University staff given list of banned 'microinsults' they cannot say to trans people

[ChristinaXYZ]

From the Telegraph. the last para make you want to weep -

A Newcastle University spokesman said: "We want our campus to be a welcoming and safe place for everyone who studies, works or visits here, regardless of gender, race, class, age or disability."

But it would seem they are not bothered about making people feel welcome regardless of sex, as they don't even mention it.

I notice that on the FOI campaign to find out about the relationship between various institutions (including Universities) and Stonewall, that the respondents have repeatedly used the 'commencial interest loophole to avoid answering.

@NiceGerbil

Oh and has anyone got anything about them banning Newton?

The Newton is an SI unit how on earth are they going to change the name or ban it? Really need to see a link or something about this!

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/24/isaac-newton-latest-historical-figure-swept-decolonisation-drive/

@CorvusPurpureus

For example:

I did the sort of degree that was dominated by Posh Boys. Perfectly nice chaps in class.

However, if I spotted them in the Union Bar, I'd give them a cheery 'hi Hugo & Teddy & Nigel!' wave & go & sit with my other friends.

Because by pint #5 they'd be beerily & competitively hitting on me, by pint #7 we'd be furiously arguing about whether hunting should be banned, & by pint #9 Nigel would generally have his pants down & be trying to start a 'who can ram the most small change under his foreskin' challenge.

So, y'know, I avoided them socially. Whilst quite happy to thrash out the finer points of Thucydides with them in a seminar.

Avoidant behaviour is human behaviour.

I had the misfortune to work for "Nigel" in my early 20s - he was still doing that party trick in his 40s when supposedly a professional 🤢

I would say 'Not My Nigel!' but he married a mate of mine in the end, & I gather he's not evolved much...

The thing is, I avoided these guys out of class because they were dickheads when in drink, & we certainly weren't going to agree on much politically.

I worked & studied with them on a completely amicable basis. I just didn't want to join in with their hooray henrying.

It's chilling to think that 'avoiding socialising with people you think are bad company, for whatever stated or unstated reason' could be a situation a university thinks it could or should police.

You know who's a professor of genderwoo at Sheffield, don't you...?

@CorvusPurpureus

For example:

I did the sort of degree that was dominated by Posh Boys. Perfectly nice chaps in class.

However, if I spotted them in the Union Bar, I'd give them a cheery 'hi Hugo & Teddy & Nigel!' wave & go & sit with my other friends.

Because by pint #5 they'd be beerily & competitively hitting on me, by pint #7 we'd be furiously arguing about whether hunting should be banned, & by pint #9 Nigel would generally have his pants down & be trying to start a 'who can ram the most small change under his foreskin' challenge.

So, y'know, I avoided them socially. Whilst quite happy to thrash out the finer points of Thucydides with them in a seminar.

Avoidant behaviour is human behaviour.

Oh dear God you've just described my first degree experience to an absolute point! I think I had the misfortune to encounter a lot of Nigels, and a lot of random philosophers.

Did your Nigel have the real life initials AJ or are there (as I fear) more than one of them?

Absolutely, since when should anyone be compelled to spend time with anyone else?

This is about an American university.

Would her efforts to avoid the situation be deemed a microaggression?

For the past 8 months my college has been allowing men to just use the women's shower whenever they feel like it, which forces me to wait until almost 1.30-2.00am to avoid them, or use my friend's private room almost on the other end of campus. Most of the time the men aren't even using the restroom, they are just in there "hanging out what's the big deal I'm gender neutral I swear". I've repeatedly complained to community living and title IX but all that happened is I was required to meet with the equal opportunity advisor about how I should be more inclusive. I can't do it anymore and I'm actively pursuing how to live off campus next year as a sophmore, but I'm afraid I won't be able to.

www.noconflicttheysaid.org/post/men-in-the-women-s-showers-on-campus

@ThroughTheBarsOfARhyme

as he was trained to spot perimenopausal women

Um why would you need to do this?! I can’t help hearing David Attenborough - and there goes Irma, she’s opened a window, she’s probably feeling hot. Here Irma is pulling out yet another KitKat, this is absolutely characteristic and she’s just muttered the cry of the perimenopausal woman - “Christ I need the loo again.”

I appreciate women may need support but is this the best way?

Round them up and tag them. Hold them back with one of those long poles just in case they get tetchy, pray them with water to cool them off.

(I appreciate the thread will have moved on considerably but this post made me laugh so much, I just wanted to show my appreciation to ThroughTheBars...

You know who's a professor of genderwoo at Sheffield, don't you...?

