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.

Staff are already urged to wear special purple white and green lanyards as a visible sign that they are safe for women.
Wtf?

Looks like I forgot to put a wink emoji on that last post of mine.

Excessively dry humour.

Does go to show though, doesn't it.

Men wearing a "safe for women" badge would be terrifying.

People wearing a "safe for trans" badge makes them go "yay!"

What does that reveal?

Meanwhile all the academics I follow on twitter seem to be on the edge of a breakdown with whole departments being closed, research money disappearing, grappling with on line teaching, marking, publishing papers, pastoral care

At a time when Government has made it clear it has universities in its sight over “culture wars” are they trying to make it easy for them?

@Hazel444

"Being cisgender comes with social privilege. That's even for people who are socially disadvantaged in other ways."

What the actual fuck? Why are they trying to position trans people as worse off than those generationally affected by systemic racism/ethnic cleansing etc.? Why this incessant need for victimhood? And not just any victimhood, but the most victimy victimhood that there ever was..

Because there are people who want to be 'victims' because if you're a 'victim' everything is always someone else's fault. You don't have to adult. You never ever have to be responsible for anything and all the focus is on you.

This isn't just a TRA thing. I just know a couple of people who have this MO. They've lived their whole lives like it and in many ways it's paid off for them.

@NecessaryScene1

Looks like I forgot to put a wink emoji on that last post of mine.

Excessively dry humour.

Christ Jesus, you had me going there...

They'll be writing "Jo and the Amazing Technicolour Dream Lanyard" before we know where we are

How dare they 😡 so women can't talk about their experiences about their periods, or how they may have identified as a male in childhood. (As I did for some years) I work in a university. I would not be adhering to that.

God, this is depressing. I have a DC likely to go to uni next year and I hate to think of them having to accept this rubbish. Since when did lanyards keep people safe?

Are there any universities challenging this wrong think?

Staff are already urged to wear special purple white and green lanyards as a visible sign that they are safe for women

I would not feel comfortable with someone who felt the need to actively signal that.

Ha Ha! I thought Necessary’s name had been hijacked by the dark side!

Are there any universities challenging this wrong think?

Well it does seem to go against the free speech in universities which is underway. It sounds like it won't be legal. It's one thing to be polite to people. It's another thing to be forced to be silent about their own experiences.

@Chrestomanci3

Other "microinsults" in Edinburgh’s guidance include saying "you’re either man or a woman", "you’re just dressing for effect" or uttering "you’re just trying to be special". Another is engaging in "avoidant behaviour" around trans people.

So, if a woman leaves the women's toilets because a trans woman has just entered and the woman feel uncomfortable, they are engaging in a microagression towards the trans woman?

Certainly looks that way 😕

@MissBarbary

Edinburgh University has drawn up phrases that staff cannot use, including saying "all women hate their periods" and "all people think about being the opposite gender sometimes"

In my own case both of those statements are untrue so I would not be particularly pleased at hearing them being put forward as a universal truth.

People say a lot of things I don't agree with. I don't think they should be banned from saying them though.

@vivariumvivariumsvivaria

Surely this is all totally counterproductive?

My behaviour towards trans people has changed because of this sort of nonsense. I don't want to say something that is clumsy, even if it is well meaning, and get accused of committing a hate crime. There is a trans person I know who is "trying out" names - so they are on about the 5th name, it is very difficult to remember which of the names are now dead names and I am cautious about getting it wrong and landing up on the receiving end of an upset rainbow.

So, I avoid that person now.

It is totally counterproductive to try and police people's behaviour and communication in this way. Adults should be able to manage people saying things which are a bit less than ideal. Christ knows I manage it every day.

But avoiding them will now be a 'micro aggression' It's almost beyond parody

I'd feel the same about any man wearing what is essentially a "women, you can trust me" badge.

That would make me feel deeply uncomfortable on so many levels

What about scholars in medical fields such as midwifery? How are they supposed to work without focusing on anatomy?

Theres a rich vein of humour to be mined in this, apart from the awfulness, but I imagine stand up comedians will end up being carted away to police cells if they try to include it in their material.

But avoiding them will now be a 'micro aggression'

Thinking on from this, what about people like Gregor who, I believe, are transgender. If someone entered the women's toilets who presented in a similar way, all my instincts would tell me to leave immediately. It would be a natural response. So if I did that, it would be perceived as a micro aggression.

As someone who has experienced sexual assault (from men) this position leaves me with no means to protect myself from a perceived risk through leaving, if I was to adhere to this guidance.

I've just realised another "avoidant behaviour" would be. A woman walks into the Ladies, clocks a transwoman there, and turns on her heel and leaves.

Time for the bad woman to get a warning. Next time she must grit her teeth and go into the occupied space.

YY. See this thread www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3520371-civil-service-trans-policy-what-can-i-do

What this boils down to is that a simple refusal to discuss it isn't good enough for the fundamentalists. If you speak against The Ideology you'll be deplatformed, if you say nothing (i.e. refuse to engage with the pronoun bollocks or strut around wearing pretty rainbows) you'll be outed as a Non Believer and the same rules as above will apply. The only - default - option is to accept every word of it and go along with what they say. You're either with them, or you're against them.

As for:

In a crackdown on 'cancel culture', ministers are planning a new law under which academics could sue if they are silenced. A Free Speech Champion will be appointed to the Office for Students, the regulator.

You want to hear UCU on that particular subject.

Where, in all this, is the emphasis on academic standards: on designing materials and teaching your subject specialism to the highest possible level? I'm not interested in diluting my precious lecture time this with all this navel-gazing, self-involved, aggressive, reactionary 'identity' politics.

Budge over little women - do as the men tell you. As recently as 2000 my wonderful feminist academic mentors would have laughed it the very idea, believing it to be now stuck in the past alongside the dinosaurs and the flood.

Academia is fucked.

Maybe rather than focusing on micro-aggressions such as saying that all women hate their periods, they should first address macro-aggressions such as physically assaulting or threatening to rape people who disagree with you?

You would think, wouldn't you?

https://www.scotsman.com/news/scottish-news/feminist-speaker-julie-bindel-attacked-transgender-person-edinburgh-university-after-talk-545841

www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2019/whats-a-little-throat-punch-among-friends/