Campaign of bullying and intimidation at Sussex University vs Professor Kathleen Stock

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

Absolute disgrace. Posters on campus calling for her to be sacked. Academic colleague tweeting that he agrees with this. twitter.com/FrancescoFv37/status/1445727937660076032?t=-Di7mRf5sznFvvzww8UI2w&s=19 I saw a tweet saying there was a burning in effigy. Can't confirm this but nothing would surprise me now. Time for Sussex staff, students and alumni to put their heads over the parapet.

Julie Bindel’s book is being kept in the stick room at Waterstone’s, too.

Aren't all Waterstones stores different? Have Bindel and Stock visited every store to check if their books are on display? What's the sample size for this?

Are the books by them new releases or best sellers? If not then why are they so upset their books aren't on display? Waterstones must stock thousands and thousands of books so naturally they would display the ones of most interest to the public to make sales (you may not like how this works, but that's capitalism for you I'm afraid).

Margarita Pie's posts are always notable for how they always miss the point. It's remarkable.

@MargaritaPie

Aren't all Waterstones stores different? Have Bindel and Stock visited every store to check if their books are on display? What's the sample size for this?

Are the books by them new releases or best sellers? If not then why are they so upset their books aren't on display? Waterstones must stock thousands and thousands of books so naturally they would display the ones of most interest to the public to make sales (you may not like how this works, but that's capitalism for you I'm afraid).

I have personally visited every Waterstones bookshop (not 'store') in my region and was told I would have to put in an order and they would be kept for me under the counter, despite the Waterstones staff acknowledging their popularity.

I said in each bookshop that I wished to purchase books by taking them from shelves, looking at them, and choosing to buy them, as I have always done.

Margarita Pie's posts are always notable for how they always miss the point. It's remarkable.

And avoid any awkward questions or inconvenient points.

LiteralVioletz. So books about feminist politics are now sold furtively from under the counter, like pornographers used to be, while pornography is proudly displayed.

And I remember when Rushdie’s Satanic Verses was sub-counter, too.

How times have changed.

Julie Bindel visited numerous shops in a row and found the same thing. I wouldn’t expect these books to take centre display table, esp in BHM (and , incidentally, equally niche/ academically orientated serious books about black / race politics are prominently displayed). But not even to be in the stacks of a shop like Waterstones?

Is it censorship in kind by staff? Or fear, backed up by the police and insurance companies thinking protestors are potentially violent?

We know from the Birmingham Rep Bhezti debacle that the police will not protect democratic rights to free expression.

I'm also sad to see it's not on sale in the Brighton Feminist Bookshop: thefeministbookshop.com/collections/feminist-thought

[quote brainegg]I'm also sad to see it's not on sale in the Brighton Feminist Bookshop: thefeministbookshop.com/collections/feminist-thought[/quote]
So it’s OK to sell books that critique white feminism (which of course it is) but not books that critique gender ideology based feminism?

This is another nail in the coffin of retail booksellers who increasingly act as if they only want to sell just fifty-odd titles by celebrity authors at any given time.

This might deserve a thread on its own:

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/71ade59c-2dca-11ec-a1c0-649c1183346f?shareToken=250301ba5193d720d1d5c174bbbd1097

It was Waterstones where the assistant was frosty with me when I ordered the book. I wondered what she was reading as she took the order.

@foxgoosefinch

She’s on their website as a trustee. What’s the big deal? 🤷‍♀️ A registered charity will be quite open and transparent about who is a trustee, it’s public information.

I’m a charity trustee myself - it involves quite a lot of training in governance obligations and legal responsibility, and what the role involves is very regulated and public. I don’t quite know why you’re making a strange issue out of it at all, Margarita.

I'd expect LGB Alliance to be transparent because that's one of their trademark characteristics. IIRC both Stonewall and Mermaids have occasionally used some provision of charity law to have trustees whose names are not publicly released. I was surprised by this.

Nolan Radio show on 5 Live is on at the moment. It's being hosted by someone else and they are discussing the death of David Amess.

Sir Peter Bottomley, Father of The House, has just been on, and as part of the discussion, mentioned the attacks on Kathleen Stock. He said he had read all of 'Trans' last night and was eager to defend her against her critics.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/live:bbc_radio_five_live
(approx 24 minutes in)

@Yepnothatfeeling

Shame on Instagram for allowing this bullying account to remain live.

Let it stay up. Let the world see the scope of the bullying. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

@FlyingOink

I though overseas students were where the big bucks were, anyway? Are Chinese students more or less likely to attend a university that protects free speech?

More likely. We have a lot of students from Hong Kong and Taiwan who, for some reason, have a strong dislike for being told what to think.

Tangentially-related: I wonder if Sussex offer distance learning on their part-time MAs?

@Jaysmith71

So far as I can work it out, the argument seems to be that someone in a Stock lecture, or walking past an open window, (covid rules,) where one is taking place may hear her say Transwomen are not really women, and will be so upset by this they will go off and kill themselves.

I get addressed as "sir" and otherwise missexed quite often. If it made me suicidal, I'd get therapy. As it is, I recognise that some people aren't good at sexing people by face and my height and clothing will confuse them. I even recognise a benefit to this: if I'm read as a man upon cursory inspection, I should get less sexual harassment in public places.

It's not for the rest of the world to lie about their perceptions of me in order to spare my feelings.

I have to say, living in the place I do, I ended up buying Helen Joyce's book from Amazon because I was too embarrassed to order it face to face. I would buy Shon Faye's book physically (waiting for the paperback). I'm aware that i live in a GC bubble and that my views are minority ones - I don't mean the view that sex exists, but the view that these issues have much importance- to most people it's a storm in a teacup and on a par with women wanting to be called Ms.

My cousin, whose daughter aged 18 has suddenly announced that he's trans and is saving for mastectomy, looks completely blindsided by the whole thing - well, who wouldn't, but the idea that this particular form of self harm would rear itself in his daughter's life would have seemed completely outlandish a few years ago.

That's encouraging Bore.

I wonder if the student protest will be going ahead today?

It will be scrutinised.

In a way I wish they would just be ignored. But I'm sure the press will be there.

We have a lot of students from Hong Kong and Taiwan who, for some reason, have a strong dislike for being told what to think.

But mainland Chinese students have been known to film such students and even physically attack them for expressing anti-PRC views.

They also demand that maps be taken down if they do not falsley show Taiwan is a part of the PRC.

Yes, we have had real issues at my university with threatening behaviour from Chinese students towards students from Hong Kong. They also all turned up en masse to a Students Union meeting and voted down a motion on protecting free speech for students from HK. I worry about where this is going, as many Universities are utterly dependent upon China now for their financial viability.

Found this directed to The Times re the publication of Debbie Hayton's letter.

In response to 16 GC trans people that stated were representative of the trans community, 130 trans people wrote a letter as a right of reply. They have ignored it. Is this right? Please RT!!
@MhairiBlack @DavidLammy @TaiwoOwatemi @OwenJones84 @NadiaWhittomeMP

twitter.com/LucieWestenra/status/1449115109268365313?s=20

Another article about this in todays Guardian.
www.theguardian.com/education/2021/oct/16/campus-in-the-spotlight-how-sussex-became-focus-of-row-over-trans-rights

I wonder if the letter hasn't been published because it's factually incorrect.