Times article on academia

Can I ask what fields remain free from this because it's live in medical/physiology journals. (A hacked off reviewer may be commenting here.)

Thank you for this, ImNotAnExpert

It's bloody chilling when a nation's universities become prohibitionist towards thought and debate. Especially when it's targeted against women.

I am so glad I was/am a scientific academic - this nonsense has no traction in the sciences.

I have always been proud to call myself a feminist. I think I was born one. I fought in the sixties and seventies for equal pay, equal rights and so on and was also proud to see the progress we made in the battle to see women treated as independent individuals and fully functioning humans, rather than appendages to the default male.

I have finally, and with huge reluctance, stopped calling myself a feminist. I have nothing in common with this tribe of batshit women who are sucking up to the trans ideology, throwing their sisters under the bus and taking the TRA vipers into their bosoms.

It is truly the 21st century version of the labotomy and I can no longer "identify" as a feminist and for those individuals who do call themselves feminists and have bought into this ideology - shame on you and your igorance.

I was at "Many genderist academics struggled, or were discomfited, when asked to provide their own definitions of sex, gender and (particularly) gender identity, despite their research and teaching revolving around these very topics."

The gender ideology extremists have lost sight of what feminism, and the women's movement is and - importantly - does. Centres women.

I’m not sure they all have. Many of them realise this. And that’s why feminism and the women’s movement are the main targets of vitriol.

Turns out that there are a lot of people who really, really hate the idea of centring women.

'Despite its conceptual diversity, genderism coheres around the push for gender (identity) to replace sex in most – if not all – contexts. Unlike feminism, its political subject is not female people but rather all those subjected to gender oppression – a concept that is redefined to emphasise lack of choice and affirmation relating to gender identity.'

Yes, this bit struck me, both personally, and as a working feminist academic historian (and historian of women). Laura Favaro (author of the THE article) pins it beautifully there.

The gender ideology extremists have lost sight of what feminism, and the women's movement is and - importantly - does. Centres women.

"Latest findings in biology"...

Christ.
As in what?
The latest & tiniest fucking seahorse (?!)
so tiny in fact, they're billy no mates as they
can't even locate themselves on account of being,
err, teeny weeny tiny and the rest.
So they swim about in a non-binary, queer fashion.
No sex, please.

TANSplayground frying me brain - again.

This matches what I have heard earlier through the grapevine and also what we all have seen in news and social media. This is NOT how universities are supposed to function, and it's sad that this must be said.

I would love to read a good explanation for why this particular ideological trend seems to come with such a large package of vitriol and at least verbal violence, attempts to close down all debate and so on. Perhaps similar things have happened in the past and I just didn't pay attention?

But if not, what is now different? Why is so much of the trans activist language catastrophising and why are we drifting further and further away from any general consensus in how we define reality?

For instance, the odd argument that binary sex is a Western colonial invention surely should have been something widely debated in the relevant academic fields?

It wasn't?, and now there are people who cite that as presumably a general historical fact applying to all cases of colonialism.

Similarly, I repeatedly read on Twitter that anyone saying that humans fall into two biological sexes only doesn't understand the latest findings in biology, yet when I look into this it's all about DSD which doesn't make the human sexes more than two. But discussing this, over and over on Twitter, doesn't seem to have any impact at all.

It's as if we have moved from "everyone can have their own opinions" to "everyone can have their own facts."

Yes well done Laura. This is an incredibly courageous research project and she provides a thoughtful evaluation of her interviews. She chose to interview academics who actually teach and research gender (not so many years ago that meant women) so this is the sharp end of the debate. I found it fascinating- and very reassuring - that even here she has plenty of GCs and moderates (effectively GCs). I'm an academic but not a gender specialist. I don't publicly advertise my views (with apologies to the courageous women and men who do and the posters up thread who condemned silence), but I've had loads of quiet conversations with people in and out of work and GCs are everywhere.

What a very brave article. Thank you Laura Favaro.

I mean - can it get any clearer than that?

Especially the way it's held as a universal truth.

I'd like to see some actual research on this. Let's start trying to correlate variables to gender and to sex, and lets see anything material that correlates better to gender.

