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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Michael Biggs on Academic Freedom

18 replies

GCAcademic · 28/01/2019 23:17

Michael Biggs has had an excellent letter published in the Oxford Magazine:

users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/images/FreeSpeechLiberty.png

OP posts:
GCAcademic · 28/01/2019 23:18

Let's try that again:

users.ox.ac.uk/~sfos0060/images/FreeSpeechLiberty.png

OP posts:
feministfairy · 28/01/2019 23:22

There are so many powerful and intelligent articles around at the moment. Michael Biggs' work around this is excellent and that's a fantastic letter.

WokeNotBloke · 28/01/2019 23:23

Clap clap clap

I’m stunned by what’s going in our universities.

SonicVersusGynaephobia · 29/01/2019 00:25

Amm I right in reading that Biggs says Oxford University has spoken out in favour of academic freedom and said debate and discussion about trans ideology is permitted?

That is quite a long list of academics he lists at the end. Not many penises in the list either.

boatyardblues · 29/01/2019 00:33

Good letter.

ChattyLion · 29/01/2019 06:28

Good letter.

Shock Liberty should be ashamed of themselves to sell out women in this way. Women’s groups should ask Liberty to take on a case or intervene on a case (like that no woman should be imprisoned with men) but ofc there could be many scenarios...

I would really like to hear Liberty say that they genuinely think that women have freedom of speech and for them to then spell out why they think women, children, lesbians and transsexuals don’t need (or deserve) their advocacy in this context. Despite all the evidence.

Btw we should not expect a no debate response from Liberty so that is one good thing. Their website says: We’re a democratic organisation. Our members hold us to account through our elected policy council and board and our AGM. We will always be answerable to our members.
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/who-we-are/supporter-promise

They are also looking for new members of their council by 7 March 2019
www.libertyhumanrights.org.uk/who-we-are/structure

Katvonfelttipeyebrows · 29/01/2019 06:43

I was struck by this article by a Canadian doctor

dredles.com/2019/01/28/bitter-tweet-the-foul-flavour-of-the-gender-debate/#more-2150

Instead of encouraging actual research into genuine concerns, the TRAs try to bully people out of a job.

Katvonfelttipeyebrows · 29/01/2019 06:47

Excellent stuff from Michael Briggs there.

ReflectentMonatomism · 29/01/2019 06:57

Liberty is the NCCL rebranded, isn’t it? Given their at best naive, at worst malign enthusiasm for paedophiles in the 1970s, it’s hardly surprising they are putting wokeness ahead of everything. They have never accepted their support of PIE was wrong, preferring to dissemble about mistakes and lessons.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/pie-controversy-harriet-harman-has-got-this-one-wrong-9162728.html

ReflectentMonatomism · 29/01/2019 07:03

A better account, with extracts from the nCCL’s call to lower the age of consent to ten “under some circumstances”.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/28/patricia-hewitt-age-of-consent

Liberty have form on advocacy against women and children.

ValWiggin · 29/01/2019 07:42

This is the info on Statute XII that was approved by the uni in 2017:

www.ox.ac.uk/staff/consultations/statute-xii#

Including:

"The Statute is based on three principles: i) ensuring that academic staff have freedom to question received wisdom and put forward new ideas or controversial opinions; ii) enabling the efficient and economic operation of the University; and iii) the application of the principles of justice and fairness."

TimeLady · 29/01/2019 08:29

I lost faith in the NCCL/Liberty many years ago. Baroness Chakrabarti's appearances on Channel 4 news used to send my BP through the roof.

Great letter by Michael Biggs. I particularly liked the line about Mark Hellen/Natacha Kennedy. Which is the dead name there?

hackmum · 29/01/2019 08:32

What a fabulous letter. Well said, Michael Biggs.

ReflectentMonatomism · 29/01/2019 09:11

Chakrabarti

I used to have a huge regard for her. Unfortunately, first her naivety (over the Gaddafis' involvement in the LSE) and then her - let's be honest - biddability in accepting a peerage for a whitewash on Labour anti-Semitism - pretty much finished her. She's another senior Labour figure privately educating her children, by the way.

TimeLady · 29/01/2019 09:22

Ruth Hunt (Stonewall) spoke of the baroness as a 'huge inspiration'.

www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2016/15-april/features/interviews/interview-ruth-hunt-chief-executive-stonewall

I'm afraid I hold them both in contempt.

ChattyLion · 29/01/2019 09:30

I feel so furious that organisations that purport to do all these good things are either toothless or actively working against women.

ReflectentMonatomism · 29/01/2019 09:54

Amusingly, several articles from around the time that Harman and Hewitt were being criticised five years ago (deserved in the case of Hewitt, less so in the case of Harman) add to the list of obvious political smears the then-current accusations of the German Greens having been taken over by paedophiles. The German Greens are now tearing themselves to pieces dealing with the aftermath of, you guessed it, being taken over by paedophiles.

Nicely brought up middle class radicals, who think that being a communist is a way to get a rise of their parents, assume that everyone they meet is equally nicely brought up. So organisations which are well intentioned are joined by the naive - NCCL, CND, Green Party, Scout and Guide movement, anti-vivisectionists, most political parties on the left - who cannot then see that there are others who are rather nastier who are using the group for their own purposes.

Hence such organisations are variously rife with paedophiles, anti-democratic Trots, violent anarchists, etc. The structures of the movements make entryism dangerously easy, as the majority of the members are predisposed to think well of people.

So, sadly, the more well-intentioned an organisation, the more likely that it contains very bad people intending to do very bad things.

Freespeecher · 29/01/2019 10:31

RM - this is very true.

There's a Simpsons episode where the townspeople rally round to build Ned Flanders a new house which then collapses to the ground as it was shoddily built.

Ned proceeds to go on an epic meltdown, part of his rant being 'Well, my family and I can't live in good intentions'.

As with Ned, so with the Greens and many more - having good intentions just won't cut it when you see the rest of the damage done, whether it's PIE backing or the ongoing anti-Semitism scandal (which takes us neatly back to Baroness Chakrabarti).

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