FLAG Attitudes to Gender Survey: Loughborough Uni

[TuttoNero]

Apologies if this has already been discussed. I did quick search but couldn't find anything.

Is anybody else completing this survey?

lboro.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/attitudes2gender

In the guidance it says it will take about 20 minutes to complete but it is taking me a damn sight longer than that as I wrestle with the terms sex and gender and how I perceive they are being applied. I think they are conflating the two terms but I am no expert which is why I am putting it out here to see if anybody else has any thoughts on it.

I completed this. What a ridiculous piece of research. I found myself writing SEX ( in upper case) a lot in the notes.

That really was quite painful. It seemed to have been composed by a 12 year old.

Nah, sod that, a bright 12 year old would have edited those questions until the answers were unequivocal.

I enjoyed suggesting sex toys should be marketed by sex (not gender) in relation to the question about marketing of toys.

I commented that the question would be outrageously offensive to people with an intersex (medical) condition. It betrayed the author's confusion and ignorance. I said I was utterly disgusted that they could conflate a medical condition with a 'fashion choice' and that this single question betrayed their naivety and bias.

I also made a note on that one saying intersex has nothing to do with trans and WTF.

Awful vile question.

I filled this in today. Every single question seems to equate sex to gender, so I too had to qualify everything. Left a comment at the end suggesting these were leading questions and effectively will make the data meaningless unless everyone writes comments with each answer.

I sent an email to the funding body expressing my concerns (the same concerns as all on this thread) and got this email back, not from the funding body, but from the study:

"I understand you have some concerns relating to the survey we just launched for our research project on the future of legal gender.

We will write to you more fully shortly. I just wanted to send a quick email in the meantime to say that your concerns have been passed on to us by the ESRC, and we are looking into them.

kind regards Davina

Davina Cooper
Research Professor of Law & Political Theory
Dickson Poon School of Law
KCL"

Were any of the people who are running the study signatories of the letter from academics to the Guardian? I can't find the full list.

What a load of word salad that was!

On the feedback at the end I told them how badly written it was and kept writing, "I think you mean sex" and , "sex is not assigned at birth by government"

Many thanks for your email. I agree gender is a social construct. That's why our project is focusing on it, exploring from a feminist perspective what the implications might be (positive and negative) of radically reforming how the law treats the gendered legal status that people are given.

The notion that we are born a sex is one, however, on which feminists (and others) disagree. This project is exploring diverse opinions held on this subject. It is also concerned with the difference that these differing opinions make - what rests on how we understand the relationship between sex and gender.

We are aiming to write something shortly for our website, exploring different perspectives on this topic. Do look out for it.

warm regards
Davina

Davina Cooper
Project PI and Research Professor in Law & Political Theory,
Dickson Poon School of Law,
KCL

Well that's bollocks!

christ almighty this survey is awful. and took ages, mostly because it was so annoying to ask 'do you mean sex or gender?' in answer to every point that has confused them.

Which letter to the guardian? They are all kool-aid drinkers through and through I am afraid. If you thought you would get some balance on this project, you’re sadly mistaken. They’re like turkeys voting for Christmas.

That letter does nothing to address the point of the survey being so badly worded that the answers are likely to not be useful for anything!

Dear Davina,

No, everyone agrees that human babies are born with a sex. What actual feminists disagree with is that that sex should have any bearing on equality of opportunity.

There's a fair few books written by actual feminists about this, you should look out for them,

And while you're at it, could you sort out your car crash of a survey, I wouldn't let a GCSE student put something that bad out in public

lots of love,

Mel

xx

I sent an email to the funding body expressing my concerns (the same concerns as all on this thread) and got this email back, not from the funding body, but from the study

What a pity that the funding body couldn't be arsed to look into your misgivings about the quality of the research.

At the very least, they needed to provide you (and me and the public at large!) with some reassurance that the project is worth the vast sums of money they have injected into it.

The notion that we are born a sex is one, however, on which feminists (and others) disagree.

WTF? The 'notion' that we are born a sex is the whole bloody point of feminism.

The notion that we are born a sex is one, however, on which feminists (and others) disagree

Don't forget this prof has already written a paper saying we could abolish birth sex registration and leave it to be fought our in the courts al la Vancouver rape crisis centre - she actually quotes that case. (no doubt why the cash went her way). This is despite the fact the at the launch of the EA review this summer the meeting was led by solicitor saying the equality act means nothing if you have no access to legal justice and without money you don't.

So they are all going down one road holding hands, oblivious to the fact that no-one but them believes this pomo feminism....

Abstract
As jurisdictions reform gender identity laws to accommodate transgender and intersex people, this article speculatively explores a more fundamental shift: eliminating state law's role in determining and assigning gender status altogether. Adopting a feminist perspective, we explore what the meaning and effects of comprehensively reforming legal gender might be upon gender's constitution as a socio-legal property, differentially recognized and protected by diverse but unequal bodies. Our discussion proceeds along two intersecting paths. The first concerns the different classificatory methods which could enable state law, without assigning gender, to continue to regulate gender identity decisions, thereby allowing state law to remain involved in tackling gender discrimination. The second concerns the changing form gender might take in conditions where state law withdraws its allocative function. These paths converge in a final discussion which considers what legal and political effects might follow from gender becoming a property that is individually and collectively cultivated.

kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/if-the-state-decertified-gender-what-might-happen-to-its-meaning-and-value(18db3300-1881-4739-829e-9274979a2a52).html

link to paper

Any complaints about the survey or reasearch should be sent to

[email protected]

I’ve done the survey and made 4 separate complaints. Starting with : the premise of the research and some questions in the survey state a lie as fact. No one is assigned a gender at birth. (In one question it stares the government assigns a gender at birth) this is a lie. Our sex is observed and recorded.

I’ve also asked for their complaints procedure as I can’t find it anywhere.

Well I think they will be getting a lot more data than they bargained for, their tick box survey has turned into a polite clarification on nearly every answer. The conflation of sex and gender was painful and has to be an intentional misrepresentation (surely at this level they can’t be that stupid).

At least if enough of us answer it the data gathered shouldn’t play into the gender to replace sex legally narrative.

This keeps coming to mind. m.youtube.com/watch?v=x98cE4QCrlk#

Hahaha
Another two universities dropping down the lèague tables. I thought they had a decent biology dept. Clearly not.
Who the chuff gets funding for this guff?