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!

Well done! I'm also happy to speak up if there's anything on my course, I'm doing it more for personal development, there are few consequences for me. I've only just started so nothing's come up yet, but I'm expecting it will. In other situations I'm quite vulnerable because of family and income but here I might quite enjoy being able to be open...!

I wouldn't email the lecturer directly as it could backfire on you-- I am sure you know what can happen to women who challenge the trans rhetoric. I'd hate for you to be targetted or downgraded.

What I would do is make a complaint about the lecturer through the proper channels and let them deal with it. The lecturer may be more likely to pay attention if it is official, rather than an email from a student

Oh I've just seen you emailed the head of the course-- not sure if that is the same lecturer but well done, I really hope it goes well for you.

Hi OP, if you have not done so already, do forward the email you have received from your lecturer. (Well done for obtaining written evidence, btw.) There is no need for you to nail your colours to the mast - you can simply say that you have not made up your mind about this issue, as new evidence (such as the Keira Bell ruling) is constantly coming out, but you want to be able to think for yourself and not be indoctrinated.

In a way, it's good that this lecturer is a temporary fill-in for someone else because it won't bring up conflicts of loyalties, as in, how do you politely reprimand someone who is on a permanent contract, has worked in your department for ages, has done a lot for the institution and is unlikely to leave.

When I look at my department, I see a number of different camps:

A) the true believers (pronouns in bio, flags on office doors): a minority
B) the dissenters who have too much at stake to say anything, either because they don't have institutional power or because they have built their career on third wave feminism and are stuck now that it has gone off piste
C) the 'what the hell is this shit, I'm going to sit this out and swoop in as the voice of reason when it's all over' camp who are extremely pleased with themselves that they've never worked on gender and happily return to their research on medieval poetry/sociology of migration/food history/nuclear arms control. The bad news for this camp is that a) this isn't going away and b) if you question the existence of human sexual dimorphism you question the root of human existence itself, and this will leave few fields of research untouched.
D) a not insignificant contingent of misogynist and possibly sexually problematic males in their 50s and 60s who are rubbing their hands with glee because those uppity women are finally getting what they deserve.

You need to speak to B and C.

D) a not insignificant contingent of misogynist and possibly sexually problematic males in their 50s and 60s who are rubbing their hands with glee because those uppity women are finally getting what they deserve.

In my experience, the misogynist male academics tend to be in their 30s and 40s. The male professors in their 50s and 60s in my department are fully gender critical and not shy about saying so.

@GCAcademic

D) a not insignificant contingent of misogynist and possibly sexually problematic males in their 50s and 60s who are rubbing their hands with glee because those uppity women are finally getting what they deserve.

In my experience, the misogynist male academics tend to be in their 30s and 40s. The male professors in their 50s and 60s in my department are fully gender critical and not shy about saying so.

Yes I agree with this. Those in 50/60s are late boomer, early Gen X and so would have had their grounding in the 80/90s which was a time when 2nd wave feminism gained a lot of ground and the men were more supportive. For example, my DH who is 55 was for most of his 20s a volunteer to protect women going to abortion clinics. He’s had bottles smashed on his head, been punched and kicked. (He is Chinese American).

@GCAcademic

D) a not insignificant contingent of misogynist and possibly sexually problematic males in their 50s and 60s who are rubbing their hands with glee because those uppity women are finally getting what they deserve.

In my experience, the misogynist male academics tend to be in their 30s and 40s. The male professors in their 50s and 60s in my department are fully gender critical and not shy about saying so.

Completely agree - there's now a weird alliance amongst the older cohort - some are pretty old school conservatives and have never given much thought to women's rights, some are feminists, some are very left wing. This lot have never considered themselves allies. However, they are all now totally agreed on two points: that humans are a sexually dimorphic species AND that transgender ideology is worryingly totalitarian. In fact, this pretty much sums up the staff in views of my department (humanities subject, not gender studies) of all ages, with the exception of the A)s - the true believers, who are mostly young (but not all the young) and mostly female (but not all) - about six or seven people in a staff of nearly forty.

I am appalled by the lecturer's original statement and response. This isn't education - it's indoctrination.

By all means speak out and complain to the department. Marking should be anonymous and second marked. There should also be clear criteria for how a mark is achieved - if there isn't, ask why there isn't.

Apologies to all the 50/60 year olds who I have inadvertently offended. I’ll just never forget the malicious smile on the face of one of them when he coaxed a young female lecturer into going on a rant about these evil terfs ... he was loving every second of it.

@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.

Just wanted to reply to this. This is insane! And it shows how the new way of thinking works against the feminist project. Would a male student have been given the chance to say that about his sex being talked about negatively? No, because everyone can see that we do need to be able to talk about male violence in those terms.

I really hope you use your anonymous feedback to set out why this was so counterproductive to the course.

This will happen if we allow it to happen. If it is not challenged then we have no hope.

OP if your friend could use her anonymous feedback to say something too I'm sure that would be helpful.

