I’m a secret millennial TERF in academia. AMA

[RealityNotEssentialism]

Well, I should preface by saying that I consider TERF to be a slur but I am gender-critical and believe that women are entitled to sex-based protections because it is sex that determines that women are treated differently to men. I of course support trans people having legal protections against discrimination but not at women’s expense.

I work in academia. Most of my colleagues are woker than woke. Many have pronouns in their email signature and bios. Because I’m fairly young, people tend to assume that I agree with the woke mob too when nothing could be further from the truth. I can’t come out though as my career would be over. It can be frustrating and lonely and I have to bite my lip when colleagues tell me that ‘TERFS should be fired’ and similar. I am tolerant of different views but it’s very clear that this doesn’t run both ways for those who disagree with me. It’s odd being told (albeit indirectly) constantly that I am hateful and a threat to people’s safety. I can’t abandon logic and truth though. I just can’t. To vent, I used to run a secret anon twitter account but I shut it down because I was worried about the lengths that TRA doxxers go to.

Feel free to AMA.

Why did you start this thread?

I feel so sorry for you. I can't believe your older colleagues don't feel the same way as you, how is that possible ? I thought it was just some garbage the young fell for.
It is a scary world where people are now afraid to voice their opinion for fear of serious repercussions. So easy to label someone a bigot if they don't agree with you and the woke always have "right" on their side it seems. Oh the irony

Do you work in a research area that is safely removed from these issues or do you have to tiptoe around them in your publications?
I left academia for other reasons and though I miss it I thank my lucky stars I don’t have to deal with this.

I also work in HE although not academia and I have to bite my lip on a daily basis. It makes getting through some days very hard, so I hear you!

Why did you start this thread?

Why not? Why does anyone start a thread? It’s quite a bit issue at the moment in the media and other circles, in case you hadn’t noticed. It makes me feel depressed about my job. If you’re not interested, feel free to not reply.

I feel so sorry for you. I can't believe your older colleagues don't feel the same way as you, how is that possible ? I thought it was just some garbage the young fell for.
It is a scary world where people are now afraid to voice their opinion for fear of serious repercussions. So easy to label someone a bigot if they don't agree with you and the woke always have "right" on their side it seems. Oh the irony

Thanks for the supportive message. Maybe some older colleagues do feel the same but they haven’t said anything (they’re probably scared, like me). It’s largely younger people who promote it but also plenty of people older than that (especially in the social sciences).
It’s no exaggeration that my career would be ruined if I said anything though. People who have done so have been removed from editorships, been trashed on social media, been subject to complaints and discipliniaries and have been no-platformed at speaking events. There’s a lot of vitriol out there and I’m not established enough to have any hope of weathering the storm if I say anything.

Do you work in a research area that is safely removed from these issues or do you have to tiptoe around them in your publications?
I left academia for other reasons and though I miss it I thank my lucky stars I don’t have to deal with this.

No. Sadly it’s an area where these people have enormous amounts of influence and any dissent would leave me ostracised. A journal was advertising for editorial board members recently and I wanted to apply but then I looked at the journals twitter account and they liked a load of tweets calling for JK Rowling to be boycotted as well as tweets that said that GC feminists are far right white supremacists. Although it’s good to have editorial board membership on my CV, I just couldn’t face it.

I also work in HE although not academia and I have to bite my lip on a daily basis. It makes getting through some days very hard, so I hear you!

Thank you! It can be very lonely. I wish I had someone at work to vent to because so much of it is ridiculous. My sister understands but she doesn’t work in academia so doesn’t quite get it. She works in the NHS and has had some horrifying sexist and ageist training about how elderly and vulnerable women who object to sharing a ward with natal males (where the ward is labelled single-sex) should be reprimanded for bigotry and removed from the ward.

‘they liked a load of tweets calling for JK Rowling to be boycotted as well as tweets that said that GC feminists are far right white supremacists.’

The world’s gone mad. It’s not just the ridiculousness of that that depresses me, it’s whatever happened to professionalism? An academic journal’s social media ought to be conducted with dignity and objectivity and not go anywhere near political topics like that.

The world’s gone mad.
It’s not just the ridiculousness of that that depresses me, it’s whatever happened to professionalism?
An academic journal’s social media ought to be conducted with dignity and objectivity and not go anywhere near political topics like that.

