Academic Freedom, Harassment and GC academics - ask me any questions

[ProfJoPhoenix]

Hi Mumsnetters

Jo Phoenix here - as in the academic cancelled by Essex and harassed by colleagues at the OU. I decided to join mumsnet because I know that several women here are supportive of what it is that we (GC academics) are going through and dealing with. I thought I would start a thread - a sort of ask me any question thread. I'll be making an announcement on twitter (@JoPhoenix1) on Sunday morning that you might find interesting. What's happened to Kathleen Stock has left all of us reeling and I am going to do something that, I hope, will help. Watch this space.

Does anyone have a share token for the letter linked to in the article?

We will not bow to trans activist bullies on campus

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6b143b4-2cf1-11ec-98f2-b73d74f1f44d?shareToken=f6056c926bae52581553540172c9eb59

Here sharetoken for the letter:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/d6b143b4-2cf1-11ec-98f2-b73d74f1f44d?shareToken=494685431e2eb7faf2dc741864bf2d84

Support Jo and thank you all brave women mentioned in the article and countless others - also support to those silenced.

Why do transactivists focus their hatred on gc women when the physical violence they face doesn’t generally come from women?

@LessthanJurassicPark

Why do transactivists focus their hatred on gc women when the physical violence they face doesn’t generally come from women?

Because being intellectually threatened (see reports from the Sussex University Open Day masked protest yesterday - this is apparently Professor Stock's crime, that she's 'intellectually threatening' ) is just as bad, nay worse actually, than being threatened with physical violence. Nobody on the receiving end of one of those memes where an anime character points a gun towards the reader should find this a problem as it's obviously a rhetorical device. See also: gender critical people create a climate where violence against trans people can flourish. Quite how is never explained.

@LessthanJurassicPark

Why do transactivists focus their hatred on gc women when the physical violence they face doesn’t generally come from women?

Because it is women that are in their way.

It’s misleading of Dr. Tam Blaxter to use Dr. Blaxter’s Cambridge credentials in Dr. Blaxter’s letter to the Times when asserting that “ Stock’s view of sex as immutable and binary is regressive and discriminatory — and at odds with science.”

Dr. Blaxter is not a Biologist; Dr. Blaxter is a research fellow in the Language Sciences department. Dr. Blaxter is deliberately using Dr. Baxter’s Cambridge connection to pretend an expertise Dr. Blaxter does not have.

I prefer Professor Robert Winston’s statements of fact. He at least knows what he’s talking about and he has the expertise to back up his opinion.

Because it is women that are in their way.

Absolutely. Here's Helen Joyce writing about that - an extract from Trans published in Quillette.

In Galileo’s Middle Finger, Dreger offers another insight: since autogynephilia involves a fantasy of truly becoming, or already being, a woman, any reference to it can be experienced as an insult. “There’s a critical difference between autogynephilia and most other sexual orientations: most other orientations aren’t erotically disrupted simply by being labelled,” she writes. “When you call a typical gay man homosexual, you’re not disturbing his sexual hopes and desires. By contrast, autogynephilia is perhaps best understood as a love that would really rather we didn’t speak its name.”

This explains why such rage is mostly directed at women, even though it is men who commit almost all anti-trans harassment and violence. Blanchard’s observations of extremist trans activism in recent years have led him to believe that the leaders are mostly autogynephiles. Their anger results from “envy of women and resentment at not being accepted by women as one of them,” he has tweeted. “They direct their ire at women because it is women who frustrate their desires. Men are largely irrelevant.”

I looked up Tam Blaxter too, I don't know why Tam thought people wouldn't check Tam's credentials.

@LessthanJurassicPark

Why do transactivists focus their hatred on gc women when the physical violence they face doesn’t generally come from women?

Women's strength and the personal boundaries we put in place are the barrier between ourselves (our bodies, minds, money etc) and men; and between children and men, we are generally the gatekeepers. They can take what we have by force, but it is better all round if they grind us down, gaslight us and we capitulate. We are the Winston Smiths.

Welcome, Jo, and support for you here today if you need it. Thank you so much for what you're doing. Quite aside from my GC views, the last couple of years have driven home to me the importance of teaching the next generation critical-thinking and the value of evidence-based research. None of us should be scared to debate and critique viewpoints that we ourselves find uncomfortable. All power to you and other academics taking that on!

Dr. Blaxter’s letter to the Times when asserting that “ Stock’s view of sex as immutable and binary is regressive and discriminatory — and at odds with science.”

Let's just say I no longer see Cambridge as a top university. He may not be a scientist but it is a basic scientific fact that I would expect any adult to grasp.

