Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Professor of Public Engagement has a locked twitter account

69 replies

Doyoumind · 07/11/2019 17:44

It looks like Alice has locked her Twitter account which is really a concerning thing for someone who is supposed to engage with the public. I'm assuming it's a temporary thing as she seems to have referenced Glinner and is probably avoiding an onslaught of rational and reasonable comments.

Did anyone see what she said?

OP posts:
andyoldlabour · 08/11/2019 09:07

Alice Roberts has thrown her further education in the bin, what a waste of space.

WhereAreWeNow · 08/11/2019 09:16

She is such a huge disappointment. I was a member of the Humanists for years but I've just cancelled by membership because of her idiocy on trans stuff. It's just embarrassing.

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 08/11/2019 09:27

Aren’t humanists meant to be a bit - well ‘scientific’?

vivariumvivariumsvivaria · 08/11/2019 09:39

And the skeptics. Who are sceptical about everything, except the magic of changing sex through the medium of lacy knickers.

ErrolTheDragon · 08/11/2019 09:46

And 'rationalWiki' has become a misnomer.

ChattyLion · 08/11/2019 09:46

Grin truth.
I am so disappointed in them. They could have been actually helpful. Instead they make quack jokes about homeopathy as being a major waste of time and possible harmful. Well yes.

But homeopathy doesn’t make you sterile, lose all sexual function, cause bone density loss and increase your risk of cancer etc etc

Sense about Science did give Transgender Trend/Stephanie Arai Davies a runner up prize though so I think we keep nominating until she wins it. There’s always hope.

MockersthefeMANist · 08/11/2019 09:46

Looks like Public Engagement means you lot all sit up straight with your legs crossed and listen to me. No hands up.

RoyalCorgi · 08/11/2019 09:48

Her comment about us all being led on by Glinner is so telling. Many of us were gender-critical long before Glinner was (no offence to Glinner, who is an absolute star). It does suggest that she's one of those women who thinks other women aren't really very bright, and that only a handful of women, like her, are as clever as the menz.

And does she really think our view is a minority one? If I recall correctly, about 80-90% of the public oppose allowing men who identify as women into women's spaces.

ChattyLion · 08/11/2019 09:51

Yes and also it’s also about trying to encourage a pile on on to Glinner, so the big meanies will stop asking her what happened to her understanding of science. Dick move.

MoltenLasagne · 08/11/2019 12:45

Maybe we're being unfair to Dr Roberts. One of my favourite teachers used to play dumb and say stupid things occasionally and we had to be paying attention to catch it and correct him. Maybe she's doing that form of public engagement?

QuantumEntanglement · 08/11/2019 13:00

She’s a humanist? Really? How does this woman reconcile humanism with queer/trans theory at all? It’s a mind-bogglingly contradictory position for her to take given the one is a philosophy based on empirical evidence aka perceivable reality and the other on some nebulous belief system based on inner feelings. Polar opposites surely.

RoyalCorgi · 08/11/2019 13:12

I think MN ought to invite her on here so that we can ask her to explain her position. Surely someone who is a professor of public engagement ought to be willing to do that? I am really curious as to how she can justify such a clearly irrational and anti-scientific position - it's a bit as if she'd announced that the earth is flat, or vaccines don't work, or we should all give up conventional medicine and adopt homoeopathy.

Her particular skill is supposed to be explaining ideas in an engaging and accessible way, so this ought to be an opportunity she would leap at. In fact, if she has confidence in her own position, then she should relish it.

Coyoacan · 08/11/2019 14:06

That comment gives me the absolute rage! It reminds me of my abusive ex who thought that any time I expressed an opinion he didn't like, it was because an evil friend had put it into my head. That and the two of them who don't even bother to read all the intelligent and generally respective comments from women on their threads. Does she think she is an honorary man?

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 08/11/2019 15:01

There's a lot of hair-splitting going on here over 'to what degree are sex/gender biological and/or socially-constructed categories', or that, as in the scientific paper Roberts quotes by Fausto-Sterling, in evolutionary terms cultural experience has physiological effects. Perhaps that's plausible. In fact, I find it fascinating. But these arguments seem to me at best a tilting at windmills (in the context of the political debate at least) and probably more accurately, a distraction from the core issue. And the core issue is this, and it works on a law of averages, statistical norms and factors which are typical, and to which there will always be exceptions.

Men are bigger than women. Men are stronger than women. Men are generally more aggressive than women (as borne out by statistics on violent crime). Men have greater muscle and bone density than women. The overwhelming majority of sex-offenders are male. Men are endowed with penises, and penises can be and often are weaponised against women. Moreover, they do this practically with impunity, given rape is under-reported and conviction rates are shamefully low. And 'intersex' is a rare condition, and as such an exception to these typical features.

Constructivism versus essentialism is an interesting debate, and it might even be possible to 'buy' the thesis of the effect of culture on biology. The point is that, in view of the above, it's irrelevant.

As a victim of rape, stalking and harrassment by males, I don't want to share intimate facilities with anyone endowed with a penis. And that objection is rooted in very good and valid reasons. Stating those reasons is not 'unkind'. Nor is stating I would like to find solutions which uphold the human rights of trans people without having to resort to extremes which endanger the very real, physical safety of women (the latter of which for me should always take precedence, as they are the more physically vulnerable category). Trans people protest that they are a tiny minority. Women are not - but we are the only majority who have traditionally been treated as a minority group.

No one seems to want to engage in productive debate on these terms. Rather, even if they're not crude enough to suggest de-platforming or posting threatening memes against the particular category of feminist they find so offensive, they will achieve the same result using 'gentler' language. Women are not being 'kind'. Deploy BLOCK.

OldCrone · 08/11/2019 16:41

the scientific paper Roberts quotes by Fausto-Sterling

This one?

Gender/Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Identity Are in the Body: How Did They Get There?

While looking for that, I came across this blog.

mrkhvoice.com/index.php/2019/09/15/further-down-the-rabbit-hole-with-alice-another-open-letter/

Does anyone know if Alice ever replied to this?

PocketDictionary · 08/11/2019 17:21

She's talking at a free event in Birmingham later this month on the 21st Century Body if anyone wants to take one for the team & feedback how she rationalises her position?
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/being-human-festival-2019-21st-century-body-with-professor-alice-roberts-tickets-65409380217

Melroses · 08/11/2019 17:32

21st Century Body Blue hair and mix and match sexual characteristics?

LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD · 08/11/2019 18:00

Being human festival? I don’t think she really is the best person to be advising...

borntobequiet · 08/11/2019 19:54

I’ve always found her intensely irritating on TV. She does that thing where she doesn’t tie her hair back when it’s windy, I can’t take anyone seriously if they don’t understand scrunchies.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread