Should I email my Uni Lecturer about this?

[Magpiemavis]

Hi all, long time lurker, first time poster!

I’m in my first year of a uni degree, and was just listening to one of my online uni lectures. I was quite stunned to hear the lecturer brand JK Rowling a transphobe. Having actually read JK Rowling’s open letter, would it be reasonable of me to email the lecturer and ask why they thought this was a reasonable thing to do?

Would really appreciate some outside views on this!

Another student here, different area of study, but we have course material that clearly is not critically presented..unless you understand critical in an academic context as biased.

It's incredibly difficult to challenge it when the people marking your work - or worse, the ones who'd be involved in deciding which band you'll be in for the end of the course/degree if you're on a grade boundary - are the ones you'd complain to.

I like the idea of searching peer-reviewed material on mermaids! It depends who this person is connected to though.

Just want to say sorry for "going off on one". OP I don't think you should sacrifice yourself to the ideology. I am just so shocked. I had no idea it was that bad. But it bodes very worryingly for the future doesn't it? Will stop ranting

@IheartJKR

I absolutely would not recommend op take this further if she wants to complete her degree. I’m currently studying an MA and they ALL openly discuss terfs, I’m called cis without question, open discussions about disgusting transphobia (dissenters from their opinion) - I’m required to put pronouns on introductions. A particularly harrowing module concerning violence by men against women was hijacked by a biological female - but non binary student- who presents as male, pronouns they - them. We were giving a warning at the beginning to be nice’ and that they’ were finding it very difficult that the sex they present as was being represented so negatively. At the end they were provided a platform to talk about how they are the real victims. They have never experienced actual violence, but they feel it around them and the potential is there.

That is just the first module.
It goes in and on and on.

It's unbelievably offensive all of this. To even have someone given time to tell everybody how victimized they feel even when they've not actually been victimized yet, while silencing the women in the room who undoubtedly have been actual victims is sick.

@IheartJKR

I absolutely would not recommend op take this further if she wants to complete her degree. I’m currently studying an MA and they ALL openly discuss terfs, I’m called cis without question, open discussions about disgusting transphobia (dissenters from their opinion) - I’m required to put pronouns on introductions. A particularly harrowing module concerning violence by men against women was hijacked by a biological female - but non binary student- who presents as male, pronouns they - them. We were giving a warning at the beginning to be nice’ and that they’ were finding it very difficult that the sex they present as was being represented so negatively. At the end they were provided a platform to talk about how they are the real victims. They have never experienced actual violence, but they feel it around them and the potential is there.

That is just the first module.
It goes in and on and on.

This absolutely fucks me off but sadly I agree. The amount of woke is unreal. The lack of reasoned debate and critical thinking on the subject is unreal.

I was thinking about something related the other day. I’m amazed by the amount of ucas personal statements where female applicants nail their colours to the mast on this subject. I lecture on a very female centric subject. I’m as GC as they come. I think so many people live in such a woke bubble they assume everyone else is as woke as they are. Just seems a bizarre thing to get so “political” in an application when there are polar opposite views on the subject. Obviously I’m non biased and wouldn’t let anything like that influence my decision.

With the current students I’d like to think we’ve had intelligent, calm, respectful discussions on the matter. Nobody has put in a complaint about me or my colleagues calling us “terfs” yet anyway!

@yetmorenamechanging

We currently have a recording online in our course module of a male who runs his own business centring in diversity.
He talks about how he has worked historically to support children who work in sex work to ‘ make better choices’ -
no - that would be child sexual exploitation and is not a fucking choice
The same male also discusses how it can be difficult working in schools so ‘you have to really engage and show that your listening to parents and staff in order to get them onboard and agree with you

He’s recruiting and the uni see him as good.

Obviously - he has contracts with stonewall.

People have to speak up. I was listening to Konstantin Kisin's interview with Benjamin Boyce yesterday. He made the point that if nobody challenges this stuff, it's not going to get any easier. It will get worse.

If nobody says anything, ask yourself what society will look like in 10 years time? What are your children being taught in school? What do laws in this country look like?

Kisin was talking more broadly than just trans ideology, but his point still stands. Abigail Shrier made a similar point recently too - doctors who are worried about what is happening to teenage girls need to start speaking out. It's no longer enough to hide away and keep your critical thoughts to yourself.

It will take a lot of people pushing back, questioning the ideology, making their lecturers and bosses think. Otherwise, the future of critical thinking and open discussion looks very, very bleak.

Yes you should ask this, even asking to explain why the lecturer thinks this. Up to you how you phrase it.

@EdgeOfACoin

We already know what our lecturers think.
They think we’re ignorant terfs if we don’t agree and we’ll be excluded for making people feel ‘unsafe’.

Those lecturers who are secretly GC - will remain secretly agreeing with us - in secret- in order to keep their jobs.

I haven't read whole thread but my DS is at a uni where he dare not speak up. He says he would literally be thrown out. I would proceed with extreme caution. DS asked a fellow student why she was calling JK Rowling a terf and she went ballistic. Being a terf is seen in the same light as being a racist homophobe. Tread carefully.

We cannot expect single students to come out against their (almost) entire cohort and lecturers and the University body.

This lecturer has shown you who they are and your card is marked now, that’s the reality.

