Would you bother? (student experience survey)

[HubertHerbert]

I'm having quite a negative experience studying at the moment, I feel demeaned and humiliated by the constant need to self censor. Unhealthy compulsive ruminating and my head wanting to explode with the double think I need to accommodate.

I'm trying to suck it up and just focus on what I can and withdraw from areas where it's too much.

I just got an email inviting me to fill in their student experience survey. And of course there's no option for sex. Only gender.

What would you do?

It's a science course as well

How on earth does anyone do this? I have no idea how to swallow my feelings and navigate this.

I self censor with individuals and challenge the institution where I can do so by referring to the law. So I don’t feel impotent but also don’t burn my personal bridges.

Working it out as I go - nice name.

Thank you

@HubertHerbert

It's a science course as well

How on earth does anyone do this? I have no idea how to swallow my feelings and navigate this.

Sadly being in science doesn't save you these days. This is the Royal Society of Biology FFS:

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

Is it anonymous, and is it all multiple choice or is there anywhere for you to add free text?

I actually add that I am agender - I do not subscribe to either gender identity (m/f) as I am equally comfortable wearing trousers and skirts - well actually more comfortable in trousers, no make up and unshaven - but that's by the by.

If they want to play silly buggers they can have it with both barrells!

Thank you

It is anonymous, I think there will be an option to add free text at the end

Universities are public bodies and as such are required to record data using the equality act protected characteristics to enable them to make appropriate adjustments for students who are members of a protected group

Gender is not a protected characteristic so you might want to tell them that :)

Cross out 'gender' and write SEX in big letters. I know it won't do much but it will make you feel fractionally better. Then do one of hte more sensible suggestions upthread.

Good luck with your studies.

If it's anonymous then if it was me I'd definitely bother to fill it in, make a terse correction re sex being the protected characteristic and then expand on the theme of the negative effect of having to self-censor, pay lip service to a regressive misogynistic dogma or suchlike.
As this is a chance for you to speak freely make the most of it, say what you want to.

Good luck!

Just a heads-up-- the Women's Mental Health thread has been taken down:

Thread deleted

Message from MNHQ: The language used in the opening post of this thread goes against our aims of civil debate. We're takin it down now.

Wasn’t a uni form but I did a similar one with Gender instead of sex, and just wrote in the text box at the end: “My SEX is female. I don’t have a ‘gender’”

I wouldn’t write “Agender” because that too is one of the eleventy nine gender identities.

I really feel for you, OP. I was studying in the 1970s, quite politically active and very much a feminist. I frequently argued with other lefties about feminism and environmentalism, both of which they considered a waste of time and a diversion from the 'real'' issues.

The same sort of thing has continued most of my life. If you're politically involved you are likely to get into arguments, either with opponents or with your own comrades who disagree on certain issues.

But my God, I never heard of death threats, doxxing, coerced speech, mobs sending abuse, people getting hounded out of their jobs or reported to the police for 'wrong thinking' (which the police would have ignored anyway, back then).

I look at what's happening now and I can't believe it's real. It's like an outbreak of mass hysteria. All I can say is that other weird fads have sprung up suddenly in the past, and died out, leaving the participants pretending nothing had happened. Let's hope this goes the same way soon.

Thank you, all.

I hope so, #nodebate is what I can't handle. I can be civil and respectful and hold my own. I can't handle (it seems) being labelled a bigot (before I even opened my mouth) and having no right of reply.

I'm sotry that other thread re mental health has been deleted - I will have to Google for the Jonathan Haidt interview

@HubertHerbert I saved the link:

Fantastic - thanks

if it's anonymous, please do fill it in, if you can bear it. It does make a difference, even if you can't see it.

I usually point out that they are not being inclusive as their methodology posits that everyone has an internal gender identity, when lots of people solely have a biological sex.

Would anyone do this if it wasnt anonymous?

I mean it was, I'm just curious

Thank you for your replies

I wouldn't. Too frightened, not because I fear I am in the wrong but because people who potentially make decisions about me beyond my control are in the wrong.

These days there is simply too much at risk. I would not do it if it was not anonymous, however I now sign petitions and comment on crowd funders with my name. But starting out at Uni and stating non-virtue-signalling beliefs? Have to admit that would be hard to do.

@HubertHerbert

Would anyone do this if it wasnt anonymous?

I mean it was, I'm just curious

Thank you for your replies

I do, not because of any excess of courage, but just because I am so cancelled by this point that I may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb.

@HubertHerbert

Would anyone do this if it wasnt anonymous?

I mean it was, I'm just curious

Thank you for your replies

Yes. I am not, however, in your situation and I would want you to make a decision as to whether you wish to be openly critical of transgender ideology and legislation based solely on your own circumstances. Although I share your beliefs and your frustration at having our freedoms of thought and expression curtailed in this way, I don't share your risks. Only you can decide what is safe for you to take on at this point.

I have young friends at university who are out as radfems and who just don't give a fuck anymore, but it is not a walk in the park to get to that point.

Although I share your beliefs and your frustration at having our freedoms of thought and expression curtailed in this way, I don't share your risks.

I agree, Charlie. I'm old and have nothing to lose. When I was young I spoke out fearlessly, and sometimes had to cope with aggressive disagreement and the risk of losing friends.

But I was never threatened with violence, job loss or legal action. Jesus, of course I wasn't -- this is a western democracy! What have we come to, that it's now genuinely dangerous for people to speak the truth?

@HubertHerbert

It's a science course as well

How on earth does anyone do this? I have no idea how to swallow my feelings and navigate this.

Are you on Twitter? Colin Wright has posted asking whether STEM education itself has been affected by what he calls a "woke feedback loop" (though, personally, I'm not keen on the overuse of the word "woke")? twitter.com/SwipeWright/status/1319178925872873473

I'm struggling to imagine how this all works: is there cognitive dissonance between the way one's supposed to approach the subject (scientific method, including assessing new evidence, changing hypothesis if necessary, knowing what "non-falsifiable" means, etc.) and the way the sensitive subjects have to be approached?

...or does your discomfort actually affect your work (that is: is it difficult to debate things in seminars/ work groups/ are there certain ideas which you feel you cannot discuss, which affect your work)?

This is precisely what I'm trying to work out Medusa- how is everyone else doing it? Especially since mine is a subject that feels it needs to defend its scientific legitimacy. I've completely cancelled myself at this stage, I can only withdraw until I can find a voice with which to speak that doesn't make me feel deeply uncomfortable. To the point of being pathological. In my search for verstehen I feel like I am an empath and so to be told I have blood on my hands on a daily basis is terrifying - I've always been guided by critical reasoning "I might be wrong, I could be wrong" is aways how I've done things but I'm over analysing every basic thing I say now because no fundamental assumption can be accepted, what if what I think really is wreaking grievous harm in peoples lives?