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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Edinburgh University to hand out pronoun badges

251 replies

BiologyIsReal · 26/08/2018 10:26

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/08/25/edinburgh-university-student-union-officials-hand-pronounbadges/

I will break every rule in MN's be nice to trans policy if I even make a comment.

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AngryAttackKittens · 29/08/2018 10:39

I don't think I've ever seen a "movement" before where the adherents are so utterly convinced that most people agree with them, and most people think they're absolutely barmy. The gap between what genderists think the public thinks and what the public actually seems to think is remarkable. Can't figure out how much of it is them having no self-awareness whatsoever and how much is determined denial.

AsAProfessionalFekko · 29/08/2018 12:33

That's students for you.

They invented everything, don't you know, and see everything far more clearly than anyone ever, in the history if time. SO SHUT UP YOU FASCIST. HATE CRIME, HATE CRIIIIIME! (is it ok if I bring Jack over for tea when I drop off my laundry please mum?)

BraveAndStunning · 29/08/2018 12:39

I would fry their chips in lard.

The middle class fuckwits would probably not know what it was and only know goose fat to be the meat version.

AsAProfessionalFekko · 29/08/2018 12:54

I have a theory.

My parents' generation wouldn't give this sort of thing much truck because they lived through the war and realised that yes, there were more important things to worry about. They would have laughed them out of the room.

We lived through the cold war and imminent nuclear war/WW3. We realised that yes, there were more important things to worry about. We would have laughed them out of the room.

Kids today (yes I know that I sound like my granny)... are exposed to so much nonsense online/via social media, have been told that they (and they alone) hold the secrets of the universe. They are encouraged to be individual (and therefore special whilst holding the keys to the universal truths). They think that such toss ARE the Important Things to worry about.

speakingwoman · 30/08/2018 09:05

Thinking you are special is very stressful...... anyone who has been depressed knows how it makes common feelings feel unique and thus unsolvable.

We are wired to feel better in nature and when we have a sense of belonging

Knicknackpaddyflak · 31/08/2018 12:51

Fekko all good points and this needs researching.

To me this whole trend - and I do mean the trend, not the small transsexual population who are as frustrated by this as everyone else - equals a massive failure in mental health for children and adolescents. These people have way too much time on their hands and too little to think about to be this self obsessed, the egocentricism and emotional immaturity is writ large over so much of what is said and written - are these kids who have been over nurtured, over attended to, over supervised, or somehow emotionally deprived, to the point where they haven't managed to individuate successfully? The wanting to run to the police and the courts over every tiny slight, the need for constant validation, the wanting to divide society into the givers and the takers with a thick line dividing the two, and the fury that not everyone with a vagina will automatically provide unconditional nurture, mothering and support while enduring the toddler batterings of rage and belittlement? It's interesting how many of the well known leaders are public school products, it makes me wonder about attachment or lack of it. A massive expectation of others (subservient others) being constantly available to provide unconditional and high standard care, with no emotional responsibility or connection towards them.

Its also providing a very convenient and fun new way for men to have midlife crises.

Knicknackpaddyflak · 31/08/2018 12:55

To qualify - by 'these people', the political TRA lobby. Not by any means the huge number of kids (70% girls) identifying, which also desperately needs investigating as this is a whole other failure in mental health care, mental health support, and looking at what modern education and childcare and pressures on family and social media has done to childhood.

Alicethroughtheblackmirror · 31/08/2018 13:00

Fekko, Yes!

My daughter is a bit younger than the students, but spends a good deal of time worrying about the impending zombie apocalypse. She asked if I ever did, so I told her that at her age I was very much worried, with good cause, about a possible nuclear apocalypse. She thought we could have hidden in a bunker so I explained the effect of an atomic bomb and I remembered how I used to think about those theoretical final minutes and how far away the bomb would need drop to cause me to die instantaneously or horribly of radiation sickness etc.

My daughter was horrified - especially that it was real.

AsAProfessionalFekko · 31/08/2018 13:02

We almost had a bunker built in the garden (long story). A bloody real nuclear bunker!

Alicethroughtheblackmirror · 31/08/2018 13:05

Wow! I'd have been over at yours...

NameChangedAgain18 · 31/08/2018 14:00

Five pages on how to use a pronoun is probably more grammar education than these kids will have received during their entire educations to date.

Viago · 31/08/2018 14:20

Problem is, it'll all have changed again in a month or two.

BraveAndStunning · 31/08/2018 14:23

Here's the solution:

Edinburgh University to hand out pronoun badges
SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 31/08/2018 14:23

Anyone on here work in a university and have a plan for how they'll respond if asked to wear such a badge, or state their pronouns?

We had a big deal about free badges a while back, and I wouldn't be entirely surprised if soon we're strongly encouraged to wear them ourselves, or told that at the beginning of sessions we must ask everyone their pronouns. If anyone has a plan for how they're going to state clearly and politely that they're not doing this, I'd love to hear it!

NameChangedAgain18 · 31/08/2018 14:24

Quite. So much of this is about power and getting people to dance to the tune of your speshulness. So the goalposts will be ever-moving.

NameChangedAgain18 · 31/08/2018 14:24

Sorry, that was to Viago.

NameChangedAgain18 · 31/08/2018 14:27

Anyone on here work in a university and have a plan for how they'll respond if asked to wear such a badge, or state their pronouns?

I think I mentioned above that I’m planning to say that mine are “Professor”. I’m hoping it will catch on and that all the management and professors will be forced to call lots of lowly people “Professor”. Something tells me they won’t like this very much and will regret backing this particular horse.

JellySlice · 31/08/2018 14:27

Alicethroughtheblackmirror, take her heree*. Let her see what our generation worried about, to get a sense of proportion.

Viago · 31/08/2018 14:28

Agree Name.

Seek, I wonder if using their own batshit back at them might work? E.g. if you started saying that you found people asking your pronouns triggering and discriminatory and you thought this was a safe space etc? You'd have to have quite a good poker face though.

Whitney168 · 31/08/2018 14:32

*The photo of an "inclusive restroom" in the Telegraph article has been used all over the Internet for years. I suspect it is probably from somewhere in North America. It just seems to be a "go-to" stock photo for "inclusivity".

I hate to say it, but I saw this very symbol at the Globe Theatre last week. They are among us ...

JellySlice · 31/08/2018 14:35

These are my badges.

They were being given out at a Sarah Millican gig. Her point was that (a) women can say "No" without having to justify it or expand on it, and (b) we're fine just as we are, we do not have to perform femininity for others.

Edinburgh University to hand out pronoun badges
YeTalkShiteHen · 31/08/2018 14:37

JellySlice I like those!

BraveAndStunning · 31/08/2018 14:38

Love it. If asked, No means No

SeekEveryEveryKnownHidingPlace · 31/08/2018 14:39

namechanged Grin

Viago I think actually something kind of on those lines might be appropriate. But I'd be deadly serious.

Basically I think a point is going to come where it will be necessary to say 'nope, sorry, I'm not going along with this' - it worries me that this will probably happen and I want to think really carefully about how to handle it.