Academics criticise traffic light 'safe space' badges at transgender conference

[stumbledin]

The conference title was "Thinking Beyond: Transversal Transfeminisms"

Delegates attending the one-day forum at Roehampton University, south west London, were invited to wear different coloured lanyards to ensure they did not feel emotionally overwhelmed by sharing ideas.

Those wearing red badges did not wish to engage with their fellow academics, while those in yellow did not want to be approached and would only communicate if they made the first move.

Green badges were worn by attendees open to conversations.

Academics could change the colour of their lanyard depending on how resilient they felt at different points of the conference.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/09/22/academics-criticise-traffic-light-safe-space-badges-transgender/

The original report was in the Times but because of paywall I have used this link. Think the Times had more detailed.

I am more upset by the idea that anyone should think this has anything to do with feminism.

those in yellow did not want to be approached and would only communicate if they made the first move.

This "rule" applies to the royal family, and used to apply to anyone who held a higher social rank, e.g. aristocracy.

Similarly, the pronouns he and she were not supposed to be used by social inferiors, instead "his lordship" and "her ladyship" were substituted.....

Interesting how rules around "special" social status remain so similar.

Thanks yetanotherusername.
Here's Susan Matthews ' excellent article:
medium.com/@susanmatthews28/an-academic-conference-in-the-age-of-gender-a00a4c656d56
God knows we've all seen a lot of DARVO but this one takes some beating.
Cheryl Morgan, presenting at the traffic light badge conference, says the security is to protect against MNers.
The same Cheryl Morgan, in Jan 2018, hosted some trans activist Bristol Uni students on Morgan's radio show to talk about a 'T**f event' that they were going to protest - an upcoming WPUK meeting. archive.is/kNZ9u
This was the meeting chaired by PhD student Raquel Rosario Sanchez - she has been targeted by trans activists ever since. Guess RRS should have got herself a badge?

This "rule" applies to the royal family, and used to apply to anyone who held a higher social rank, e.g. aristocracy.

This is exactly where my mind went!

Interesting how rules around "special" social status remain so similar.

Isn't it just.

I must say I'm rather tickled at the idea that universities need to hire security to protect their members against Mumsnetters. Imagine what it must be like with all those parents dropping their kids off at arrivals weekend? They must require intensive counter-terrorism planning and armed guards on the rooftops of student residences.

It's not a bottle in the mn logo hands, it's a poo grenade.

And the toddlers break ear drums with their high pitched tantrums.

Dangerous mnetters.

"a request for permission to share the names of delegates ahead of the event"

This bit is particularly chilling. I worked as an events organiser in China for many years, and as the State regime tightened up under Xi Jinping, we had to do this.

Ministers have repeatedly condemned the failure to respect the principles of academic freedom of speech in universities

Just to repeat.

These are the traits/expressions of autism, the fear of being spoken to.

Interestingly, shutting down dissent and emotional blackmail (your words are literally killing me) is a well known emotional abuse tactic, and widely practised by many, seeking to throw rocks and cause harm get away with whatever they want and yet the victim receive heavy penalties for saying oi

They are also

I winced a bit at the idea of an "academic conference" with, er, 16 delegates. Oh, dear.

I think we should adopt the traffic light system, and all wear yellow. Under the rules, we'd then be exempt from people shouting death and rape threats at us, or showing us dick pics, right? Because it would be extremely unWoke to communicate in any way with someone who indicated they did not wish to have communications from you.

Annie if everyone wore yellow no-one would be allowed to speak to anyone else.

I would need to wear a green lanyard which said that i was happy to speak to anyone....

Unless they are wearing a yellow lanyard, as im not here at your fucking beck and call

I am wondering how many people actually would want to wear these things.
I am a pretty shy person, and when I was younger I did get overwhelmed sometimes at social events. I took the age-old approach and went to the toilet, or sat outside for a bit.

With only 16 delegates, it seems like there could be only a few people speaking at all!

You certainly couldn't blend into the crowd goose you'd be very conspicuous in such a small group. Only exacerbating the issues of non-verbalism.

What if the wore a rainbow badge???

Why does spain want to promote and fund this stuff in the UK uni's?

Perhaps it was all the speakers that wore the red dots, to prevent anyone challenging their rhetoric with a conflicting opinion!

if everyone wore yellow no-one would be allowed to speak to anyone else

Result!

But yes, fucking ridiculous.

I think the traffic light system could be used as a genuinely useful accessibility tool, but I am heartily sick of genuinely useful accessibility tools being used by fuckwits who don't need them and are using them to signal how very, very special they are.

Toecurling. A friend sent me this link. It's the YouTube highlights from a Young Democrats conferences in the US (something like that) where inordinate amounts of time were given over to explaining the interminable rules about not clapping, something I couldn't follow about saying you were privileged if you wanted to speak. I couldn't actually bear to watch more than the first few minutes. It left me more certain than ever that Trump will get re-elected.

Wasn't this exact same thing already in the news a few weeks ago?

where inordinate amounts of time were given over to explaining the interminable rules about not clapping, something I couldn't follow about saying you were privileged if you wanted to speak

South Park set the audio to a cartoon. It was tres hilare

But what ArcheryAnnie said about accessibility tools. So much to appropriate, so little time...

I think the traffic light system could be used as a genuinely useful accessibility tool

Absolutely

Gaspode that video is hilarious. Are you sure they are not all being ironic?

They are turning claimed Weakness into power.

The logical conclusion is that the greater one’s Weakness, the greater one’s power.

Leadership struggle therefore takes the form of a fight to be the one with the most deficits possible to be claimed or seen.

That way lies .....

Of course to extent the deficits are actual, the leader in Weakness cannot perform the necessary.

Creating a power vacuum.

Into which Strength can joyfully rush, to the gratitude and relief of those whom leadership Weakness has failed.

Plain Competence, which might represent a golden mean of sorts, seems everywhere in short supply.

This has solved the issue of having women with penises in women's spaces thouhh. Just wear a red sticker and you won't be watched or raped. Don't know what we were all getting upset about really.

I was discussing this with a colleague who mentioned that this is an accessibility system designed for people with Autism. I haven't had time to check the facts yet, but that's sharing her belief, which would suggest that this is another case of appropriation used out of context. Which then has the result of damaging it for those who originally needed it for genuine accessibility reasons.

Rather like womanhood really.

I cannot help but be reminded of this song:

Michelle I have heard it being piloted in supermarkets (forget where) for people with disabilities who don’t want/need help, would approach someone if they needed help and to flag up to that person that they have a disability, or if they would like a shop assistant to approach them and offer support/help.