If you are a lecturer who is not gender critical

[NappyDisco]

Would you use the word TERF in class?
Or would you find the term rude? I don't want an argument and I don't want this to become a trans thread. So please no one have a pop either way. Just curuous about the specific circumstances in the OP

Thanks

mn is one the few places online that tends to veer towards gender critical so I get that some people may avoid the subject and would rather not start a thread where people dont wish to answer.

I am a lecturer and I am gender critical and I have friends who are lecturers who are not, and none of them would use it, but I can see that some would (especially those on the gender essential end of the spectrum).
I have an ongoing "discussion" with a FB friend (someone I'm linked to in another way who doesn't seem to be bothered about being my FB friend, in general - I think they thought I was totally woke and have been surprised by this), who keeps asserting it's not insulting, and then failing to find any instances of it being used in a not-insulting way. This person has taught in HE but is not now a lecturer; not sure they'd use this term in class because it probably isn't relevant to their field.
I'm not sure if this person thinks that it's technically accurate i.e. not rude, in the way that saying "X does not think same sex couples should get married" is technically accurate and you can draw your own further conclusions about their bias, or if they think it's a negative term but accurate, like saying someone is racist is accurate but negative.
But if you want to challenge it, then I'd mention a) it's only used about women and b) it's only used negatively and if they argue, then ask them if they've seen it used positively.

Are you studying Sociology? I'm sorry to say that this is far from unusual in Sociology departments these days.

I was going to ask that too, though some other areas of social sciences and also some areas of Humanities are rife with this too.
I have a colleague who is a technical data driven researcher but has found herself in an Area Studies department which she describes as exactly like "Grievance Studies".

Interesting worstofbothworlds and it's nice that you're able yo still be friends. I know it can be a very decisive topic for some people.

No not sociology but I guess the topic isn't miles from that. I feel a bit like I'm being lectured by Tumbler sometimes and it's a bit if a struggle tbh! I normally find it interesting to be disagreed with and in fact happy to have a conversation about sex work or gender with someone who feels the opposite but I expect to listen and be listened to. Oh and facts. I expect those too.

As I said , the terf comment was out of context and felt pointed to me.

I would complain. This sounds highly inappropriate and unprofessional.

I am a GC feminist academic, who teachers feminist topics and I would not use the term, I would pull up any student using it, and I'd also explain my personal objections to using the term 'cis.' I teach a bit of queer theory from a GC feminist POV - it is possible! and would explain the difference between sex and gender, and then ask why anyone would feel that they are "happy" with a gender role/sex stereotype which oppresses them.

But I also read posts in a very wide-spread women's academic support network where the term "TERF" is used without irony and with feminist credentials.

Which I find distressing ...

I’m not a lecturer but I think it would be inappropriate and unprofessional. As far as I can see TERF is largely used as a slur against gender critical women. I suppose it I tried to come up with a “pro trans” negative descriptor It would be something like “handmaidens” - and you can bet there would be complaints if a GC lecturer used that to describe students.

I might complain. More about the teaching style than the specific use of that term though. I go to a uni that would probably write me off a bit if they got a whiff of terf about me.

oh I was actually corrected when I said "sex work is highly gendered" to "cis gendered" yes. I'm not quite sure how she knows the gender identity of the females selling sex. Or if that term even works like that

Taking the handmaid example i agree and dont use it for that reason. Would certainly never use it at uni.

Carpetgate curious as to why you're listing TERF as a title with racist and homophobic. Does that mean you don't consider it a slur? Racist and homophobic are clearly used to give the message that a persons behaviour or opinions are wrong. Do you think gender critical is wrong?

Your class sounds really interesting catandfiddle

I also read posts in a very wide-spread women's academic support network where the term "TERF" is used without irony and with feminist credentials.

