GC Academic/ Professional Services support thread

[VictoriaLucas102]

I’ve noticed quite a few university colleagues pop up on different threads so thought it might be worthwhile having a dedicated support thread.

I work/ teach in a university in the north of England. I was pretty active on Twitter (professionally but also posting GC stuff) until I had an anonymous complaint (which was ridiculous and ignored by my HoD) and then a senior colleague unfollowed me after I tweeted that biology was real (and that really freaked me out). Consequently I ‘shut up’ and left twitter and have since felt like a coward for doing so. It wasn’t so much about the impact to my own career, but I work in collaboration with colleagues who I truly like and respect and the thought of their work being tainted by my beliefs/actions was just too much for me to cope with.

I know of 3 or 4 male colleagues and a couple of female colleagues who have voiced concerns but otherwise I feel so utterly isolated. Even my closest colleagues, who I would also consider friends, I just cannot even broach this with them.

I know I am not alone but it often feels like I am. I am still very much an ‘early career’ academic (despite my age and professional experience) but then I see what happens to female professors and it makes me even more terrified to put my head over the parapet, and it is not in my nature to ‘keep my mouth shut’ on issues I’m passionate about.

Sorry for the ramble! TLDR; any other GC university folk here who want to chat about stuff ☺️

@gardenbird48

Good grief Alessendra, hi by the way - I saw that you’d got thrown off twitter - shocking! As pp says above, I think these people forget (or don’t care) that they are talking about human beings - they have treated you abominably!

Do you have an opportunity for any legal recourse? Even if only for the death threats - surely the police still take them seriously even if made to a woman?

Hello Gardenbird, I contacted the police here in Italy, we have a dedicated branch just for online crime, but then I decided to let it go, it takes so much emotional energy, and in the end you know these threats are empty, the guy was in the US or in London, I am in Italy but he thought I was in Germany. Certainly if I worked on campus, I would ask for security, just to shame the university.

Also delurking on here. Thanks for starting this thread! I'm an academic in the social sciences. I've been quietly open about my views - ie I'll talk about it if it comes up and have had open conversations with colleagues who disagree (and still been able to work together well). I don't advertise my views but it would be easy to find them out.

I've noticed a real difference in how people respond publicly and privately. When I first became aware of the implications of the trans activist agenda I was pretty confused and shocked so talked about it openly and asked people I knew a lot of questions. Not sure I would do this with what I know now! These were mainly private and informal discussions and were perfectly polite and respectful - within academic norms of respect for theoretical disagreement. I think perhaps I've been lucky, but also that people do tend to behave differently face to face and within existing relationships than online.

Once discussions are public I think there's more pressure for people to perform ideological purity and start denouncing the heretics. The more fractious experiences I've had where the debate has been framed in more moral terms, as bigotry etc - have been in larger/more formal meetings. Even there, I would say the majority response was worried/uncomfortable silence not agreement. I don't tend to seek out these kinds of forums as it is stressful to be in the position of the heretic... Although when I have, I have generally found the worst bit is the anticipation of speaking out, rather than the reality of having done it.

Really struck by how many people are feeling isolated here. I would say definitely reach out to other GC people in your institution if there are any who are public - they are probably feeling exactly the same way.

I wanted to add, because i think it is very important, I have been contacted by female students who are completely isolated and alienated, a disabled student contacted me to say the student representative was trans and ignored disabled students completely but she felt she could not say anything or being accused of being transphobic. We have a moral obligation to these students, I wonder how many there are.

Hello AlessandraAsteriti, I miss your twitter feed, you had a way of putting things so clearly. Much appreciation & thanks!

Hi @AlessandraAsteriti. I think the way you have been treated is disgusting and I don’t know how you do it. Solidarity. They’re the cowards and hopefully when sanity returns they will have to answer for what they did. I keep remembering that people used to believe loads of weird crap throughout history and everyone thought they were on the right side of history at the time too.

Hello AlessandraAsteriti, you are sorely missed on twitter!

[quote QueenoftheAir]@NotN0wBernard - I don't think any feminist is not supportive of individual trans students. It's a myth that "gender critical" feminism is anti-trans.

