Professor Rosa Freedman

[SusanBunch]

As some of you on here know, I am an academic and I have just seen on twitter that another prominent voice has been added to the GC side: Prof Rosa Freedman, professor of Law at Reading:

twitter.com/GoonerProf/status/1029037165815185413

I cannot begin to explain how significant this is. Until today literally no legal academics have come out in support of the GC side and no articles are being written from a GC perspective, even in feminist journals. Given that the whole debate is around law-reform (duh) this is quite astonishing. Loads of woke-bro articles in support of course though.

Part of Rosa's motivation was the way that the academic community closed ranks on Kathleen Stock (one of my heroines). She says on her thread that she has already been thrown out of an academic online group for defending Professor Stock.

So, round of applause for Rosa and I hope this marks the beginning of many more female academics 'coming out'. I know quite a few of them think it (I can see who follows A Woman's Place ) but nobody dares say anything. I am far too junior and unimportant to risk being the object of vilification, so I am being a coward and keeping quiet, but inside I am celebrating.

I would hope that Justine is rightly pleased that RosaFreedman1983 has joined Mumsnet because of the space it provides to discuss GC issues even when they pertain to a contentious topic.

Rosa

If you are going to continue to use mumsnet, read the pinned post.

MNHQ have had come up with a whole fresh set of guidelines due to the targeting of this site and claims of transphobia.

They encourage free speech, but you must abide by the guidelines. If your post is deleted for breaching them, you get a strike. Three strikes and you're banned for six weeks.

Certain words are banned. It's tricky, but everything can still be spoken about if you're careful.

Putting a star at the side of a person's name (or any text) makes it bold. Putting an @ sign before their name with no star also bolds it and alerts them by email that you have tagged them. But is frowned on if they are already conversing on the thread. As it's a pain in the arse if your email keeps pinging.

And lastly, it might interest you to know that there are 12 million unique users per month on mumsnet. And for everyone who posts there are loads of lurkers. Who are all listening.

This time last year the number of people accessing mumsnet in one month via the feminist boards was 15,000, this year it's 177,000. In one month..

And you may be interested in another thread that was on here a while ago, specifically about academics who were afraid to speak out. I have tried to find it using the advanced search, but I'm struggling. I don't know if @R0wantrees can help? She is amazing at that sort of thing.

I would hope that Justine is rightly pleased that RosaFreedman1983 has joined Mumsnet because of the space it provides to discuss GC issues even when they pertain to a contentious topic.

You would really hope so. This is the sort of raising of debate that we need. Articulate people who know their stuff. Not the inclusion of ploppers, reporters and trolls and wide-eyed innocent stuck records.

Hi Rosa, I’d just like to add my voice to that of the other women on here, to say thank you, for speaking out in a climate that I know must be absolutely toxic. For a disabled lesbian woman raising a child alone on benefits, with no power and no platform, it heartens me greatly to see women stepping forward and raising their voices to defend the few hard one rights that we have. I hope your bravery emboldens more academics and others to speak out, until the trickle becomes a flood, because this madness needs to end, soon.
Massive strength to you, from all us women here and many many more.

Thank you, Rosa. Like others who've already posted, I felt a quiet thrill reading your thoughtful thread yesterday.

Your contribution is so incredibly welcome.

Thank you for speaking out Rosa.

Thank you Rosa!
As a GC lurker on this board who is concerned about the backlash of speaking out from raising this issue on my own fb or twitter (though I'm making small steps and becoming bolder) - your public declaration of this issue is greatly encouraging.

Thank you and welcome! Been kicked out of a group I've been part of for more than ten years because of pointing out a few GC facts. People like you make a difference.

Thank you brave, brave Rosa.

Follow Rosa on twitter if you use it.

Thank you Rosa

I’ve been following you on Twitter today Rosa and did a little cheer when I saw your posts supporting Prof Stock. I hope you stick around - so many women read this site and so many were alerted to the threat to women’s rights by Mumsnet.

Thank you for your bravery, and I’m so angry that you have to be brave.

R0wan can probably wizard up more resources, but here are a couple of threads that have discussed being gender-critical in academia:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3162788-Whats-it-like-being-gender-critical-in-your-workplace

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/academics_corner/3097123-Coming-out-as-critical-of-trans-ideology-impact-on-career

Thrilled to see this. Huzzah for Rosa and [Gin] for the strength you may need to wade through your email inbox.

even. And

Thanks Heresy I have re-read those. It’s very worrying.

I’m not an academic but I have to share unadapted female toilet space at work with male-bodied people with no consultation or discussion. I feel unable to do or say anything about it in case I am accused of bullying because there are individuals already doing it. So these issues and this climate is really affecting me. I feel my job is at risk if I ever said that that I just want to pee in peace. Someone else could stand around with a massive placard, with that same message on and be seen as a total human rights hero.

I have always hoped that academics will turn up like superheroes to show society new ways to help us sort our shit out. like with climate change and stuff. At the moment I can’t see a lot of academics as doing anything but making life harder and more dangerous for women (especially the young women amongst their students) with their uncritical gender wokery.

And I know a lot of them don’t really believe that you can change sex. They are requiring falsehood. It’s the thought police aspect of it that is really chilling. This is obligatory politics now, which is surely totalitarianism?

It’s in my personal life too- a couple of quite attention-seeking and eager to please people I know (in het relationships with kids and mortgages etc- living a deeply stereotypical heterosexual conventional life- are now calling themselves ‘queer’, wanting to join what they see as an oppressed group I guess.

