-endemics-embodying-viral-and-monstrous-threat-in-times-of-pandemic/

More on that paper:

thecritic.co.uk/watch-me-take-a-knife-to-your-throat/

No, that quote in context:

'For example, last year, a London School of Economics postgraduate student conference paper described a scene in which feminists critical of genderism “scream for mercy”. The paper then described the potential threat: “I hold a knife to your throat and spit my transness into your ear”, concluding: “Are you scared? I sure fucking hope so.”

When discussing this horrific anti-feminism, some interviewees, including those working on violence against women, would nonetheless still equivocate. As one sociologist put it: “My priority are the people who are being harmed by this debate, who I perceive to be trans people.” “These gender-critical feminists – they are intellectualising [sex and gender], and I think it’s harmful,” she added.'

My priority are the people who are being harmed by this debate, who I perceive to be trans people.

My god, that's chilling.

This person isn't even open to considering the impact on any other party?

I can't see anything. There is this claim:

'some interviewees, including those working on violence against women, would nonetheless still equivocate. As one sociologist put it: “My priority are the people who are being harmed by this debate, who I perceive to be trans people.”'

And several interviewees talking about their fears of expressing any opinions that might be construed as 'gender critical' or 'terfy'.

I found this thread on OJ's twitter, where a person called Conor calls lesbians 'genital obsessed freaks'.

twitter.com/conormichael01/status/1570358933210136585

twitter.com/hjoycegender/status/1570469218080165889?s=21&t=-21MvvxmaPH_le3hcuVUPA

I'm not sure if this will work, but it culminates in this staggeringly hypocritical tweet, for which he was enthusiastically taken to task.

As someone else put it. TRA in the tweets, TERF in the sheets. 🤣

It continues to be a matter of astonishment that Alison Phipps ever managed to rise beyond the position of road sweeper, let alone rise to the position of professor. Along with Sally Hines, she provides a good example of just how broken academia is, both intellectually and morally.

I'm struggling to find it because I'm on a Twitter break and can't scroll down without being forced to log back in. Never mind not reading it will just have to be part of my detox! :D

It’s in LOJ’a twitter feed. Very near the top.

Pretty please could you link? I'm struggling to find the discussion.

Note this poor victim of the dreadful postdoctoral research fellow interviewing her about her own research topic! is a senior academic. Self described as a ‘renowned professor’ on twitter.

But somehow couldn’t challenge what she considered poor - and traumatising - research practice or challenge things she disagreed with. Nor could she email a PI/ethics chair/HoD afterwards to outline her concerns about the conduct of a very junior academic.

How does she manage to supervise PhD students, if she can’t cope in an interview about her own professional practices from someone much less experienced and institutionally powerful? Presumably she doesn’t submit articles for any kind of meaningful peer review where people
might challenge something.

She’s annoyed because her book is quoted in the article. But no one would have known she was a participant of she hadn’t flagellated on twitter.

It apparently has traction in America. We can't be too far behind.

Over abundance of caution, she put it out there so I rather think I was overdoing it.

I've not be able to read the article, is there anything in it about gc threats?

Oh, I see you were careful about not naming the academic, cake, sorry, I missed all those posts! I thought this was a pretty public statement, amplified by wee OJ.

Yeah, 'threats and abuse from the gc' but it's the trans allies they actually seem afraid of.

Hm.

'I apologise to the trans community for participating in this research, which is going to cause damage, and for not raising my concerns at the time. I made a huge mistake and I am sorry. I will not be so trusting in future and share this partly to alert others to take good care.'

Alison Phipps

twitter.com/alisonphipps/status/1570691031846490114

It’s interesting that the response from people who’ve discovered that the article doesn’t present them as the good guys is to make lots of accusations against the researcher.

The analysis didn’t support my position so I will apologise to the trans community for participating and claim the process was traumatic and unacceptable.

These are social science/humanities scholars. If they had been concerned about the conduct of research in which they’d participated, they knew fine well how to complain and seek redress.

The power relations of interviewing elites (and they ARE elites) are not the same as for interviewing people who don’t understand the process and know
how to hold their own in a debate/challenge things they disagree with.

It’s fascinating that they stayed silent about this adult, traumatising, irresponsible research practice right up until the point at which they discovered the analysis didn’t match the narrative they wanted to present. And then took to twitter to complain.