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.

I get what you're saying OP, but I think what academics need is for openly GC numbers to reach critical mass (pun intended).

Easier said than done though given the huge cost to career and mental health. It’s a consumer’s market in academia. Institutions bend over backwards to pander to students paying huge fees. Anyone seen to be a problem, especially women, will be pushed out, even if not fired outright. I do agree with others on this thread that there are probably way more GC academics than I realise, but it doesn’t feel that way. For instance, the trade union for academics is notoriously anti-free speech and pro TRA. So the body that could protect me against the consequences of speaking out has said outright it won’t do so and that it doesn’t want me to even work in the sector (or any sector at all). And I support trans people and would never discriminate against a student or colleague for being trans. I use preferred pronouns and am sensitive when discussing certain topics. It’s just that I believe that biology is important and is the root cause of women’s oppression. I also think that there must be exceptions to allowing people to ID as the opposite sex, including prisons, shelters and sports. Not hateful, not especially radical, yet apparently on a par with nazism.

Sigh.

@Wildswim yeah, it is extremely out of touch. I agree 100%. Would be nice if there were a space for logic and reason but it seems there isn’t.

Perhaps in academia it needs to be forced upon them, like with schools. The government should link funding to evidence of open thinking, blocking funding to the no debate fascists. I'd like to see it become dangerous funding-wise to attempt to no platform anybody, to use any kind of blocker on social media, etc.

@PostItJoyWeek In an ideal world, I don’t want politicians telling universities what they can and can’t teach. That’s very dangerous. However, I do think there needs to exist very robust laws that protect free speech and that are punitive of any attempts to suppress it. I also think there needs to be restriction of the influence of external organisations that have a political agenda, eg Stonewall.

Universities need to stop being scared of students’ threats to withdraw their custom. If you can’t handle a speaker you disagree with attending your campus, you need to grow up and stop acting like a 5 year-old. You are welcome to attend and engage in polite debate but you cannot stop the event from going ahead by using threats. That does also mean that there will probably be speakers that many left-leaners (of which I am one) disagree with but that’s something we need to live with in the interest of free speech. My safety is not compromised by Jacob Rees-Mogg or Nigel Farage being on my campus and nobody’s safety is compromised by Selina Todd being on their campus. This narrative of needing to be totally safe from opposing views is ludicrous and needs to stop. There are people in the world who are genuinely unsafe due to their beliefs and who they are. UK students don’t fall into this category by even a tiny bit.

No I don't want politicians involved in what can be taught either. I think it would be quite straightforward to mandate freedom of speech and freedom of association though without interfering.

A parallel would be laws for business around monopolies and anti-competitive behaviours. The regulations are fiercely enforced, the public are in favour, it does not give the politicians much of an in road to tinker with business, quite the opposite in fact as it stops them trying to pick the winners and tilt the playing field.

We spend billions of taxpayers money on higher education. I think that means the government has a responsibility to use the law to stop academia doing the equivalent of becoming a hostile monopoly in business.

I'm no academic but I do move in 'woke leftie liberal' social groups. There are more of us GCs around than it would appear from the outside. Though we might not appear to be. I have been fairy open with friends in 1:1 conversations, and even the outwardly super 'woke' have admitted to being GC 😅 when caught off guard.

Are you me?

Also an academic millenial (just) working in birth / baby research. One popular journal is issuing guidelines basically saying can't use the word woman and should refer to chestfeeding not breastfeeding.

I’m autistic and a radfem, and I couldn’t function in the environment you have to work in, OP. I’m so sorry you have to suffer it.
Have you considered passive aggressively reflecting the logical outcome of their gender beliefs back at them?
For example “Isn’t it great that even violent transgender rapists can choose to be held in a women’s prison? I mean, ok, Karen White sexually assaulted 4 women in the communal showers but who cares about a few vulnerable women, eh?”
Or “Self ID is fab. We can replace all the British women Olympic athletes with transwomen and win all the medals. I’m sure those women who trained for years will be happy to give up their places on the team. Trans rights are more important than fairness or women’s rights, aren’t they?”
Do it in wide eyed innocence. They can hardly attack you for spouting the party line! But it might make some of them start to join the dots. And help you to retain your sanity.