Of course. I'm a uni lecturer and would expect that challenge.

@EdgeOfACoin did you hear the one Triggernometry did with Professor Hicks? It was a good analysis of where we are. Pretty chilling though.

My take on the JK Rowling tweet was that she might share the way I define my own womanhood. In a wider sense it might be called a gender identity, though not in the sense the ideologists use that term:

I am a woman because my body is female and because living in a female body affects so much in my life, both directly and indirectly (as others treat female-looking people differently from male-looking people). That 'identity' is embodied and something that has developed over time because of the experiences I have had.

So when I read that it is 'people,' in general, who menstruate or give birth or experience menopause, my identity is invalidated. On Twitter doing that invalidation to a transgender person's identity is called erasure, so one might argue that I am being erased.

I am no longer allowed to be of the gender I have always been told I belong to, and I am told that this change is so that the identities of others are being honoured! This feels like a kick in the stomach.

And then I am told that I should define being a woman on the basis of something like femininity. Googling the term suggests that it means being passive, submissive, emotional and nurturing! I refuse to be identified as passive and submissive, and the idea that progressives expect that is horrible.

I have no idea if Rowling thinks that way, but what she has written on the topic matched my feelings.

We already know what our lecturers think.
They think we’re ignorant terfs if we don’t agree and we’ll be excluded for making people feel ‘unsafe’

This is so frustrating. I'm just starting a Master's and I have enough to cope with in my own life without being there to make anyone else feel "safe", though clearly I won't be rude or abusive! The people who don't feel safe need directing to appropriate support to help them feel more safe and deal with tricky situations, and I say that as someone who has also felt unsafe much of my life due to a traumatic childhood.

There’s your dissertation topic and 18 months to really explore the debate.

What a depressing state of affairs. I think I’m lucky in that the programmes I teach on attract a lot of international students and mature students so we do have a nice mix of perspectives and (mostly) mutual respect. Reassuringly, the assignments I’ve just read on gender constructs clearly indicate (1st year) students understand the difference between gender and biological sex, and that you can shift one but cannot change the other.

Myself and a colleague from another university are in the process of setting up a GC Academic Network which we hope will provide a space for people who work/study in HE to share their experiences (anonymously) and perhaps feel less isolated (this is one of the issues for me, personally). I just need to pull my finger out and get the website set up, but I’d welcome thoughts on whether this would be useful. If nothing else it could start to build a bank of evidence that staff AND students are being seriously impacted by this.

@TabbyStar

I agree, I’m a survivor of ACE and not long ago suffered a violent attack from a male stranger in the street.
My real experiences of fear and abuse are apparently not really interesting or of concern compared to the ‘feelings’ of the minority.
It pisses me off because it’s distracting from the very real work needed to be done to tackle the very real existence of male violence.
Our young women who are currently being groomed in this ideology, the internalised misogyny that they are eating up in order to be on the ‘right’ side... how many assaults is it going to take before they call the police?
I fear for their futures.

@SkeeterP

A fabulous much needed idea...please get your ginger out

Where do I sign up ?

*finger.

There is no reasoning with zealots. Avoid pursuing any further now that you have a response to your initial email.

If you want, you can get in touch with this new project as they are looking to support free speech issues in schools and universities. Maybe they have some advice, but my view is to keep your head down for now.
freespeechchampions.com/get-advice/

A better course of action would be to try to find like-minded students at your university so you can form a trusted, secret support group / network and slowly build resistance that way. Be very careful who you reveal your views to. You may have to concede that you might find unlikely allies who don't necessarily share your political views i.e. they tend to be on the right, but still understand the value of liberal thought and freedom of expression.

Sign up for the newsletter for the Free Speech Champions project above so you are informed of upcoming events.

I would also recommend all young women at university who frequent this board to sign up to the following blog and try to get in touch with the young feminists behind it.
xxnetwork.co.uk/blog/

If you hadn't sent out that email to your lecturer, I would have suggested that you write an article for the XX blog about your university experience and clearly outline how this lecturer is pushing their politically motivated and ill informed agenda and bringing academia into disrepute.
Don't write any articles now though, as it would only expose you.

Your energy is better spent at the moment finding like-minded feminists and non-feminists who have the same concerns and building an underground network.

I think it's good that you politely challenged it ... but personally I wouldn't try to argue any further with that specific lecturer, as neither of you is likely to change your mind. I'd probably send a short polite reply thanking them for responding.

Whether you want to take it further via another route is up to you ...

Hi all thanks for your support! Am obviously a bit worried now about any fallout from this, but I think I’m tough enough to ride out any raps on the knuckles I might get. I’m in the lucky position of having a friend who is doing the same course as me and luckily shares my viewpoint on this! I sent an email to the head of the course explaining that I felt her references to JKR were unnecessary. So thanks to those who were helpful with what to say! And to all my fellow students who are to scared to speak out, I understand how totally shit it is - higher education seems to have a very totalitarian view of things.

[quote JoodyBlue]@EdgeOfACoin did you hear the one Triggernometry did with Professor Hicks? It was a good analysis of where we are. Pretty chilling though.[/quote]
Hi JoodyBlue, I've watched a lot of Triggernometry but haven't seen that one - I'll check it out.