University lecturer accused of being transphobic for saying only women menstuate

[Rockluvvindad]

Not sure if anyone had seen this yet but came across it on twitter... Some choice comments in support of her on Twitter...

Did do a quick look but couldn't find any other thread on here about it.

thetab.com/uk/exeter/2020/02/28/exeter-lecturer-accused-of-transphobia-for-saying-only-females-menstruate-47008

Can't seem to create a clicky link on my phone so will do one later when I have access to the pc, but you can cut and paste for now.

RLD

Louise and selina

Thanks for standing up.

Though why saying only women having periods was the most outrageous and dangerous thing ever ever sai£ in the history of the world

Jeez how do they wee elitist students think they came into being

I wonder what their mums would think of them bullying a woman for saying that

Sorry should have included Eva as well 🤦‍♀️

I don't really know what to say about this shit show. I keep thinking, surely this is the moment of idiocy that brings the whole thing crashing down, but here we are still. Anyway thank you Dr Moody, Eva and Selina if you're reading.

And while this is going on, female students are becoming less and less safe on campuses. Sexual assault and rape is rife.

But that is never what is meant by the term “unsafe”. That bloody word is becoming “triggering”. When you hear it now, from the mouths of students, you know they mean to make the world less safe for women, by banning our words.

Ooh, Kuponut, that lecture sounds like a potential minefield for offence. I can imagine the lecturer waking up in a cold sweat at 3am on the day, and nerving themselves with black coffee before going through their lecture notes again with a marker pen...

Nah he's announced he's not teaching the rest of the module as he's off out on strike... but it's cold and wet out there so he's striking from home...

What’s this “unsafe” business? What insulting hyperbole

• Unsafe is being a girlchild cornered by older boys and sexually assaulted.
• Unsafe is being born a girl in Somalia, with a near-certainty of having her clitoris and labia cut off and the resulting wound stitched up with string or wire, without anaesthesia.
• Unsafe is being a girlchild attending school anywhere that Isis or Boko Haram are active.
• Unsafe is being a female prisoner incarcerated alongside an intact male who claims to feel like a woman.
• Unsafe is being a woman with a life-threatening pregnancy complication in any of the four countries that have total bans on abortion.
• Unsafe is being a woman married to an abusive husband.
• Unsafe is being a woman under attack at Speaker's Corner by a man who wants to steal her camera because she wants to attend a meeting that he does not like.

People disagreeing with you does not make you unsafe. You may feel uncomfortable and even distressed, but you are not unsafe.

This is terrible news and solidarity to Eva.

I had a phone conversation quite recently where I had to book a series of medical appointments. It was a little complicated, as I said to her I needed to check work calendars, kids' diaries etc - from this she revealed she was a Uni student, working part-time and also had problems spinning too many plates. At the start of the conversation, knowing that my legal name is not the same as my preferred name (something along the lines of Elizabeth, but I've ALWAYS been called Liz (emails at work etc), but my medical history and health insurance policy is under the name of Elizabeth) - she asked me which name I preferred. I said Liz. All fine, for 10 mins we continued to book in the appts, she calling me Liz. But then she asked me if I had a preferred gender for the persons performing the medical diagnostics & treatment. I was quiet for a moment, and then said "Don't you mean sex? As opposed to gender?". Her tone changed completely, and she started calling me 'Elizabeth'.

This was only a few days ago - and it has really irked. Why and how have these kids become so indoctrinated?

FWIW I don't think it's just about the consumerist thing. There is an element of needing to appeal to attract students but this was also true when universities were funded by government for their students. It probably does have some effect on how people think about it, but I think there are other factors.

I think some of this rot comes from the postmodern rejection of things like literary canons, and the general worship of the young as being somehow further ahead than older people. When I was a humanities major there was always a group of students who thought being told what to read was not really valid, who thought they should be able to decide what was important based on how it seemed to fit in with their views on various issues. That sort of thing seems to have become much worse, and it also seems to now be applied to many disciplines.

I do think another big factor is that a lot of these kids, especially the ones who seem likely to go on to university, have been pandered to since they were in primary school.

This fucks me off massively

Wouldn't it be great if, instead of having to refer to people who menstruate, people with vaginas, people with a uterus, pregnant people, etc, there were some convenient term that designated those individuals?

Since perfectly good terms already exist ("woman", "female"), shouldn't people be allowed to use them? Why on earth should they be defined as being simply whichever "gender" someone "feels" like?

In fact shouldn't the terms for self-identified gender be "masculine" and "feminine", while "male"/"man" and "female"/"woman" designate sex?

When I was a humanities major there was always a group of students who thought being told what to read was not really valid, who thought they should be able to decide what was important based on how it seemed to fit in with their views on various issues. That sort of thing seems to have become much worse, and it also seems to now be applied to many disciplines.

A while back I got an email about a new reading group that has been set up by a student, who proceeded to give a bit of background about herself. It said that she had come to university to explore her identity. It was a horrifying lightbulb moment for me and explained so much about what I recognised in many (though not all, by any means) students. The narcissism, the inability to look at literature and the past through anything other than one’s own experience, the inability to empathise, the priority placed on one’s feelings rather than critical thinking. And the (frankly quite unjustifiable) privilege of having three years at university, not to make a contribution to society or a community or to expand one’s knowledge of the world or develop skills, but to naval gaze and centre the entire academic experience on oneself. It explains why some students can not accommodate any view, however factual, that lies outside their own belief system.