However, I think as academics, we need to be able to discuss the principles & theories of these sorts of things, just as we discuss matters concerning women, or matters of race & ethnicity, or matters of class.

The problem for feminists (and for all women actually) - as you can see from Serendipitea's post - is that transactivists (Men's rights activist actually) want to erase the category of woman, and are attempting to fundamentally change the definition of what it is to be a woman.

It is this which makes me indescribably deeply angry.[/quote]
As above- and coupled with unconditional self-ID, this potentially makes a lot of situations very dangerous for women

Long time lurker briefly de-lurking. PS at large Uni. Pronouns are on the march, though optional at present. Won't be participating - happy to flag that this involves labelling oneself and that not everyone will be sufficiently comfortable to do so. Have raised the sex v gender distinction where appropriate. Have queried the copy/paste of Stonewall boilerplate into our own documents and have seen amendments. Happy to see that similar concerns are being expressed elsewhere. Re-lurking...

@AlessandraAsteriti you're a star! I so miss you from Twitter. Also name checking @KatieAlcock another star!

I miss you too, @AlessandraAsteriti.
And @KatieAlcock - huge respect.

Thanks for all the messages. I miss all the wonderful women of Twitter too!

Thanks to Doc Stock for highlighting this thread I've decided to register and join in the discussion because I think the silent shame I feel (why?) around this issue is now starting to have a pretty detrimental effect on my mental health (and I guess repeatedly being told you don't exist in objective reality isn't exactly good for it). I'm a PhD student from a working class background so already find academia alienating enough but I've noticed my confidence taking a nose-dive recently, driven in part - I think - by the internalisation of hatred directed at GC feminists online (I actually had a nightmare once that I'd liked a JK Rowling tweet and was then encircled by my whole department laughing and pointing). I'm also really starting to feel down about my own cowardice. I've worked hard to get where I am and can't afford to start again in another career but it's not in my nature to stay quiet, especially while others are out there taking the hit, so I think in a way this issue is actually robbing me of a key part of myself. I keep asking myself: if you're silent on this, would you have been silent during all the feminist struggles of the past too? The answer isn't comforting... Apologies if this all sounds a bit dramatic but it feels good to get it off my chest finally. And of course, a huge thank you to everyone who has taken a stand publicly on this.

Any suggestions for good wording which wouldn't ruffle too many feathers and stop the inevitable whataboutery?

I don't think you can do this, you'd get targeted by the mob. But maybe what you could do is ask for an essay from entrants where they write briefly about their experiences as a girl interested in science? I have absolutely no doubt that MtF students would come up with something to write too but maybe including the essay in the judging criteria would suffice to make sure a prize like that fulfilled its purpose.

"I keep asking myself: if you're silent on this, would you have been silent during all the feminist struggles of the past too? "

Exactly this.

It's such a drain of emotional energy and headspace trying to keep a low profile while simultaneously berating yourself for lack of moral courage and questioning your sanity.

@HubertHerbert

"I keep asking myself: if you're silent on this, would you have been silent during all the feminist struggles of the past too? "

Exactly this.

It's such a drain of emotional energy and headspace trying to keep a low profile while simultaneously berating yourself for lack of moral courage and questioning your sanity.

There are times when I have felt like I am literally going insane.

Interestingly when I first started to notice what was happening one of my best friends, who had been involved in feminist issues for a while, warned me in no uncertain terms not to go public with my questions/ thinking. I thought she was being melodramatic. I cannot believe how wrong I was ... this is a situation I never, ever believed I would be in.

I am an experienced professional with a PhD I worked damned hard for, and I have to stay silent on an issue that I feel so passionately about I could weep in frustration.

We are in very dark place.

A class court action? women vs. Whitehall. Obviously haven't thought it through but there are a lot of court cases and judicial reviews in the pipeline. They have the potential, if won (but even if they're not, they will bring an awful lot of sunlight to the debate) to turn things around.

one of my best friends, who had been involved in feminist issues for a while, warned me in no uncertain terms not to go public with my questions/ thinking.

It’s a ten thousand year old story, as old as patriarchy. Women cannot speak their truth without feeling shame. Shame has its place as a human emotion, it’s just that those that experience it are usually not the ones who should be feeling it.