I am a GC academic working in women's health. My subject area requires a clear, science-based and indeed intimate understanding of female biology, and its history is steeped in radical feminism and an understanding of women's rights and the critical importance of women-only spaces.

Over the last couple of years I have had several complaints from students that by using the word 'woman' in lectures to describe biological processes that are only experienced by adult human females, I am being discriminatory and ignoring the mental anguish of the most oppressed members of our society.

Most of my colleagues have their pronouns in their bios. I never, ever will.

I am hugely experienced, an extremely good teacher (not my personal assessment ) and yet looking for ways out of the profession as I can't trust myself not to lose my shit with it all quite soon.

Over the last couple of years I have had several complaints from students that by using the word 'woman' in lectures to describe biological processes that are only experienced by adult human females, I am being discriminatory and ignoring the mental anguish of the most oppressed members of our society.

Horrific.

OP, I don't have questions but wanted to offer solidarity. I'm a Gen X gender crit working in a woke charity environment. I attended Goldsmiths as a mature student and hoped that the TERF/SWERF nonsense would be a phase. How wrong I was.

Take good care of yourself.

I don't really have anything of value to add OP, as I work with very level headed and normal folk who would look at you as if you had two heads if you started talking about the majority of the nonsense that I see TRAs banging on about on a regular basis.

I just wanted to say hold tight! This is a ridiculous phase and I have no doubt that other issues will come along in the next few years that blows all of this out of the water. The people who don't have any real problems or causes to fight will find a new cause which replaces this nonsense and things will (hopefully) level off a bit.

@Babdoc I do the feigned innocence sometimes! Actually the biggest risk I took was where a colleague was in a Twitter-discussion with someone over a man who identified as a 5-year old girl. My colleague said ‘she may be a shitty person, but she’s a woman’ so I said ‘and presumably a 5 year old too’ and after that my colleague unfollowed me and was very frosty. I’ve since deleted my personal Twitter. It’s so so stupid, the whole thing.

With students, I just steer clear of anything to do with trans. @morepurpleflowers and @FastMovingLuxuryGoods that rings very true though, esp with the journals. That’s why I couldn’t apply to be on the editorial committee i mentioned above. Feminist journals are sadly the worst. It’s better going for old-school fusty journals run by men in their 60s as you’re likely to find less misogyny and sexism there. Sounds ridiculous but is increasingly true.

Do we need a campaign to require universities to champion free speech, debate, challenge?

It could be independent of women's rights or gender identity ideology. After all, this mindset affects plenty of other areas, even though gender politics is the most extreme example currently.

How might a movement like that get traction in academia or the funding of academia?

Maybe you should all pool your resources and take class action against your union for failing to uphold human rights legislation? Come out all in one go, collectively? A bit like the authors did a few weeks ago. Sure they can pick you off one by one but if there are hundreds of you all doing the same thing at the same time, with proper legal representation you'll be stronger. That's why they work so bloody hard to stop GCs from being able to organise and communicate.

@TheCountessofFitzdotterel

‘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.

Wow, I completely agree.

@RuffleCrow

Maybe you should all pool your resources and take class action against your union for failing to uphold human rights legislation? Come out all in one go, collectively? A bit like the authors did a few weeks ago. Sure they can pick you off one by one but if there are hundreds of you all doing the same thing at the same time, with proper legal representation you'll be stronger. That's why they work so bloody hard to stop GCs from being able to organise and communicate.

