I'm going to a talk by Alice Roberts tomorrow, what should I ask her?

[Destinysdaughter]

She's speaking at the British Science Festival tomorrow at Warwick University, I got myself a ticket only because there's been some controversy about things she's written/shared on Twitter. If there is an opportunity to ask her some questions after her talk ( which is about the perfect body, ironically), what do you think I should ask her? TBH I feel like standing up and asking her if I'm a woman, just to see what she says...

Nightfever, and also like the phrase 'far right'.

I think if Alice thinks sport is different, then it won't be long before the usual suspects start calling her a TERF and hounding her for her bigoted views.

World's smallest violin, etc.

There seem to be two Alice Roberts: the intelligent, thoughtful evolutionary biologist and the kneejerk twitter biology-denier. Very odd.

I've just had a quick scroll through the replies to her tweet.

I'd say maybe 70% GC, 30% TRA, but what's notable is that the anti-women tweets only get as far as pointing the finger at TERFs, haters and transphobes. The GC ones are from some high profile names, contain concise points, scientific and sociological facts, and links to high quality articles.

It's quite striking. If I was a professor with an academic reputation to protect I'd be uncomfortable with the team I found myself siding with there.

They do the emotional thing as well - 'thank you for sticking up for us against the bigots!'

If I was a professor with an academic reputation to protect I'd be uncomfortable with the team I found myself siding with there.

Well, I hope she has the sense to feel uncomfortable. I think if you're a scientist with a high public profile, then you can expect to be called out if you make public statements that are either profoundly anti-scientific or ideologically dubious - or, as in Roberts's case, both. It reminds me of when James Watson, who discovered the double helical structure of DNA, decided to endorse the idea that black people are less intelligent than white people. He was ostracised by the scientific community.

I think the sad thing about Roberts is that she doesn't even realise why her views are so offensive.

I was brought up in the humanist tradition btw. And was paying a membership fee to the Humanist Society. I cannot adequately explain just how much it hurts to see them embracing an ideology that is so offensive and harmful to women and girls.

For much of the last 100 years or so, humanists have concerned themselves with human rights and civil rights. Both examples I gave earlier are covered under human rights legislation. The traumatised child is specifically provided for under Article 39 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and female-only services are of course legal under the provisions of the Equality Act.

So for Ms Roberts to call those of us right wing bigots and transphobes who care about the most vulnerable among us, who understand their needs and who want to ensure they can be met, is inhumane.

I feel for her, I really do. When she finally realises just how unfounded her contempt for us is, how misinformed of the issues she is, it will be painful. It may even be impossible for her to admit. Shame can be an overwhelming emotion and become a crippling stumbling block for those who so publicly condemn us.

During the early Nazi era, when that was a brave thing to do, my ancestors had themselves listed on official documents as Freidenker (free thinkers, the old German word for humanist).

Freidenker, resisting all attempts at totalitarian thought control. Rejecting the notion of thought crimes and compelled speech so prevalent in Nazi Germany. They would not recognise Ms Roberts version of humanism.

I'm really struggling to believe that a Professor of the Public Engagement in Science would think that posting links to a comment piece in the Guardian about a Nature article (whose author has since clarfied emphatically that interpreting it to say that sex is not binary is frankly deluded), and to an article by Katelyn Burns (someone who appears to find it impossible not to tell lies every time pen is put to paper) constitutes anything approaching a reputable or intelligent contribution to this subject.

I mean, I don't think Roberts is trolling, obviously not. But why would a Professor of the Public Engagement in Science be so keen n ot to talk about, er, science?

I'm really struggling to believe that a Professor of the Public Engagement in Science would think that posting links to a comment piece in the Guardian about a Nature article (whose author has since clarfied emphatically that interpreting it to say that sex is not binary is frankly deluded)

I thought that was odd as well. Why didn't she link to the actual Nature article? And @ the author?

www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943

twitter.com/ClaireAinsworth/status/888365994577735680

Here's some more reading for you Alice. This is an article by a clinical psychologist. You might recognise her thought processes.

www.feministcurrent.com/2019/04/10/i-supported-trans-ideology-until-i-couldnt-anymore/

Ah, I see dear Joss in there telling Alice not to worry because MN is just 30 cranks and a lot of sock puppets.

Which Joss devotes hours and hours of Joss's life to supervising and attempting to control, so a bit of clanging logic there.

Honestly it's depressing the utter stupidity underpinning this, particularly from someone I thought of as an intelligent woman. Ignore the emotion, ignore the emoting, look at the plain facts. They speak for themselves.

(Just point the socks out to MNHQ btw, they'll zap them.)

Yes, funny that JP was previously bragging about how easy it is for JP to use sock puppets on MN and making out other sock users simply get banned forever.

So I'm here and already pissed off with the form we have to fill in. I corrected it...

Not sure if pic worked

You have to tell them your sexual orientation in order to ask a question?

Or just to attend?

Oh brave new world that has such over-zealous data collection in it...

Gender identity, but no box for sex. At a science event ! I don’t have a “gender identity” i don’t have any friends with a gender identity.

I dare you to put satanist in the sexual orientation box.

Put 'I'm sexually attracted to Alice Roberts and I also identify as her too. See you on stage x". See if that's 'stalkerish' enough for her

Only two options for GID? They missed out at least another 63 there. What if you’re a twin-spirit-unicorn Mon to Weds and cloud-muppet for the rest of the week?
I hate it when forms deny my very existence.

Now who remembers this?

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0278p3p

The script had Roberts making the case for nurture whilst Mosley argued for nature.

Especially after the hoo-ha about Birmingham making unconditional offers, I have assumed that it is going for the big bucks, lots of students, and bugger the intellectual and academic rigour.

I assume that that is why they have appointed someone who is now essentially a TV personality to what sounds like a made-up role, for which I assume she gives a couple of lectures a year, so students can say they have been to one of her lectures. I am willing to be proved wrong, of course. I hope I am.

I had to interview a Birmingham alumnus recently, and he had already gone down in my estimation simply by having gone to Birmingham. He actually turned out to be pretty bright, but I doubt I'm alone in looking askance at Birmingham, so it's is already trashing the reputation it has built up over so many years.

don't write off Birmingham totally - DD is there, and tells me that the students shagging in the library disabled toilets are 99% always 1 male + 1 female. I think the majority of students are just ignoring the identity stuff, and just getting on with studying/partying/shagging in the disabled loos as students have always done.

There are some very very creepy guys replying to her tweet. Oh well, more nightmares about these 'lesbians' with receding hairlines and psycho killer smiles.