Anyone else work at a Uni?

University types seem to be mad keen on Foucault and Butler.

DH goes to a philosophy group which has a core of about 5 people, who actually do the reading and enjoy spending an hour critiquing it.

They spent a whole year doing various philosophers ending up with Butler, so they had really done the work to understand WTF she is on about.

The weeks they did Butler loads of newbies turned up, talked about how amazing she is and only had the most superficial understanding. None of them were there for the weeks on her predecessors or successors.

I worked at a university briefly and it was an experience there that opened my eyes to the insanity.
It was 2016 ish and the head of department ( science dept) sent round an email to all staff about the new gender neutral toilet. One grumpy old man academic replied with a mild joke.
The next day the same academic issued an email to all staff with a grovelling apology. This was not the culture there AT ALL. There was plenty of sexism in that department, which never seemed to bother Upstairs, and this academic was known for speaking his mind/ being blunt.
I thought it was really odd and there must be more to it… so I started researching and found out about self Id. When I started talking to people about it they thought I was paranoid/ misguided/ mean…
It was the stasi like forced speech that was clearly happening in organisations that made me think “hang on… somethings not right” so I’m quite grateful for that.
Pretty much everyone I know has now caught up but this shit went in under the radar for years and it will take a while to turn it round.

Yes, it's become a term that is used to denote anything that stands outside or disrupts a supposed 'norm'.

Foucault has a lot to answer for too.

But yes, it is…interesting, that for all the boundary breaking they talk about, they’re all about oh, you like this thing? Get in that box.

It’s the same as when our grandparents were children (you are a boy, boys can’t like X) but with added medical abuse.

A lot of unis are struggling with funding and some may close in the next 5 years as student numvers from the UK fall / alternative/ better value apprenticeships become more appealing.

They should listen very carefully to their audience as to what they want, particularly those from backgrounds which are overtly sex-segregated as to their view as whether their daughters feel safe at a uni with gender ideological views.

I don't want to take this off topic, but is queer theory all Judith Butler? I listened to a podcast today about queering the detective novel and it just makes no sense. It comes across to me that QT is saying look beyond accepted norms but at the same time it's putting people in boxes and labelling them.

More weasel wording. "Defined" as in "the definition of", in which sense yes women are defined by their biology, and "defined" as in "seen as nothing more than" or "only capable of roles specific to", in which case no of course women are not defined by the biology.

The statement leverages reasonable people's likely agreement to the second, feminist meaning - of course women should not be defined by their biology - to capture support for the first: if you don't think women should be defined by their biology then what are you doing saying women have to be female?

These academics are either very stupid or very duplicitous. Given what they are supposed to be I'm not sure which is the worse indictment. Perhaps academics are interpreting Academic in its secondary meaning of "not real, not important, not relevent to the real world" these days.

And not all humanities departments are to blame for Judith Butler

Edit: cross post

Not all of us humanities academics are captured. I teach women's history & writing (among other things) and I teach my students the difference between sex (immutable, biological) and gender roles and stereotypes. Except I call them sex-based roles and stereotypes, and we look at how they are culturally & historically specific.

We need the Humanities.

Yes. Reform have spotted the scope creep of so many organisations and it’s hard to argue against their policy of returning public bodies to their core purpose and removing roles such as DEI.

And the irony, the deep deep irony, is that we still need EDI initiatives.

• Only about 15-20% of the UK professoriate is female. And fewer women of colour even than that.
• There is still a 15% sex pay gap (at my institution which is one of woker ones around)
• Our female students still suffer detriments. The 1752 group, and the "Everyone's Invited" group show just how much our female undergrads put up with from male students & staff in yerms of bullying & sexual harassment, all the way up to rape.
• Women academics still suffer in careers from maternity & care roles deficits - they still don't progress as their male peers do.

And so on.

This Foucault-and-Butler gender shite came from the humanities departments of universities and is doing an amazing job of destroying the fabric of society, to the point of capturing governments and inspiring US presidents (Biden) to write executive orders letting men into women's jails.

Silicon Valley techbros aren't in university natural sciences, maths, engineering, and medicine departments. Some of them were in compsci departments before they went to where they can make money. University STEM departments aren't to blame for the total lack of ethics in Big Tech.

I mean, STEM techbros are destroying the fabric of society but I still support tech research

Yeah a world without humanities research sounds great 🙄👌 I mean who needs to learn from history, amirite

the humanities and social sciences will be at the top of the list for the chopping block when Reform win the next election

Forgive me if I don't cry for very long about this, particularly if the identity wank is the first to go. I'm a STEM technician and this nonsense is infesting even my field, which really offends my sensibilities about data being correct and meaningful.

Yes. Reform have spotted the scope creep of so many organisations and it’s hard to argue against their policy of returning public bodies to their core purpose and removing roles such as DEI.

i loathe and detest Farage and everything he stands for, but policies like this and the “no political flags over county hall” in the local elections will get people voting for him without too much scrutiny of his economic and social policies.

Exactly so. There is little sympathy for the claims made by lecturers with regard to pay and conditions but more importantly, this comes at a time when the entire sector is in crisis.

I agree, GCAcademic. Dons in their Ivory Towers, unconnected to the real world and the public assume that they're all of the same mind.

That letter is precisely the kind of thing that makes the general public despise academics. And which means that the humanities and social sciences will be at the top of the list for the chopping block when Reform win the next election.

That letter is completely unhinged.
We unequivocally reject the idea that women can be defined by their biology
How ELSE do you define the word 'women'? What did the word develop to describe?

And that guff that transpeople are no threat to women. Welcome to safeguarding, peeps.

ISTR there have been prominent TRAs (possibly even MPs/councillors) who were keen on the idea of re-education camps for disobedient unbelievers... and we've seen in the recent protests that there are plenty of Righteous folx (including Jo Grady, various MPs) who are happy to turn a blind eye to threats of gory death.

It's modern day Lysenkoism, without the Gulag / being shot in the Lubyanka.

I've started to analyse the list in Excel so I could look for duplicates. There aren't too many. My analysis probably wont pick up unusual names!

Some have signed it twice…

This is just nuts

We really need a facepalm 🤦‍♀️ emoji on Mumsnet.

And yes to the [muffled curses] UCU. Ours sent out an email telling us to think of some action to take in solidarity with our trans comrades 😑 and has apparently written a commentary on the Cass Review. I’m not going to download it. I have high blood pressure already.