I’d like that but sadly the climate of fear is so strong that this isn’t going to happen. You get the odd person brave enough to say something but everyone else is silent, watching the ensuing fallout. You might find the odd ally but even profs are scared of this stuff. Academia is generally quite a solitary place anyway, probably due to you being in more or less constant competition with colleagues in terms of grants, publications and promotions. I am sure there are hundreds, possibly thousands but nobody willing to risk their career. It’s hard to open up to people because you don’t know who you can trust and many of the ringleaders of the TRA movement hold senior academic positions and could do real damage to the career of someone they didn’t like (eg Sally Hines, Alex Sharpe, Allison Phipps, to name but a few).

@PostItJoyWeek

Do we need a campaign to require universities to champion free speech, debate, challenge?

It could be independent of women's rights or gender identity ideology. After all, this mindset affects plenty of other areas, even though gender politics is the most extreme example currently.

How might a movement like that get traction in academia or the funding of academia?

You probably won’t believe it (I wouldn’t if I didn’t work in academia) but our union has tabled a motion that free speech is an excuse for hate speech and should be restricted. Anyone who argues in favour of it is labelled as right-wing.

According to Google the birth years to be classed as a millenial is between 1981 and 1996..hiw the flipping heck is that correct. Surely a millenial should be born in 2000? It's almost as bad as adults aged up to and including 25 are called Young Adults.. Fuck off fgs with all this labelling shit. You're an adult.

According to Google the birth years to be classed as a millenial is between 1981 and 1996..hiw the flipping heck is that correct. Surely a millenial should be born in 2000? It's almost as bad as adults aged up to and including 25 are called Young Adults.. Fuck off fgs with all this labelling shit. You're an adult.. I don't get called an Old Adult

Conference believes that members in further, higher, adult and prison education must fully support the BLM movement and that UCU branches must play an active role in delivering an anti-racist workplace.

Conference resolves to consider and implement a plan of action, including if necessary the use of industrial action if the above calls [for decolonising the curriculum and our institutions] are not heeded.

Congress resolves to dismantle the exclusivity of cis and hetero normativities in all UCU work; to develop branch action plans challenging the use of academic freedom arguments against LGBT+ people

Congress rejects attempts to cloak anti-trans campaigning and views with spurious ‘free speech’ or academic freedom arguments.

This is the wording of the motions put forward at the recent union congress. Obviously I am strongly in favour of measures to tackle racial discrimination in universities but I am very unsure whether the BLM/decolonisation movement is the best way to go about that or whether it’s appropriate for the union, which represents over 100,000 members with diverse views, to sign up to this. A big issue I have with BLM is the call to defund the police and abolish prisons. That’s not something I support. There’s also been an automatic link between the BLM and the TRA movement.

As for the dismantling cis normative stuff, that’s what they’ve already been doing for a few years. It’s consisted mainly of bullying women. I have never seen a GC academic express genuine hate for trans people but any mention of biology means that you’re labelled as a transphobe. The union has a separate branch at each institution and I have seen some branches use their social media accounts to bully female academics whom they don’t like. At some places, active bullying is carried out by union reps, which beggars belief.

@IEat no, millennials are the generation after gen X. They came of age at the start of the millennium, hence the name. They are mainly in their 30s. I am 36. The younger generation is called Gen Z.

Conference believes that members in further, higher, adult and prison education must fully support the BLM movement and that UCU branches must play an active role in delivering an anti-racist workplace.

Conference resolves to consider and implement a plan of action, including if necessary the use of industrial action if the above calls [for decolonising the curriculum and our institutions] are not heeded.

Congress resolves to dismantle the exclusivity of cis and hetero normativities in all UCU work; to develop branch action plans challenging the use of academic freedom arguments against LGBT+ people

Congress rejects attempts to cloak anti-trans campaigning and views with spurious ‘free speech’ or academic freedom arguments.

This is the wording of the motions put forward at the recent union congress. Obviously I am strongly in favour of measures to tackle racial discrimination in universities but I am very unsure whether the BLM/decolonisation movement is the best way to go about that or whether it’s appropriate for the union, which represents over 100,000 members with diverse views, to sign up to this. A big issue I have with BLM is the call to defund the police and abolish prisons. That’s not something I support. There’s also been an automatic link between the BLM and the TRA movement.