@possiblymad

Thanks to Doc Stock for highlighting this thread I've decided to register and join in the discussion because I think the silent shame I feel (why?) around this issue is now starting to have a pretty detrimental effect on my mental health (and I guess repeatedly being told you don't exist in objective reality isn't exactly good for it). I'm a PhD student from a working class background so already find academia alienating enough but I've noticed my confidence taking a nose-dive recently, driven in part - I think - by the internalisation of hatred directed at GC feminists online (I actually had a nightmare once that I'd liked a JK Rowling tweet and was then encircled by my whole department laughing and pointing). I'm also really starting to feel down about my own cowardice. I've worked hard to get where I am and can't afford to start again in another career but it's not in my nature to stay quiet, especially while others are out there taking the hit, so I think in a way this issue is actually robbing me of a key part of myself. I keep asking myself: if you're silent on this, would you have been silent during all the feminist struggles of the past too? The answer isn't comforting... Apologies if this all sounds a bit dramatic but it feels good to get it off my chest finally. And of course, a huge thank you to everyone who has taken a stand publicly on this.

This resonates so much with me. Like you, I have never really felt like I belonged or was accepted in academia to begin with due to socioeconomic background. This has made me feel even more outside.

The bit about internalising the hostility towards GC women is so true too. I find myself constantly asking whether I actually am a horrible bigot who has no place in civilised society. But I still can’t force myself to believe in something that I know to be untrue. I would never discriminate against a trans person and I strongly believe in legal protections against discrimination for trans people. I just don’t see this as extending to a pretence that they literally are the opposite sex. I don’t think that makes me horrible or bigoted but the academy clearly feels differently.

I also feel like I am going insane when I see praise and fawning over academics who advance spectacularly weak arguments on this issue. The same people also try to completely trash the reputations and work of those who disagree and actually do engage in rigorous scholarship and have plenty of empirical evidence to back up claims.

I also wonder whether I would have been brave enough to join the suffragette movement and the answer is that maybe I wouldn’t. I’m not a particularly brave person and I often keep my head down for a quiet life. That’s quite uncomfortable to realise but I think it’s true for many.

On the other hand, alienated though we all feel, there are many many women needing us in academia. We understand that people cannot afford to lose their jobs. There are other ways of forming community and questioning power, as people on this thread have said. Find others, stick together, teach competing theories rigorously, join a union if you can afford to. Academia must not be ceded to the vocal powerful few.

Find others, stick together, teach competing theories rigorously, join a union if you can afford to.

But most of the unions tow a compulsory TWAW line. And as far as I know, UCU, which is the union for academics and professional staff, is one of the worst - it only supports academic freedom on issues that its woke leadership agrees with.

Not all unions focus on it. I left UCU as well but rejoined, there are others in UCU who don't hold to that line. If we leave, what use will it be ultimately? We need test cases. We need to resist this.

Yeah one of the worst things you can do is join the UCU. They have made abundantly clear that they want GC feminists out of academia. There are the odd good reps still around but you’re lucky if that’s the case because my rep constantly retweets stuff about TERFs on Twitter.

I just want to add my voice to this thread in support. I am an academic in a non-RG uni (if the latter is relevant.) I teach on issues of equality and gender and last term for example discussed the social construction of gender with students in relation to the persistence of damaging stereotypes etc. I was happy to make a distinction between sex and gender but later realised that it could have got me into trouble. I am in social sciences but these issues have never come up in discussions with colleagues yet. I find this agenda sinister and deeply worrying though. Support for all those in vocal opposition.

I was happy to make a distinction between sex and gender but later realised that it could have got me into trouble.

We need a legal test case.

UCU is a lost cause. I am so fed up with them, well-paid academics larping as revolutionaries. Kudos to anyone who can bear being a member but be under no illusions that they'd support a GC academic suing her (for it will be a her) university for discrimination or dismissal on the grounds of defending the existence of sex.

Oh completely agree, @nonsensetower, absolutely not - I am sure they'd crucify us. But we need a test case. Other unions are not so keen on ignoring biological sex but they are not so influential throughout HE. And the UCU need a lesson in the law.