Good point!

She's been quite quiet lately, to be fair. Friday night Twitter has missed her.

And now it's in the Mail

Thanks Pankhurst

@Ereshkigalangcleg

You know who's a professor of genderwoo at Sheffield, don't you...?

Good point!

I have an inkling I know who you mean.

'The plans form part of the engineering faculty’s efforts to “challenge long-standing conscious and unconscious biases” among students to tackle “Eurocentric” and “white saviour” approaches to science and maths, and promote “inclusive design”.

A leaked copy of the “draft inclusive curriculum development” plan at the Russell Group institution says that “much important engineering content and curriculum resources is based on maths developed in the 18/19th century."'

My thoughts.

1. The fact that those are the theories and mathematical proofs etc that you study are because they were the ones who were able to publish them etc. I'm not sure what can be done about that? Certainly there's a point that these things could have been thought of etc by others who didn't have a platform to publish them, or maybe a widely shared maths notation to work within or share. Where does that leave us though?
2. Science generally is interested in discoveries, experiments, proofs etc. It's true that scientists have biases of course. But in the end you don't get people saying they won't teach curie because she was a woman, for example.
3. Science consumes research from all sorts of past dodgy stuff. Components of cosmetics that were tested on animals are still widely used - against animal testing means they aren't doing it on new stuff generally, not that they won't touch any of it.

The research the Nazis did has been used all over the place www.bbc.com/future/article/20190723-the-ethics-of-using-nazi-science. I'm not sure how you roll that back? And.. If I dunno. Pick your horrible dictator of choice. If they find a cure for cancer, through unethical horrible means, should the world turn their back on it (assuming they can do it themselves and not have to pay for anything). We're into ethics/ philosophy zone now I think!

1. Women have famously been excluded, ignored, had research nicked etc etc. Mary anning as an example. The fact that the scientists you tend to learn about are wealthy white men from Europe in that period of time overlooks all the other sorts of people who didn't have the means/ background/ any way to get their work noticed or taken seriously.
2. When you're learning physics ( and I assume engineering) then you're looking to understand the theories, concepts, material properties, experimental results, proofs etc that are used today. So you speak the same language (notation etc) as everyone else. If not you end up with the time NASA lost a Mars rover because some was using metric units and some 'English' units... solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/mars-climate-orbiter/in-depth/#:~:text=NASA's%20Mars%20Climate%20Orbiter%20was,translate%20English%20units%20to%20metric
3. History of science is fascinating and absolutely should cover everything from the ancient world onwards

In short. Eh? I wonder what they actually did in the end.

The Times has picked it up:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/fb6c1264-ab7e-11eb-bda6-057976012425?shareToken=724b8a01c1fa34fd8ab12cf543b59252

Has the actual guidance been shared anywhere?

Comments are interesting.

@334bu

Comments are interesting.

They are indeed.

(As an aside have they changed their moderation system again? There are a lot of comments there that I wouldn't have expected to get through their fancy new AI)

I had a warning that comments with external links are less likely to get through, so I’ve started just mentioning other sites if I need to instead.

The last paragraph of the Times article was a let-down (a different issue) but on the whole, it is great that this is getting some fresh air.

Amazingly it is possible to comment on the Times article and for the comment to appear straightaway! I haven’t experienced this before on an article on this topic in the Times.

I am absolutely astounded that a poster has aggressively been arguing the legimacy of rape statistics at universities.

And that one argument was ‘more likely to be raped at home’... yet campuses ARE home to so many students. And there is a likelihood it is happening at parties, during dates, or whatever. And it likely that some of these rapes are also completely random somewhere on campus .

So, you didn’t know anyone who was raped at uni? So what? That means rape at Uni doesn’t happen? Or does it also mean nobody talked to you about it. Or wanted to talk to you about it?

However Hell I respect their right to put that argument. This is the whole point for me - I want the freedom of speech, even for lecturers with views I dislike or think are wrong to be able to express them. So stopping the statistics would break my principle (would be cancel culture) so would stopping the person wanting to argue they should not be published, so would stopping a lecturer arguing male (or female) brains are better than the other sex etc.

I am not surprised by the content of this policy. This was, after all, the university that had a page up with a list of things that described transphobia. And when people queried it, the whole thing was downplayed and denied.

Of course, that list included the very act of believing there was any potential or proven conflicts between the rights of females and trans rights amongst other debate silencing tactics.

That a policy about micro aggressions also exists is no surprise. That far down the pages it includes bringing up women’s needs as being problematic and should be banned is even less so.