Royal Society of Biology - biological sex is transphobic

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

twitter.com/RoyalSocBio/status/1314556133051375618?s=19

Another arrogant young intern? Not a good look, anyway.

From my reading, lots of schools signing up to be 'Stonewalled' has influenced how kids think. If you tell a group of children that they can be whatever gender they want (and do not differentiate between sex and gender), then these people go out into the world with some very skewed views which are reinforced by the internet.

Having said that, the RSB should be doing a bit of clarifying and so far they seem to be happy with their students believing sex change is real. They could however have done lots of research and suddenly come up with an XX to XY possibility and will be revealing all this weekend

Yes it's not just the tweet, it speaks to the culture in the organisation that whoever wrote it was secure in their belief that it's okay to shut women down and label an acknowledgement of humans as a sexually dimorphic species as transphobic.
Further the tweet is still there afaik so clearly they don't think it's an issue.
DH was already weighing up his membership in terms of value and this was the push he needed.

It's disheartening but not surprising, he works in a scientific institute which should also understand Biology, but he's being recommended to put pronouns in signatures and attend gender diversity training.
When it's been touched on in the office colleagues have said "Oh no, sex isn't that straightforward and TWAW etc." so he has to bite his tongue now. He's less than 5 years older than some of them but he feels a real generational gap.

I can't figure out how to make complaints, the RSB website is quite baroque, however Jennifer Crosk the PA to the CEO seems to handle personnel issues.

[email protected]

I've sent her an email.

According to the ideology, believing in the biological reality of binary sex is transphobic. Biology is transphobic. Perahps they should rename themselves the Royal Society of Transphobia and cancel themselves immediately.

Or go with Royal Society of GenderWoo so at least we all know where we stand.

I'm now seeing straight scientists on my timeline equating transphobia with homophobia. Yeah, no. Stay in your lane. Trans ideology is inherently homophobic.

I really, seriously thought science would be safe. How naïve am I

How will this look worldwide? The GenderWoo countries will be fine but the rest????

I struggled to get past chromosomes do basically nothing TBH.

At some point it all just stops making sense and you can't argue with nonsense.

@DrDavidBanner

I struggled to get past chromosomes do basically nothing TBH.

At some point it all just stops making sense and you can't argue with nonsense.

Well... I'm a chemist not bio so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I suppose some genes don't really do much after foetal development (to the bearer', not future offspring). I'd guess some of the genes on the X and Y chromosomes are in this category. So even if you could edit all of a man's Y chromosomes into X , it still wouldn't make him a woman.

I thought actual science would be safe from this madness as well. I can't believe the Royal Society of BIOLOGY is tweeting this crap.

It's like arguing with people that think giant lizards rule the world.

Oh dear God. How embarrassing for them.

RSB have still not replied?! The longer they leave it, the worse it looks...

I know it's the weekend, but surely somebody senior must be aware by now!

If biology really is bigotry and human sex isn't real, it's time for a big round of redundancies, return the funding and shut the RBS down. Or re-invent it as the Royal Society of Bigotry and see how that goes down?

@ArcheryAnnie

I'm now seeing straight scientists on my timeline equating transphobia with homophobia. Yeah, no. Stay in your lane. Trans ideology is inherently homophobic.

This has always been the problem. The T tacked itself onto the LGB in a genius marketing strategy and many people just don't apply any critical thought to the fact that these are different things.

I like this exchange in the replies:

"You know you're supposed to be the Royal Society of Biology, right?"

"I think it's just identifying at this point."

Still, the original tweet was a bit out of order to begin with (unless I missed something)

How?

One of the most depressing things about this is that the person who wrote the RSB tweet has a degree in biology.

Aye but where from? They will be asking for it back...

@FairFriday

Aye but where from? They will be asking for it back...

Maybe it's from the same online institution from which Ben Goldacre purchased a doctorate for his (deceased) pet cat.

It's entirely possible to get a science degree by learning quite a bit about a science, without really being a scientist.

I have known someone (a member of the Wee Frees) who did a PhD at one of the old Scottish universities so she could argue creationism with the authority of a PhD from a reputable university behind her. She was quite open about that once she had got the place.
I also know a lot of biologists who have no interest whatsoever outwith their own narrow field of research.

Aye but where from? They will be asking for it back...

From a really good university that's strong in the subject. But sadly even with a high quality university education it's being displaced by #genderwoowoo.

I have a couple of degrees and postgrads as well as professional qualifications. And I know FA about a few things your think I’d know about...

Science is a social activity, carried out by humans who are subject to exactly the same biases and dubious motivations (fame, money, pats on the back from one's peers, going into a field with the intention of proving one's pre-existing prejudices are right) that any other human activity is. I say that as a working research scientist with nearly 20 years of post-doc experience behind me.

So it's not surprising that science occasionally gets co-opted by politics, religion or other ideologies. (Think Lysenkoism in Soviet Russia, for example).

Ultimately, if you're cutting your scientific cloth to fit your ideology, the tension between the resulting "theory" and the real world will become so great that the pseudo-science collapses ("eppur si muove"), but it frequently takes a while.

So it's not surprising - sad, but not surprising - when this sort of idiocy gains traction. Gender ideology is a secular religion, with all the trappings: priesthood, sacred castes, punishment for heresy and for apostates, purity spirals.

Have you seen this on Twitter?

Ah, great, I've to teach my kids sex ed as they missed it during lockdown. I'll get that printed off right away, ta CandyStripe.

I agree - depressingly enough - that this is not just an intern, but symptomatic of a much deeper rot. Also - 24 hours on and it's not been taken down. This is clearly sanctioned higher up in the Society.

I'm involved in a much smaller learned society in a different discipline whose day-to-day business is run by two paid staff and three unpaid volunteers from the academic community. Four of the five put pronouns in their emails and think trans rights are pretty much the next great big equalities battle the Society should work for.

They work with a wider governing body and the Society represents several thousand members - some of whom I know feel very differently. But there it is - those at the top set the agenda, they are fully TWAW, and they've employed a staff who'll willingly execute it.

Oh, and if that's not depressing enough - the team are all women too.