Alice Roberts was a woman who until recently I unequivocally admired. Her career trajectory looked very much like a model I wanted to follow (without the TV face and 'living-room' public persona, which I'd hate). She had a personable manner, was a gifted communicator who could strike an easy rapport with people, and was an engaging, entertaining public speaker. She also had my interest when openly rejecting the nefarious influence of pinkification (which oddly enough, seemed not so very far removed from a GC stance).
It's disquieting to see someone with these admirable qualities gradually metamorphose into a facsimile of Tony Blair. Blair, who made important policy decisions and even went to war on the basis of 'I BELIEVE' - an unsubstantiated position that I've failed students for in the past (and I'm betting Roberts has, too). Her humanist position is another case in point. It's fine to question the privilege that identification with a major faith brings. But campaiging for the removal of all faith schools and removing that option from others has all the zeal of a new-found religious convert. Not least, arriving at the conclusion 'I do not believe in God' really isn't that much of an intellectual stretch. Again, the stance is that of 'BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE, OR YOU ARE WRONG!'; another uncanny echo of the Blair years.
She's an intelligent woman. She knows exactly what she's about. Intersectionality/third wave is currently a safe theoretical position amid a period of intense indoctrination, de-platforming (which Roberts can ill-afford as first Professor of Public Engagement) and silencing of any opposition, but in the crudest terms possible, without proper scrutiny or argument, and with first recourse to the block facility.
In academic terms, I suspect she's chosen to hitch her wagon to a star. For a woman who claims to have been at the butt of sexism in the past, this isn't only disingenuous but a betrayal of principle. Incidentally, the Blair-Emulation and the 'I am right and you're not' approach, complete-with pretensions to compassion and tolerance, seems to have come about only since she took on the Professorial Chair with the University of Birmingham. I find that interesting.