Maybe hair length and nail polish map to gender better?

But anything real, like behaviour? Uh-uh.

remarkable coupling of condemnation and ignorance

Genderist academics reported personally imposing bans from academic networks and events, along with language policing of colleagues as well as students. “If students write ‘female’ in their essay, I’ll cross it out”, a sociologist told me, because “what matters is gender [identity]”.

I mean - can it get any clearer than that?

I just came to post this. A very clear-eyed article imo.

I'm glad this - a grain of sand on a huge beach tbh - was included:

"This view, together with the belief that “cis women have more power than trans people”, led genderist academics to refrain from forthrightly denouncing some transgender activists’ aggressive tactics towards feminists. These include threats and ideations of extreme violence, which, as well as being pervasive on social media, appear to be increasingly condoned at universities. 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."

Plus the admission that they don't really know or care what the GC position is.

"When asked to describe their arguments, however, she responded: “I don’t know if what I understand or what I think are the issues, are the issues, I’ll be honest with you – I stay out of their way.” This remarkable coupling of condemnation and ignorance regarding gender-critical feminism was fairly common among genderist academics. Many readily admitted that they limit their academic engagements, including their reading, to their “echo chambers and bubbles” where, as one journal editor noted, “we all share basically the same perspectives”."

The THE has touched on the 'trans debate' issues in the past, but never with something as refreshing (and horrifying) as this.
Get it out in the open, discuss it - unless your beliefs cannot withstand scrutiny.

In a way, it doesn't really matter what the specifics of the theory/ideology are - the problem is how it's being enforced, reinforced and supported. Any ideology that decrees it cannot be questioned is by definition authoritarian.

That is not healthy. It should worry everyone that academics feel they cannot discuss, debate, ask questions or suggest alternative views.

“If students write ‘female’ in their essay, I’ll cross it out”, a sociologist told me, because “what matters is gender [identity]”.

I hope academics can be a bit braver because to let stuff like the above occur is just pathetic. Grown adults cowering against idiocy. Don't they realise that if all the scaredy-cats and tip-toers and "middle ground"-ers spoke up together that there is safety in numbers and this genderist belief system would more quickly break down? Their silence is only enabling it, and ultimately doing the opposite of protecting themselves. I have very little respect for their selfish silences and the harm they are causing.

People need to speak out more, not button up in fear.

As always, there’s a group that think they are ‘in the middle’ and don’t realise that they are saying exactly the same as all of the people who have been labelled as right-wing extremist bigots.

There is no middle ground here. As soon as you try to be reasonable and advocate for a few single-sex spaces, you are called extremist.

What a terrifying article. More proof of what we're watching being played out in court today - that the only way to impose a set of dangerous, anti safeguarding and anti women's rights beliefs on an unwilling population is via extreme levels of bullying, threats and intimidation.

Yeah, I noticed that.

Dogs know what sex is. So do deer. And pigeons, who shag year-round in public places.

There's thing called biology and this thing called reproduction.

Colonial construct my arse.

I've just read the article. Holy crap, this is bullying on a mass and hugely problematic scale.

THE have not really covered this and it's respected in universities - so this is more important than just an article, it's a sign that the rot in universities is being noticed

‘For some, “sex” is a construct of oppressive systems, notably Western colonialism. Others argue it is a biological spectrum that can – at least in part – change. For others still, it is both a social fiction and a biological reality.’

Can you think of more nonsense? That sex is a construction of western colonialism. You can go to the most primitive tribes you like who have been undiscovered for centuries and he will see they operate on the basis that there are two sexes of male and female. Funnily enough the animal kingdom does so as well. The whole thing is a nonsense and that is why of course it’s adherence are so violent towards anyone who disagrees because they have no argument. It is like a cult or a extremist religion which relies on brainwashing and violence to maintain dominance. These places seem a kin to North Korea rather than places of academic freedom and discussion

That's a scary but not terribly surprising article.

In my experience of university academics in the Humanities, some of them can be deeply reluctant to question comfortable assumptions that suit their political outlook, and prepared to pressure students to avoid analyses that they themselves find disquieting.

Truly shocking.