Glasgow Conservatoire accused of ableism and transphobia

[Igneococcus]

Can they not see how ludicrous this will appear to anybody outside their bubble?

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/diversity-row-after-conservatoire-is-accused-of-ableism-and-transphobia-m77wr030m?shareToken=5de1751afcada56a85ddd52141df3ecf

Oh wow. My favourite bit is this:
The students complained that they had yet to receive an apology for the “unpaid emotional labour” they expended in the complaint and have decided to go public.

Is the next step demanding to be paid for putting in a complaint?

The students complained that they had yet to receive an apology for the “unpaid emotional labour” they expended in the complaint and have decided to go public

Oh my goodness. They are performance art.

Cultural Revolution sounded a lot like this. It really did.
Who are these wee brats? Politics as a hobby. Turn every situation into a slight or an offense as you learn to twist everyday interactions into towering events of pain and oppression.
It's all way out of hand. I hope the college ignore these little bullies. If they are left to it they will turn in on themselves.

My favourite is the guy who is complaining about the mispronounciation of a Cantonese greeting. I have lived in this country since 2002 and nobody ever has pronounced my first or second name right. My names also frequently get misspelled. You wouldn't believe how creative people can be with a four letter last name. I'm so terribly oppressed.

Whenever I see “accused of transphobia” or similar sentences, I just change transphobia to heresy, and I think it describes the situation better.

Oh the horror: a colleague tried to extend a greeting in the lead complainer's notoriously difficult native language and, wait, wait, he mispronounced it. Faints at the awfulness.

That is just hilarious, and I especially like the Times reporting of it.
They have absolutely no self awareness at all do they.

Ha, x-post about the greeting!

I love how papers can just print the story the way the allies like it phrased, thus avoiding complaints of transphobia. Hardcore allies: yaaas y'all; rest of population: WTF.

Whoever said to the woman who had an abortion about smashing up the baby - that is a legitimate complaint IMO, but the rest? Sounds like a joke.

Yes, I agree there are bits in there that should be looked at, also the grabbing of someone by the neck, but all this is completely drowned out by the rest,

I do wonder how much of the claims is true given they include a mispronounced Cantonese greeting as a serious issue.

Maybe it's a full performance arts piece, the complaint etc. Otherwise it's really ridiculous and shows a lack of awareness of the world. I hope their parents sue them for unpaid emotional labour because they are acting like toddlers.

What a joke these people are. Sad that such a tremendous place is being infected by this sort of utter shite! I wish the article had a comment section.

Agree the comments by the lecturer about the student’s abortion sound complaint-worthy, but the rest sounds like deliberately disruptive group hysteria and a targeted attack.

"a mispronounced Cantonese greeting as a serious issue."

I'd like to hear what actually happened, especially in this case. It could have been an inability to pronounce it properly which is obvs no big deal, but it could have been deliberate in order to taunt him. My husband is east Asian and one of my colleagues thought it was appropriate to mispronounce his name (something like "ling" but not) as "ching chong".

So without the actual examples it's impossible to say what really happened and whether it was a problem or not.

I'm torn over the comment the tutor made about the student's abortion. On one hand, that would be a terrible thing to say to a grieving mother. On the other hand, the suggested change in approach makes more logical sense in terms of depicting the direct action taken to end the pregnancy. So I don't know what to think of that one.

As for the alienation... I think that's really hard to avoid in a situation where the tutors are mostly older, white and able-bodied and the students are not always so, and I feel that that sentiment would be driven by the students rather than the tutors. Academic settings always have an us vs them feeling in any case, don't they? Students have always resented the academics, right? It's a thing. Racial discrimination is obviously a different thing and should be stamped on though.

Do you really think the lecturer in a right on arty place would have said that about abortion, especially to an actually grieving person? Personally I doubt it.

The whole thing stinks of entitled arseholes, who really, really, need to grow up and get a job.

Arghggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

If you follow it down the rabbit hole, how dare the students assume that their lecturers are all able bodied and cis-gendered.

There could be lecturers with invisible disabilities or who identify as non-binary, or indeed are passing transpeople.

You can’t complain that a body of people are cis-gendered without assuming their gender, and therefore being transphobic.

"A non-passing trans woman — a biological male with traditionally male characteristics who identifies as a female — said the lecturer persistently referred to her as a man."

OMG the hurt, the distress, how will this person cope in the real world?

When Alan Turing was first put on banknotes someone tweeted about another 'white, cis gender hetrosexual' beiing honoured. I now assume they have made assumptions whenever I see that phrase or similar.

The abortion remarks seem awful, but in the context of someone who wanted to make a performing arts piece about her abortion?

I suspect the comments were intended as artistic critique / provocation, a suggestion that shocking the audience would be more interesting than demanding pity. But no matter how it was intended, it was a favour to her. She would have had a nervous breakdown at the public reaction to that piece. If you're going to talk about abortion in public, you're going to have to argue with dickheads!

Aside: how will people this fragile possibly survive in the performing arts world? I knew a rather talented actress who gave up the career early on because she knew she wasn't thick-skinned and pushy enough to survive the endless auditioning. I thought that was very wise of her.

I doubt it as well Kat. I’ve been in a situation where I’ve been accused of saying something to a student which I absolutely didn’t say. What happened was that her mental health condition meant that she heard something that corresponded with her own perceptions and fears. Some of my colleagues have been in similar situations.

I wonder why the Times have turned comments off for this article.....the mind boggles

I am a graduate from this course.

The place is bonkers.

Wonderful, an incredible educational experience that enriched my life in every way but fucking off the map bonkers.

I can't find this open letter though

The people complaining here are really biting the hand that feeds them. The CPP programme was at the forefront of 'exploring identity' and is truly one of a kind.
You get funding, institutional support and the time and space to basically explore your own identity for four years.
It's an incredible achievement from the lecturers that they have managed to keep it running all these years, and they have fought tooth and nail for it. The idea that the staff are transphobic is utterly ludicrous.

Once it goes it's gone and that'll be all the fault of some spoilt brats who aren't able to see the worth and hard work of the Middle Aged women who have laid done the foundations for their blue hair shenanigans.

What a bunch of entitled attention seekers; I’m aghast at the person planning to depict her abortion with a melting block of ice, it’s all about me, me, me.
I’m afraid if a man who looks like a man presented himself in front of me I’d say ‘he’, how are these people going to manage being refracted at auditions?