Womens Place Newcastle

[Ingsoc]

New to mumsnet, terrified.

Anyone going?

@terfing, I walked past several posters relating to midwifery in the venue (along with the dummy on a hospital trolley that looked like a corpse), so I would hope that Northumbria have an understanding of the relevance of reproductive anatomy and how sex matters!

I also think we could show Northumbria some appreciation: their Twitter is northumbriauni and you can write and email. They are probably getting shit right now from the students who are too inexperienced to have needed female-only spaces whilst miscarrying so we should counter that.

I really hope that they don't apologise. They've done nothing wrong.

broken link, here's the correct contact page for Northumbria Uni

OP, I've been to three events for gender critical feminists now and none of them were targeted by TRAs. I understand you feeling a bit apprehensive but I really don't think you've got anything to worry about. How do you think your employer will find out you've attended this event? It's not as though the activists are given a list of ticket holders.

If by some remote chance your employer found out you'd attended this event I can't see how they could penalize you in any way. In fact if they tried you could raise one hell of a stink over it. I'd guess that whatever NHS policy may be, people who work with sexed bodies every day are more likely to be gender critical than the rest of us.

I was nervous about going, particularly the last one I attended, which was after the harassment experienced by women in Bristol. My health isn't good and I couldn't cope with being hemmed in on a flight of stairs.

But I went, and enjoyed it massively. I only wish it had been a weekend. It was too short. There were so many women there I would have liked to spend hours with. It was really exhilarating to meet with like minded women (and a few blokes).

Bristol University issued a statement affirming its commitment to free speech following attempts to close down 'A Women's Place' meeting earlier in the year.
Thread:
[[https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3233018-Freedom-of-Speech-A-statement-by-the-Chair-of-the-Universitys-Equality-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Group]]

oops!
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3233018-Freedom-of-Speech-A-statement-by-the-Chair-of-the-Universitys-Equality-Diversity-and-Inclusion-Group

Thanks Prawnofthepatriarchy
I didn't go in the end but perhaps next time.

I've just had a lovely student nurse shadowing the hv visit who is at Northumbria. I also know a male professor there who once tweeted that anything written by Rebecca Reilly Cooper was bound to be on the ball. Every single student teacher I've had the pleasure of working with from Northumbria is amazing and v intelligent (they seem to choose very well). I was given a distinction in my pgce there a it must be a good place blatant boast I don't know what the art dept is like though.

They do a lot of very good nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, OT, teaching courses there. Newcastle uni was the 'old school' university; Northumbria was the poly but it excels in some areas over Newcastle and is definitely developing further.

I know a few student nurses from Northumbria. They do seem a cut above the rest.

Northumbria was the poly

The old polys don't seem to have gone pomo-addled, do they? I am sure it is because of the historical focus on vocational courses.

This is how the local paper is reporting it

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/row-over-decision-allow-anti-14707707

from the article above linked by TyneTeas

"Northumbria University has defended its decision to allow a controversial group to host a debate on its campus...

But Northumbria LGBT* Society condemned the event, calling on the university to “do better”.

A spokesperson said: “on Thursday, Northumbria University played host to a discussion from a transphobic organisation. We strongly condemn the University’s decision to allow such a group to host a discussion that encourages a divisive and hateful rhetoric.

“Whilst we respect freedom of speech, we believe that freedom of speech does not include inciting hate or division towards a group of people. The university has an obligation to free speech, but they have an exponentially more important obligation to providing their students with a safe and accessible campus and learning environment.

“We believe that students have a right to feel safe on their campus, and that by allowing organisations that would deny the existence of their students to speak on campus, the university is failing their students in a serious way"

No truth in this then?

I agree Lang. Though I think the north east especially Newcastle is a little 'behind' many other parts of the U.K. when it comes to some things. There is quite a lot of ingrained traditional sexism among general society here. Less 'woke' I suppose. A colleague's husband from the south commented that he found the men he worked with in industry quite sexist in general chat.

There is at the same time a high level of traditional respect towards women (though also in some areas terrible levels of domestic abuse.) I guess traditional 'sex roles' are quite strong. I don't know much about the trans scene at all here and I think it's interesting that as far as I can see on Twitter, any trans people at the event were attending the meeting (I could be wrong.)

A gay friend did mention that an lgbt meeting she went to a couple of years ago was rather dominated by the T but she's never elaborated in that.

the article continues:
"A Northumbria University spokesman said they decided to allow the event to take place because it was their “legal duty to uphold freedom of speech”.

He added: “We can confirm that this external event took place on campus on Thursday evening, which provided an opportunity for constructive and peaceful debate.

“The university considered this request carefully on the basis of our legal duty to uphold freedom of speech."

@noseringgirl Do you have the link for that tweet? I can't find it and I'd like to inform Northumbria that they are being defamed.

twitter.com/beautifularielm/status/999927573676163072?s=21

NoseringGirl It would be very odd for the university to expell/fire people for attending a meeting that they judged to not be in breach of their equality and diversity policy.

NoseringGirl i wouldnt take any notice of anything ariel tweets their timeline is full of empty threats, including a threat that details of MN users who post on the feminists boards would be released. That followed the intern incident.

It's just another attempt to scare/silence women. Same old same old.

I thought I recognised the name! I remember the MN threats that were mentioned recently.

I've written the University a thank you note. Holding the event in a medical training establishment with dummies on trolleys and recruiting posters for midwifery served to heighten how this is about biology and biological differences being used against women.

served to heighten

Highlight. I meant highlight.

twitter.com/TybilAlper/status/1000128149315903489

The more the transgender advocates repeat that women's rights groups are transphobic, because they advocate for women's rights, the more often they will score an own goal like they did at the Jam Jar in Bristol.

I spoke to Bea Campbell, she's so warm and just nice.

200 people attended, that's amazing. The lecture hall was packed like.