As for the dismantling cis normative stuff, that’s what they’ve already been doing for a few years. It’s consisted mainly of bullying women. I have never seen a GC academic express genuine hate for trans people but any mention of biology means that you’re labelled as a transphobe. The union has a separate branch at each institution and I have seen some branches use their social media accounts to bully female academics whom they don’t like. At some places, active bullying is carried out by union reps, which beggars belief.

Conference believes that members in further, higher, adult and prison education must fully support the BLM movement and that UCU branches must play an active role in delivering an anti-racist workplace.

Conference resolves to consider and implement a plan of action, including if necessary the use of industrial action if the above calls [for decolonising the curriculum and our institutions] are not heeded.

Congress resolves to dismantle the exclusivity of cis and hetero normativities in all UCU work; to develop branch action plans challenging the use of academic freedom arguments against LGBT+ people

Congress rejects attempts to cloak anti-trans campaigning and views with spurious ‘free speech’ or academic freedom arguments.

This is the wording of the motions put forward at the recent union congress. Obviously I am strongly in favour of measures to tackle racial discrimination in universities but I am very unsure whether the BLM/decolonisation movement is the best way to go about that or whether it’s appropriate for the union, which represents over 100,000 members with diverse views, to sign up to this. A big issue I have with BLM is the call to defund the police and abolish prisons. That’s not something I support. There’s also been an automatic link between the BLM and the TRA movement.

As for the dismantling cis normative stuff, that’s what they’ve already been doing for a few years. It’s consisted mainly of bullying women. I have never seen a GC academic express genuine hate for trans people but any mention of biology means that you’re labelled as a transphobe. The union has a separate branch at each institution and I have seen some branches use their social media accounts to bully female academics whom they don’t like. At some places, active bullying is carried out by union reps, which beggars belief.

Conference believes that members in further, higher, adult and prison education must fully support the BLM movement and that UCU branches must play an active role in delivering an anti-racist workplace.

Conference resolves to consider and implement a plan of action, including if necessary the use of industrial action if the above calls [for decolonising the curriculum and our institutions] are not heeded.

Congress resolves to dismantle the exclusivity of cis and hetero normativities in all UCU work; to develop branch action plans challenging the use of academic freedom arguments against LGBT+ people

Congress rejects attempts to cloak anti-trans campaigning and views with spurious ‘free speech’ or academic freedom arguments.

This is the wording of the motions put forward at the recent union congress. Obviously I am strongly in favour of measures to tackle racial discrimination in universities but I am very unsure whether the BLM/decolonisation movement is the best way to go about that or whether it’s appropriate for the union, which represents over 100,000 members with diverse views, to sign up to this. A big issue I have with BLM is the call to defund the police and abolish prisons. That’s not something I support. There’s also been an automatic link between the BLM and the TRA movement.

As for the dismantling cis normative stuff, that’s what they’ve already been doing for a few years. It’s consisted mainly of bullying women. I have never seen a GC academic express genuine hate for trans people but any mention of biology means that you’re labelled as a transphobe. The union has a separate branch at each institution and I have seen some branches use their social media accounts to bully female academics whom they don’t like. At some places, active bullying is carried out by union reps, which beggars belief.

Also, I made reference to it because millennials are usually associated with the woke movement. I don’t know if your comment to ‘fuck off with your labelling’ is aimed at me or more generally. As I’m sure you’re aware, pretty much most surveys and statistics on the population are grouped by age range and you may well find yourself referred to as an old adult, depending on your actual age.
Anyway, my age is only relevant insofar as potentially challenging the argument made by so many TRAs that GC feminists are exclusively over 50 and that their views reflect outdated social attitudes. It’s bull of course but within academia, it’s very hard to find people of my generation who agree with me and these are usually the ones with pronouns in bios etc.