Anyone else work at a Uni?

Oh FFS. Groups doing group-think.

Another statement to sign:
'We are leaders of centres, research groups and networks, of scholarship, teaching, learning, and expertise in gender, feminist, women’s and sexuality studies across the UK. We are dismayed by the recent Supreme Court judgment on the meaning of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act 2010.'

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTlPrVc6AjQSFRYgnpfggRZii7ee0LWmZUxH32cNojIExJzYUdqQLVLGbkIZwMi17UZDAijyiKB1Q9t/pub

Ours was basically:
People are anxious.
We await further external guidance.
We are inclusive.
You can get support if your are unsettled.

Our employer has actually sent out a somewhat surprising letter. I had expected the usual one sided thing but actually the letter (that has angered many who have drunk the kool aid) says -

1. here are the facts of the SC ruling
2. we are expecting updated code of conduct from ECHR
3. we understand it has caused various viewpoints to be aired
4. we note some people feeling uncertain and anxious
5. we note that org has rules against bullying and discrimination
6. we also note that org has a free speech mandate (with links) and free debate of all view points
7. if anyone requires wellbeing support here are usual channels.

i confess I was positively surprised to receive that..

@ParmaVioletTea sounds like my UCU branch - my institution is being destroyed by cuts, and morale is in the pits - but all the branch sends out is information on palestine demonstrations, and sadness that men can't access women's spaces

The UCU is run by idiots. My local branch is still making public statements about Israel & Palestine. Nothing about the dissolution of the uniersities by a thousand cuts.

Glad I resigned 2 years ago.

Our UCU has sent out a statement of trans solidarity including a link (amongst others) to Mermaids.

Oh interesting! It's so hard to know what people are thinking on the matter isn't it. As one side is necessarily very quiet!

While we're on the open letters - just checking that you lot are aware of this letter from a group led by Prof Alice Sullivan, raising concerns about the EDI requirements for the next REF and their lack of credible evidence-base. Some of you might wish to sign? You have to log in with your ORCiD number so the data-gathering is a bit more robust than that from our other friends ;-)

lucaf.org/viewdocument.php?id=6

Yes mine also said that (possibly the same?). I have strong suspicions one of our Exec is a TERF but I would still be very cautious to say anything publicly about this. We also quietly exited Stonewall about 4 years ago.

Yes this overseas interference is interesting. When most overseas based individuals don't necessarily understand our (ie UK) democratic laws, particularly Americans. I had an interesting social media conversation last year when an individual claimed that we (ie UK) were executing trans-individuals. I just politely provided the dates of our last executions of male and female, and suggested that if his friends and allies were providing him with such poor quality data which could be easily refuted, then it might be sensible to look at what other data they were providing him.

I don't remember if we were allowed to campaign against eg the reversal of Wade vs Roe for example.

🤣🤣

Good for Professor Hornblower …

There must be a good sociology paper in the study of this sub-genre, the trans activist academic open letter, ca. 2015 to 2025. I’m noticing subtle changes but I’m also tired of this tedious ‘activism’. So you’ve signed an open letter on your phone instead of marking a few student essays - congratulations, what a martyr to the cause.

Chain letter is exactly right, @Kucinghitam - it's as ill-thought through and as potentially destructive. At least a tiny bit of light relief is creeping in - their monitoring systems must be as weak as their analytic ones.

I'm quite fascinated by the concept of open letters of this kind. The person/team who writes such a letter must have a pretty feverish sense of single-minded, one-sided righteousness in order to initiate the activity, produce the emotionally-charged prose, and recruit initial signatories. After which, like a virus, the letter takes on a life of its own: it becomes an actual chain letter.

The later signatories (by the very fact that they weren't part of the inner circle to begin with) are almost certainly a bunch of mugs who are just told that they're signalling their own moral superiority and so jump blindly on the bandwagon. Even if they actually read what they're signing (I suspect most don't), it doesn't follow that they fully agree with it or understand it - they're just surfing the emotional wave created by the original one-sided author.

And realistically, nobody but perhaps the originators have any thought of what they expect the letter to achieve, beyond the frisson of "aren't I good" signalling.

Wonderful post from Audrey Ludwig on LinkedIn to those who may not have considered the legal implications of signing open letters

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/audrey-ludwig-70933414_a-short-open-letter-to-those-in-the-arts-activity-7324186973965897728-jsyI

For anyone coming to FiLIA, we try to have an informal meet up of academics there. At least, that happened at Portsmouth (I couldn't get to the Glasgow FiLIA).

Thanks all. It’s wonderful to have support here.
I do have a few people in the extended work community that I can talk too. But none of my colleagues in my immediate department, and we are huge!

I’m at Bristol which has had plenty of gender related kerfuffle already with Raquel Rosario Sanchez.

we had a very similar communication go around, honesty I’m not brave enough to say anything publicly and because of the nature of my role it would likely cause problems with my head of service so I just roll my eyes and say nowt.

Well on the bright side when I whinged about the gender-ID-masquerading-as-sex question on the sign up for a faculty event, pointing out that it wouldn’t help Athena Swan because it wasn’t about sex they changed it to a nice straightforward question about sex 😮.

I’m gobsmacked. I whinged about that question on general university records to the head of HR when it was first introduced and they didn’t give a stuff (because that’s what HESA asks) but now, at least on this one form, it has been changed. It may not be GC legend time but I’m impressed.

'Womanhood' as a term is such a red flag - a perfect example of the manipulative, exploitative corruption of language and meaning that characterises so much of this discourse. Not to mention that it sounds like a throwback to a dodgy quasi-pervy coercively romantic nineteenth century novelette.

Linking another thread with a link to yet another open letter, signed by various networks and research centres across the UK:

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5327375-womanhood-is-lived-it-is-not-biologically-given-or-legally-bestowed-centre-for-womens-studies-response-to-court-ruling?page=1

My question: if universities are supposed to be institutionally neutral, is this ok? Any scholar with a gender critical approach would automatically be excluded from these centres, therefore not be able to access resources which are ultimately funded by the public purse, no?

@Unluckyjim Thanks for saying this. In my darker moments, I feel the same way. I remember very clearly the first time I was asked (nicely I thought at the time, manipulatively as I realise now) to do a ‘pronoun round’ with students. That was some time around 2017 or 2018. At least the gloves are off now and everybody can see that this isn’t about being nice to some very disadvantaged people but about a movement that in the final analysis is comfortable with tearing up the social contract and disregarding the law …

Exactly. It’s all the same tired old inaccurate phrases. No concern for women at all.

Yes. This has been the problem all along. We have been scared of speaking up, scared of admitting to having perfectly reasonable views re sex, scared of saying we support women’s rights. It has been a bloody awful time. I just hope this marks the start of a return to normal.