Professor Selina Todd, an Oxford University historian who specializes in the history of women and the working class, has been given security because of threats from trans activists. She has been subjected to threats and malicious complaints because her historical research suggests women who disguised themselves as men often did so as a protection mechanism. A female academic in one of the world's premier universities requires a security presence in her lectures because some people object to her research conclusions and her feminist analysis. This is the 21st century. On the anniversary of George Orwell's death
students came to see me and said they were very worried that threats had been made to me on email networks they were part of,” Prof Todd told The Telegraph.“The university investigated the threats and came back to me to say their intelligence on them is such that they are providing me security for all of my lecturers for the rest of this year. They said 'you're having two men in the rest of your lectures'.” Prof Todd said that transgender activists started making complaints about her on the basis that her teaching of feminist history was “transphobic “My research suggests that women who posed as men in the past were often lesbians seeking to protect themselves, or because they want to do jobs that were only available to men,” she said. Prof Todd said that the history faculty now receives “daily” complaints from activists calling for her to be sacked, which has left her feeling unnerved“I get frightened by the threats in lectures,” she said. “You can't help but worry. It's had a huge impact on me. You don’t expect to be defending yourself the whole time from complaints or threats of violence.” She said that the history faculty have been hugely supportive of her, including referring her for counselling to help deal with the stress