Looking at the few comments that have been published so far, this isn't going as well as Tam might have hoped for.

Would I be right to surmise that Dr Blaxter may have a more than academic interest in this subject?

@ProfJoPhoenix thank you for speaking publicly, we really do need more people like you from academia. I too am looking forward to hearing your thoughts and experiences on the Sex Matters webinar.

Looking at the pictures, yes, i think that Tam might have more than an academic interest.

I'm quite amused by the fact that Cartimandua has popped up to accuse all the GC academics to argue outside their areas of expertise, which is a bit of an own goal given Tam's letter.

Why would discipline even be relevant if you are being targetted for harrassment?

Thank you Jo and to all of the brave women who have a public platform for speaking out. How can we help you ?

Welcome Jo. Another GC academic here. I would be nervous about shouting about my views at work, but I've had loads of one to one conversations with other academics all of whom are GC. Of course students need to be physically safe, but it's also the job of a University to intellectually challenge them, which doesn't mean a diet of constant and illogical affirmation

@lostandfoundedges

Would I be right to surmise that Dr Blaxter may have a more than academic interest in this subject?

I'm no mean fan of Modern & Medieval Languages and North Germanic myself (family reasons). Blaxter and I would share an interest in social determinants of linguistic diffusion patterns but I'm baffled as to why this would lead Blaxter to make such a critique about the dimorphism of sex.

Tam's poetry has not enlightened me.

I think this (as I experience it) is symptomatic of some academics getting confused between intellectual pursuit, being a 'public intellectual' and activism. So, in some senses, it's about being influenced by social media, having an emotive response to this, and bringing it into the university by crafting teaching and research towards activism for a cause (without really thinking critically about that). Then it becomes about 'voices of lived experience' and making a case by picking up on the 'right' voices and bringing them into research and totally ignoring the rest of them.

You absolutely nailed it YetAnotherSpartacus
Outsourcing thinking and priorities to your Twitter followers should be regarded as a sign of professional misconduct in academia because it undermines academic probity and brings academics into disrepute by making them look like campaigners. The inappropriate advocacy and campaigning is so extreme with some academics sometimes it looks like a form of research misconduct.
Is there a way to formalise discouraging this approach as part of academic standards? Emphasising that activism is fine but it’s a completely separate activity from academic research which needs to be approached with an open mind as to the outcome. While preserving academics’ rights to be political people and talk about the political implications of their findings?

I don’t blame academics who go in for this in some ways. Their whole environment is geared towards them doing this. They are measured on ‘impact’ and public engagement and student numbers to get funding. The Universities want ‘famous name’ academics to give them a commercial edge.

So of course you’ll get academics who then simplify their work down to a personal ‘brand’ and if it’s popular and working for them they won’t deviate from that brand whatever the evidence says. Or they won’t want to gather any evidence in a way that might give them a ‘wrong’ off-message result.
If their brand is unpopular then they risk not being funded again or not being well regarded in their field.

It all seems to go back to making universities into businesses and charging fees to students. The customer will always be right. Window dressing, branding and marketing are an essential part of the job description for academics, placed above objective research and teaching.

What can change here? Do we need a massive review of what universities are for in this age of social media and student fees? If that’s not realistic to achieve what can we change over the next few years? Is there anything that non-academics can do to help?

There is a crowdfunder for this action, confirmed in this tweet twitter.com/JoPhoenix1/status/1449648472748142598?t=qPzqXhHdnkHT51vQz4K3tw&s=19

Was privileged enough to be with Jo IRL as she launched the crowdjustice campaign. She's a brave and honourable woman who has been through absolute hell. I hope MNers can show their support for her. This is an incredibly important case that, if successful, will benefit scores of female academics now and in the future.

Then it becomes about 'voices of lived experience' and making a case by picking up on the 'right' voices and bringing them into research and totally ignoring the rest of them.

Reading through because as an adapted parent of a 15 year old girl I'm getting increasingly concerned about her future when she starts uni because she too is GC and has gone against some friends already, been bullied and cast out of a friendship group for holding those beliefs. She's now at a different school and has decided to stay silent during any conversation about trans.

I highlighted the paragraph above because it chimes with my current experience of working as a GP iand dealing with patients with what has become a very controversial condition. The patients that make up the very vocal twitter groups are not medics or scientists, don't understand medicine or even how our health service work....and yet are pandered to constantly instead of being gently challenged and educated. It's insane. Sorry for the derail. Will return to reading the thread. Thanks Jo for everything you are doing.