I jumped before I was pushed from that group, after I complained about something or other.
I'm in the parallel (but not linked) mums' group and I haven't seen it used there (doesn't mean it hasn't been, CBA to search), but there's lots of affirmation of trans kids. I have a UK friend (long friendship, pre kids etc. etc.) who has a GNC child who seems to want to transition and she asked for advice and just got "here are some get-your-child-on-puberty-blockers sites".
I would always have said this friend was GC but I think, like another mutual friend, she has just been blindsided by her DC's insistence.

worst I've seen some quite stern moderating in various feminist networks, including that one. If it weren't feminist, I'd call it bullying or mobbing.

I hang in there because I'm appalled at the lack of support that a lot of the members have, and I can give helpful good advice. But I sit on my hands a lot, too.

Ach, my 20-year old self would chastise my weaselly pragmatism.

People who know what TERF means will use it as a slur, even if they profess it is not (given they persist when people inform them of that).

The fact that some of the words in the acronym don't even apply to everyone it gets slapped on is a clue. It's become a lazy shorthand for "views I wish to shut down".

People who don't know what TERF is won't use it at all.

There's not a whole lot more to it.

Sorry for taking us off-topic NappyDisco You're in a sticky tricky place - I hope you find the courage to speak up, and I sincerely hope that you are not penalised for it. And that thought is pretty ironic for me - I was doxxed from my Twitter & TRAs tried to sack me for my GC views - one of the bases of the complaint was that I would be biased in my marking of transgender students. Utter bullshit, btw. Impossible for personal bias to survive anonymous double marking and moderation.

But it's bitterly ironic that actually, you are likely to be in a more difficult situation with a "woke" tutor regarding your GC views in a discussion, it seems.

It might be worth trying to ask questions about the logic of "TERF" and suggest that maybe GC feminists are not actually concerned with transwomen, but with the rights of girls and women.

And if you get "Transwomen are women #nodebate" then say that you're speaking in relation to the Equalities Act, which protects sex, not gender, and which allows transwomen to not be treated as women in certain circumstances. All perfectly legal.

And in the Humanities, Arts & Social SCiences, there is always debate. It's at the centre of the Western university's tradition & ethos of pedagogy. That's how we teach you to think, and critically analyse.

But you know that.

I once helped to set up & run an MA in Women's Studies ahhhh those were the days I ran an individual module on Feminist debates, and we included prostitution & pornography. There are arguments to be made about the place of 'sex work' and porn for women, and I do understand their logic. I just don't agree. I think it comes down to individual conscience, and experience.

But I would never ever allow a man to pronounce on the subject, and I think a woman who talks about "SWERFS' is also being illiberal & hectoring.

So I guess you might also raise issues of freedom of speech. My place is a combination of woke & conservative, but also has a no "No platforming" policy unless there is illegal hate-speech (which is tricky when the students invite racists or misogynists to speak, but that is the price of democracy and free speech).

I'd never heard the term but I have been on all the courses for equality, unconscious bias etc. In a decent workplace or uni all staff will have had to fulfil requirements like this

Well, yes. I would also use the terms "homophobic" or "racist", regardless of whether that offends homophobes or racists. Obviously.

It is truly amazing how deep this evil, homophobic ideology has got that teachers are happy to call women who are against sterilisation of children such demeaning terms.

The kids of today are totally fucked.

.

Lol at "gender critical does not equal transphobic". Try it with "race critical", and see how you fare.

Try it with "race critical", and see how you fare.

Personally I couldn’t give a shit what race someone is, so long as they don’t have a dick when they want to enter into female spaces, take female prizes, manipulate their way into female sports, etc.

I know you think you’re being smart, but using your race comparison to try to undermine GC feminists, is insulting and racist in itself. Stop appropriating other people’s struggles because you know that the TRA’s, (made up of mainly white middle aged men) laments of being the ‘most oppressed’, is absurd.

Race critical. Is that a term people use, does it mean the same as gender critical?
As in "thinks race is a social construct". That's what most people think isnt it? I don't believe people of a certain race have whits brains or black brains.

Does it mean, no you can't just say "I feel black inside so I am black"?