The worrying thing is that the young lecturer has taken her own opinion on this controversial issue to be 'the true opinion' and is putting that forward as a fact. It is worrying whatever the politics. She is entitled to her opinion, but I wonder if she has even properly encountered the alternatives? Really in these situations lecturers should acknowledge that other people hold different views on this, like they do if there is ever a discussion about religious faith. Replying with a blog by mermaids (I think they put out an article on why jkr was wrong/transphobic that was assertions and no real substance so I'm guessing it was that) suggests lack of own thought. It's so counter to the skills you would expect an academic to have. View all the evidence, assess it, compare it, try & understand the context and different perspectives....

I hope you get a positive reply from the course head. You have established for them that some students at least are not board with this approach.

There needs to be a network for students who feel the way you do OP.

She is entitled to her opinion, but I wonder if she has even properly encountered the alternatives? Really in these situations lecturers should acknowledge that other people hold different views on this

From what I see on Twitter, there are a lot of early career academics who block anyone who doesn't hold identical views to them. They behave tribally and seem to live in genuine oblivion that their views are not shared by 99% of academics and even the wider public. The stunned incredulity at the outcome of the 2019 general election was a sight to behold.

OP I have only read your posts

Just in case it's of interest, this has been set up

freespeechchampions.com/

@GCAcademic

She is entitled to her opinion, but I wonder if she has even properly encountered the alternatives? Really in these situations lecturers should acknowledge that other people hold different views on this

From what I see on Twitter, there are a lot of early career academics who block anyone who doesn't hold identical views to them. They behave tribally and seem to live in genuine oblivion that their views are not shared by 99% of academics and even the wider public. The stunned incredulity at the outcome of the 2019 general election was a sight to behold.

Yes. And Brexit.

@Manderleyagain

There needs to be a network for students who feel the way you do OP.

Sorry, I was too brief

This is what this link is about

freespeechchampions.com/

Must be terrible to work or study at a uni at the moment.

@Manderleyagain

If your only takeaway from a module that focuses on violence and particularly violence against women.....is that it’s upsetting because it makes men look bad, then wtf is the point of the module?

Students are scared, they know instinctively what the ‘correct’ responses are and no deviation will be accepted.

I am a lecturer and had this come up in class. A few students started on how JKR is a transphobic, one called her a bitch.
I shut this down immediately - you will not speak about women like that in class, regardless of how you may interpret their views on anything. It was only a few of them, the rest didn't join in.
Discussed it informally with HoD who agreed it is unacceptable and will act if there is anything further.

My specialism is gender related so I can't avoid this topic and until this year have had no problems - amazingly, this is the first time I've had students take this position. The vast majority of academics across multiple disciplines I know are GC. We talk about it all the time, just not in front of people with pronouns.

My advice - also speak to your personal tutor and say that this made you very uncomfortable knowing that you cannot discuss class material freely because of the bias of the lecturer and when you asked for clarification they responded by referring you to a pressure group rather than an academic source. They should support and advise you on how to deal with it regardless of what they think personally.

Most importantly - write this in the module feedback, internal student surveys and even more importantly in the NSS. This will get listened to and acted upon as NSS scores / comments are all they care about.

I believe the NSS is only for final year students but module evaluation and emails to personal tutors & management are way to go.

Kung - I don’t now how long you’ve been teaching but I’ve been through a fair bit of HE and only once have I seen a lecturer and student get into a heated ‘discussion’ (this was him trying to push her in her work but she ended up waking out and leaving as she refused to develop her work - it was an art degree).

Has it got more like the students think they know more than the lecturer? If I was in a class like that I’d tell the mouthy students to belt up and pick it up outside the class (as I wasn’t paying to listen to them blether on).

The vast majority of academics across multiple disciplines I know are GC. We talk about it all the time, just not in front of people with pronouns.

Quite so - I really do think this is true. There's been so much going on recently that nobody working in a university nowadays doesn't have some kind grasp of what's going on, and despite how academia may appear on Twitter the majority academics are pretty well educated and don't believe the 'new science' that says sex is a spectrum.

In fact, the pronouns are quite useful in this respect. The believers have all put their pronouns in their signatures - as I say around six or seven out of forty in my department. The rest of us aren't just oblivious, or haven't noticed, or haven't thought about it - most of us have, and we're consciously not putting in pronouns because we don't believe it helps anyone. In fact, I recently updated by email signature to make it look very recent and modern (I hadn't changed it for about seven years before and it was obviously dated), and I've changed the settings so that it gets included in every single email I send. It's not foolproof of course - but by and large, the non-use of pronouns by an academic in Feb 2020 does signify something.

It's Feb 2021 - but yes, totally agree!

@Daca

It's Feb 2021 - but yes, totally agree!

Ha ha! Academic struggling with the actual real world - no stereotype playing out there!

Has it got more like the students think they know more than the lecturer?

There was a time, not than long ago, when students went to university to broaden their minds. However, a toxic blend of consumerism and identity politics has turned universities into a vehicle for the self-validation of privileged middle-class students and junior academics. I have actually heard students say that that they came to university to explore their identity. The idea that the curriculum in the humanities should be revised as it doesn't reflect MEEEE is pervasive. One of the valuable things about an English literature degree is that it can foster empathy and expand our world view. Now there is pressure to only include material that students can identify with and that reflects their "lived experience" and political viewpoint. It's sickeningly narcissistic and, although this all takes place under the guise of "inclusivity", the reality is that all it does is entrench middle-class privilege. Senior managers go along with it because, well, marketing . . .