I don’t get how ‘appropriation’ is one of the greatest crimes against wokery yet this type of ‘solidarity’ (mostly expressed with brave and stunning intact white men) and the TRA threats and actual violence is a COLOSSAL appropriation of women’s and girls’ freedom of expression, thought, opportunities and advancement. Yet this is being ushered in warmly with good feelings about doing so all round and in cosy solidarity against the ignorant baddies.

Maybe this is just a reflection of the Left eating itself over recent years but I sometimes feel i’m living in some kind of alternative reality. I can imagine how hard it must be to be in academia right now if you have even slightly gender critical views so

Thank you Rosa
I’m planning on writing my dissertation on Trans ideology and the impact on primary school children. I haven’t told my lecturer this yet and I’m very nervous. If I can get through my degree without incident, then I plan on focussing my masters on trans ideology and the impact on adolescents and their mental health.
I want to work in a way to help and support our young people, who I feel are being led down a frightening path that will be very damaging to them long term.
I’m nervous about the reaction of my peers, I’m anxious that my uni will even let me study and even more nervous that employers may not employ me given the gc nature of my views.
On the other hand I think that the trans ideology is the single most damaging thing to be unleashed on our young people today and when people start to realise it, I want to be ready and equipped to help them.
People like you blaze a trail for people like me to operate freely at a grass roots level and for that I’m very grateful.

On the one hand, i am nervous about the torrent of abuse that has already started, but on the other hand I was raised by people with values (hence my name!) who taught me that not speaking out is akin to acquiescing. I am only sorry that it has taken me so many months to find my voice publicly

Thank you @RosaFreedman1983

You are braver than I. I was doxxed & a serious complaint made against for my use of Twitter by students I had never spoken to, let alone taught. To all intents & purposes, I've been silenced, because actually, I'm a cowards. I'm not eminent or famous, and I need my job. The whole thing made me quite ill.

So thank you, from this silenced gender critical academic ...

SilverBuckles

I am so sorry that happened to you. It makes me feel ill too and I haven't even been doxxed. It's only a matter of time though- I have heard of complaints being made for people just following GC accounts. I dream of the day that I am more established and can speak out.

Other academics who are leaping to the defence of trans students are missing the point. Rosa has never ever said that she is against or hates trans students. The problems is that the university, or indeed society, doesn't provide third spaces for them, expecting them to simply use female facilities. Rosa is simply pointing out that this is neither appropriate nor fair.

I saw that Selina Todd has now officially come out too. Hurrah Selina! You, Rosa and Kathleen are inspirational.

Sorry I also couldn’t resist linking to this thread. It really just says it all. Rosa is right- I have never been assaulted by a cyborg. A man on the other hand....

twitter.com/goonerprof/status/1028967037689884672?s=21

Also thanking you Rosa for laying yourself on the line. It's ridiculous to be so dramatic, but it's true. Anyone who speaks out against the TRA bullies makes themselves vulnerable. Your actions are much appreciated.

Chattylion - don’t want to derail but just want to comment about your work situation......

Could you enquire about the facilities/loos issue from a neutral position/ from a perspective of exploring where facilities should/shouldn’t be segregated in order to maximise inclusion/equality?

Ultimately, there has to be a legitimate aim for segregating by sex. An organisation should be able to articulate that aim in relation to their loos, if they are sex segregated. I find it hard to imagine what that aim is if it isn’t undermined by allowing people of either sex in to either provision!

My organisation has single sex loos on two floors and gender neutral loos on 1 floor. This is the outcome following a request to articulate the ‘legitimate aim’ of sex segregated loos.

Beerincomechampagnetastes

I’m nervous about the reaction of my peers, I’m anxious that my uni will even let me study and even more nervous that employers may not employ me given the gc nature of my views.
On the other hand I think that the trans ideology is the single most damaging thing to be unleashed on our young people today and when people start to realise it, I want to be ready and equipped to help them.

Wow. Well done to you too.

Thank you to the person who linked to the two threads of being GC at work -- they were really interesting and helpful.

And thank you for the supportive comments -- much needed.

My employer has been contacted by people accusing me of 'hate speech' amongst other things, despite me having done nothing wrong. I spoke out on a matter of public policy about an issue that affects women and girls, and did so in a way that is respectful and said nothing transphobic or 'anti-trans'. If anyone here has any experience of these kind of situations, I would be very grateful to have a chat....

All of this has made me more committed to using my expertise on human rights and on law to speak out about the proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act, and the wider debate about who gets to define what a women means and who controls the boundaries to her spaces and associations.

Go Rosa! You are right- you have done nothing wrong. It is not 'hating' on a group to suggest that there is a conflict of interest. The solution would appear to be separate safe spaces for trans students to use, enabling women to continue to use female spaces. Why is that considered hateful? Nobody has said that trans students should not exist or that they should not be respected or supported. The point is that they have needs and interests that are different to women's needs and interests.

I am baffled that supposedly intelligent people with multiple law degrees, who are supposed to be teaching critical thinking to their students, simply trot out the 'hater' mantra rather than engaging with the argument. They should just say what they really think, which is that, to them, women's rights to dignity, privacy and safety do not matter. They believe those rights are of secondary importance to trans people's right to be validated. They argue that trans women are at risk of violence and of having their privacy and dignity violated if they were to use male facilities. When women say that we too would be at risk of violence or have our privacy violated, we are told to get over ourselves or to use a lockable stall if we are so precious about not wanting to see male genitalia in a female space. It is so ridiculously hypocritical that it sounds like a joke. It is very frightening that it's actually real and that so-called critical thinkers are swallowing it hook, line and sinker.