The economist - backlash against gender ideology begins in universities

[Theeyeballsinthesky]

I wasn’t sure if this had been posted already <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.is/2021.06.03-195419/www.economist.com/international/2021/06/05/a-backlash-against-gender-ideology-is-starting-in-universities" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">archive.is/2021.06.03-195419/www.economist.com/international/2021/06/05/a-backlash-against-gender-ideology-is-starting-in-universities

That is a great piece. Really balanced and clearly states the dangers to freedom of speech on campus.

Thank you so much for highlighting this piece, Theeyeballsinthesky.

I'm going to forward it to someone very close to me who works in the HE sector, but is wary of making their GC position known for fear of threats to their job. Sadly, in their institution it seems to be the female academics who mainly support this ideology.

Does that apply to female academics across the age range?

I watched an interesting discussion about the demographics of social justice beliefs and while it's true that adherence seems to peak in late teens/early 20s, apparently the adherence is noticeably stronger for females than it is for males.

Great article Op. So much good stuff around. What a great week it's been 🍾🍾🍾 (hope it lasts)

One of DS's tutors told a student to "keep that nonsense out of my classes!" during a tutorial.
A lot of the students find it tiresome that the gobby minority keep trying to disrupt their work. It's been hard enough for them this year.

@Tanith

One of DS's tutors told a student to "keep that nonsense out of my classes!" during a tutorial. A lot of the students find it tiresome that the gobby minority keep trying to disrupt their work. It's been hard enough for them this year.

Yes, I agree. I think the backlash is definitely starting. I've recently joined a few committees staffed by senior academics (heads of depts, etc), and there is palpable concern about academic freedom issues, and a desire to start taking a firmer stance on this in their departments. Our students, meanwhile, seem to hate the students' union (it gets very low satisfaction scores on various surveys) and want them to focus on issues directly affecting their education and finances rather than woke politics.

Huzzah! Keep pulling, everyone.

Ms Jo Phoenix.... that should be professor Jo Phoenix.

Great article about the free speech issue but saddened by the everyday misogyny of getting her title wrong

An excellent article

Truly superb and worth reading.

DS stays away from the student union and mutters darkly about the "blue hairs" and "rainbow people" he has no issues with LGBT+ people but he doesn't like being dictated to and he definitely knows the difference between men and women.

The course he's doing he's learning to read between the lines and know when he's being sold a lie and he's becoming very cynical about it all.

@nauticant

Does that apply to female academics across the age range?

I watched an interesting discussion about the demographics of social justice beliefs and while it's true that adherence seems to peak in late teens/early 20s, apparently the adherence is noticeably stronger for females than it is for males.

That's my observation anecdotally. In terms of sheer numbers, the people demanding capitulation to this stuff tend to be female dominated. The most aggressive ones are men, with threats and such, but they are fewer.

It seems a little inexplicable when you look in terms of women's issues but it seems to be across the board, really.

Holly’s website is about men in women’s spaces. It is not trans specific. They did get that wrong.

A good piece. Feel nit-picky to say that using 'trans women' throughout is indicative of the scale of the problem, but otherwise nailed it.

^Prof Biggs, an associate professor of sociology at St Cross College, said the university "should not submit to an unelected organisation which campaigns for a particular political agenda, which provides misleading information of the law".

He said that whilst "universities have escaped judicial challenge until now", an independent report for the University of Essex, which found Stonewall had misrepresented the law, should provide a warning.

Citing the Education Act, which protects free speech, and the Equality Act, Prof Biggs said: "Submission to Stonewall is not compatible with the university's obligation to uphold the law".^

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/07/exclusive-universities-begin-leaving-stonewall-diversity-scheme/

@TheWeeDonkey

DS stays away from the student union and mutters darkly about the "blue hairs" and "rainbow people" he has no issues with LGBT+ people but he doesn't like being dictated to and he definitely knows the difference between men and women.

The course he's doing he's learning to read between the lines and know when he's being sold a lie and he's becoming very cynical about it all.

This reminds me a bit of the Manchester students who challenged free market capitalism orthodoxy as it was the only model being taught at their university (and most others) at the time. I imagine it makes critical and curious students really cynical when they are being taught only one (flawed) model and not encouraged to research freely and ask questions. A disservice to our young people surely.

I haven’t read it but great to hear

apparently the adherence is noticeably stronger for females than it is for males.

I dislike much of Taubes' recent work (reasons) but he wrote an NYT piece years ago with an excellent section on the 'bias of compliance' with a fine discussion of 'healthy user bias.' It is a very satisfying narrative account of why some people always do better than others in studies, irrespective of which arm in the trial to which they're allocated (and, general, I'd expect a disproportionate number to be women in default of any plausible mechanism of harm).

www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/magazine/16epidemiology-t.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Women adhere to rules by and large, even when this harms them. When men make edicts such as cutting someone out of a family, it's women who police and enforce that edict. One example of this was Edwina Currie who wasn't able to meet up with her mother until after her father's death because of such a declaration.

One shocking phrase that has stuck with me for decades is, "It's bad enough to be assaulted by the patriarchy - it's even worse when it's your own sisters who are holding down your arms and legs." I see a variation of this all the time with the relentness injunctions to women to "be kind and cede your human rights," the "at the cost of your own safety and liberty and the safeguarding of children" is always silent.

The Economist has been very balanced (*sticking with actual biological truth) on trans issues for a while now. Pleasing.

One shocking phrase that has stuck with me for decades is, "It's bad enough to be assaulted by the patriarchy - it's even worse when it's your own sisters who are holding down your arms and legs."
@EmbarrassingAdmissions this is one thing I struggle with too, I remember young women in the '80s/'90s in positions of management that would had been closed to them a decade before, absolutely refusing to acknowledge the work of women before them in opening the doors and being very anti-feminist.

It is so sad that a fair number of people throwing women under the bus are women themselves.

Though your post did help explain why it happens.

Great article. I was childishly thrilled to discover the word 'dispositive', which for some reason I haven't encountered before. Useful to have a one-word term for the Alice-in-Wonderland claim that one's belief in something is criterial for the truth of that belief.

I read the Economist regularly and they produce balanced, sensible pieces on trans issues pretty often, including pieces on women’s sport etc. I assumed they haven’t been piled on as so many TRAs are too dim to read a proper journal

^A former rector of Edinburgh University has said that she feared for her own safety on campus after students falsely accused her of transphobia.

Ann Henderson, whose three-year term as rector ended in February, said she was subjected to a sustained campaign of abuse and attempts to silence her after she called for a reasoned debate on gender recognition reforms^

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/rector-at-edinburgh-university-feared-for-her-safety-in-trans-row-sr9vr3z99