You’re right. It’s hideous and so unprofessional. The thing that really upset me recently was the furore over the baby loss charity that referred to ‘birthing parents’ rather than mothers. A few of my colleagues liked or retweeted messages about how the bereaved mothers who objected to it were selfish bigots. It’s just so evil and I can’t understand how anyone can target those who have suffered stillbirth or abuse survivors, where those people have said that single sex spaces and language is important. Of course it is important - otherwise everything would be mixed. Someone I work with once tweeted about how our uni is so great at catering to ‘people who menstruate’ because they have free tampons and pads in the (admittedly gender-neutral) toilets. Sigh. Makes me feel I’m going mad most days because these are intelligent people.

Me too! I just had to sit through a scary and depressing meeting in which it was proposed that dissenting voices = hate = not to be tolerated.

It’s so hard as a more junior academic as we are v vulnerable professionally.

Good this thread is so depressing. I had no idea it was that bad.

👍

@Notanotherusernamenow
Vile, so full of hate themselves. The irony

As for a question, how do you get away with not putting your pronouns on mails etc? Has this not been noticed?

I’m so sorry.

Also a millennial and gender critical! Any ideas on why seemingly the majority of our generations minds are so open their brains are falling out? I’ve been thinking about the education system, I don’t think we were really taught to consider both sides of an argument, it was more being told what was wrong/ right.

When I remember studying feminism with an excellent lecturer (still well known) twenty odd years ago, the atmosphere of the department and the theory we learnt this makes me despair.

Do you think it will improve in time? Or get worse / same

No question but wishing you courage. There are some awesome gc academics putting themselves in the line for this cause. So nuts that places of thinking and debate fall for this shit

Good for you! Not an academic but also gender critical.

There are plenty of people in academia who are GC, but they tend to keep their heads down. I have had lots of support from the (male) professors in my department, and emails of support from students when I outed myself by signing a letter re. academic freedom in a national publication. I’m mid-career, though, and have got to the point where I have zero respect for the majority of academics or for the profession itself, thanks to the cult-like thinking they’re manifesting (or the fact that some of them parrot this crap for career reasons when they clearly don’t believe it) and felt it was costing me more to stay silent than to speak out. I completely understand it’s different for younger academics, though.

And, yes, there is a great deal of unprofessional behaviour from academics on Twitter. Many of these people claim that professionalism is a product of white male supremacy. Seems like a convenient excuse to engage in bullying and brattish behaviour, if you ask me (particularly given that the culprits are almost invariably privileged and middle class themselves).

Yep this is being driven by Cishet female colleagues. Often at the expense of LGBT staff and students, as the cishet women are taking up their space on committees. I have quite a few trans and NB students who, funnily enough, really like me and I do some extra mentoring with them. I’m not transphobic. I respect others’ pronouns but I don’t declare mine. If anyone pulls me up on it, Though they haven’t, I would say that I personally don’t feel comfortable using email to discuss or declare my gender. The daft thing about pronouns is that they are really only used when the person isn’t there! I have never had to use pronouns other than first and second person when teaching. If I refer back to a point someone made, I would use their name or “someone said earlier...”

I’m against anti freedom of discussion and debate and I’m anti privileging one marginalised group above another. Trans staff and students also aren’t the ones demanding this. [ My only student who is very violently anti Rowling, at least in conversation, is a very damaged young woman (not trans) from an upper-middle class background]

I found Mumsnet when I was doing my PhD and was struggling. Glad that this is still a safe place!

I should add, I am GC because of my own history of identifying as male as a child until puberty. Autistic, eating disorder. Found it difficult to connect with female friendships. Classic hallmarks of young people today that are transitioning / are transitioned. To add to it, I play contact sport and have seen the effects of male bodies on women’s.

And I teach / research on women’s bodies and experience across time so, again, sex-based oppression features heavily!

I had to look up cishet. Ffs. Cis / heterosexual

Ffs how can straight, hetero women welcome in their erasure with #bekind? 🤯

are you me, OP? good luck navigating it all

Another GC academic here (waves) so good to hear more GC voices. I keep fairly quiet at work but from sneaky lunchtime conversations I'd say most of the colleagues my age are pretty GC - leftie social sciences, totally support trans people but also recognise sex differences and sexual oppression. Our millennial colleagues are woke city. I can't understand it - they are academically brilliant, nice people, deeply committed to social justice but batshit crazy over this issue