Gender Studies at the University of Sussex

[jadefinch]

Alison Phipps, the professor of gender studies who last week said she wouldn't debate women's rights in a world of self ID with Kathleen Stock because this should be a debate only between transwomen and that even having a debate was unreasonable and offensive, has tweeted that her students play with Lego Duplo (designed for children aged 1 to 5) to 'represent intersectionality', presumably as part of their studies.

The tweet is at least a couple of years old and she's now deleted it, but it gives an insight into what's going on in gender studies at UK universities. At least one EU country has said it no longer provides state funding for gender studies at university because it isn't scientific and the students are unemployable at the end of the degree, and at least one other country in South America is apparently considering following suit.

There was also the Sokal Hoax in 2018 in which several works of pure gender gibberish including passages lifted from Mein Kampf were published in academic jourbals, which Phipps is quoted as being very angry about (this article describes her comments as disingenuous because of her attempts to portray the academics who took part in the hoax as right wing when they weren't - www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/new-sokal-hoax/572212/ ).

These students are paying £9k a year for this - are they learning anything and can they get any jobs after doing this?

I wish you could still do women's studies. I'm doing an MSc in sociology instead and it's a discipline that allows me to do feminism-related work. And my department is quite happy with interdisciplinary projects and using ideas from eg political philosophy or education studies.
But women's studies would allow me to pursue interests related to literature or geography etc without it being seen as odd.

I wouldn't study gender. It's more or less the least interesting and least impactful thing that relates to women.

I think when they stopped it in Hungary though it was partly because it's all quite right wing over there at the moment.

at least there's still Cwasu offering interesting courses.

Having said all that, I do notice that even though I have 10 years experience in the women's sector I get passed over for v young women with gender studies degrees.

The replacement of women’s studies with gender studies has been a huge loss to feminism

Hungary though has got rid of it because its government is hugely homophobic as well as sexist and I assume the South American country is Brazil, bolsanaro is also sexist & homophobic. It’s nothing to do with students not being able to get jobs and everything to do with their very basic right wing agenda

It's worse than unfortunate how the GC cause so often overlaps with really horrific right-wing ideals.

How would you define 'the GC cause', bezalelle, and is it relevant to gender studies etc?

Is it right wing to be surprised at students playing with duplo in an academic setting?

For reference I've played with duplo in an academic setting. It was for someone's MSc psychology dissertation.

We watched the YouTube channel TLDR in a seminar yesterday.

It probably has changed a fair bit since most of us were undergraduates.

The loss of women's studies is awful and I worry about what's being taught as fact in these institutions.

However this teaching technique is a really good way to get people to articulate their thoughts about what can be pretty abstract ideas.
It's especially good for people with less linear thinking styles.
I'm sure they weren't just graded on how pretty their sculptures were but used it as a starting point in a discussion.

Bezalelle there are homophobic parents who would rather have a son or daughter who transitions than a son who is gay or a daughter who is lesbian.
Countries like Iran treat homosexuality as an abomination, however homosexuals are allowed to transition to escape persecution.
I take it you are in favour of associating transgenderism in the UK and elsewhere with the Islamist regime in Iran based on your approach?

I assume you accept evolution and the heliocentric model of the solar system as fact.
Since many far right people also subscribe to the theory of evolution and that the planets revolve around the sun, does that make you an extreme right wing person too and by extension a supporter of all of their other viewpoints?

I've lost faith in universities and academia generally. They have a huge problem with quality control. Peer review is a mess, there's a replication crisis. And now they're indulging in policing dissent and protecting orthodoxies from scrutiny.
It breaks my heart what the left are doing to freedom of speech and thought.

Bezalelle
It's worse than unfortunate how the GC cause so often overlaps with really horrific right-wing ideals.

Don't be a seagull, please engage properly and give some examples of these shared values.

Personally I think its horrifying to support sterilizing gay and NGC children, turning them into eunachs without normal sexual function when they reach adulthood.

Oh god no - I'm as GC as they come! I was rueing the situation, not having a dig. Sorry I didn't make that clear.

Panic not @Bezalelle such misinterpretations happen. Reading back with a different mental tone makes your lamentation easy to see

It's worse than unfortunate how the GC cause so often overlaps with really horrific right-wing ideals.

Sometimes it's the transgender cause that overlaps with horrific ideals. Look at Iran.

Countries like Iran treat homosexuality as an abomination, however homosexuals are allowed to transition to escape persecution.

there's just one country iran, not countries

I went to Sussex, I'm not surprised. It was an overly woke shit hole then and it seems it still is is now. For clarification, I come from a left wing family, a left wing school and a lentil weaving home town and I'm still disdainful of Sussex Uni.

twitter.com/RosieKerrS/status/1172940883542577155?s=09

The British Psychological Society now has a “men’s” section, whereas the female section was renamed as “women and minorities” (or similar).

It’s rubbish.