Does anyone else cringe at the word "diversity"?

[SunniDelite]

I had this email from someone on Crowdfunder...
"I am raising funds for the Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity at Birmingham City University.
In the last year, the centre has revealed the racism and prejudice actors face when they go auditions and, for the first time, exposed the lack of gender diversity of sound recordists. We're now building programmes to address this problem. So far, our research has highlighted specific problems for disabled people working in the industry and created more job opportunities for Black people behind the camera. Additionally, we are working with major broadcasters to change how they report on race, gender and disability."
I have no problem with the race and disability part, but what on earth does "lack of gender diversity of sound recordists" mean? That there aren't enough women? or that there aren't enough blue-hairs who can't decide what they are? or there aren't enough transwomen?
It's come to a point where I'm suspicious that any organisation that mentions diversity is a TRA, even if they're talking about hedgehog populations! :)

...and majorCarolDanvers has failed to read and understand the original post

@SunniDelite

Apparently it's gross to ask if Lekisa's Mum is a woman....

You said it's okay for an adult woman to expose her genitals to a 12 year old girl. That is gross.

But honestly, your remarks about a "petri dish" are gross too.

Ok so you're not ok with males exposing their genitals to women and girls either I presume? Like Wi Spa? I guess that's something.

I don't know where you live or how old you are, but in the UK, women's showers are for women and we take off our clothes :) Shocking, eh? Still haven't heard if you Mum is a woman?

@Lekisa658 an adult woman's genitalia is not exposed in a shower, women don't have a penis to hang out. When I change for swimming alongside women and girls we are the same, girls can see how they will develop. It's because we are the same sex. Simple isn't it?

gross

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

@aliasundercover

It's ridiculous if the obsession with trans rights on here ends up hurting initiatives that could help many of the cis women that the pps are so concerned about.

Women. Not 'cis' women.

No one is the slightest bit interested in doing anything to help women,except when. LLP no

Except women.
Sorry

In my limited experience those that bang on constantly about diversity and inclusion are the most likely to exclude other people and their opinions.

@CompleteGinasaur

Good Lord. I've only been lurking/occasionally posting on Mumsnet for about 8 months, but even in that short time I've come to appreciate the patience with which the veterans of this site refute the same repetitious bunkum over and over again. I don't know how you do it, women, I really don't.

And good luck,Lekisa658, I hope you're bright enough to appreciate the skilled way in which your arse is about to be handed to you.

I came to say the same - the patience of a saint!

Diversity means that you include and involve people from a different range of genders, sexual orientations, races, socio-economic backgrounds, disabilities etc.

Of course.

However, if anyone is allowed to identify into one of these groups by simply declaring it then 'diversity' means nothing. Some foolish people believe that if parliament was made up of 50% men and 50% transwomen it would have sex equality. Do you believe this?

Kathleen Stock on diversity and concept application

Diversity or diversive...
diverging truth from reality.

As soon as I see the word 'cis' used in all seriousness,I know that the utterer is full of bullshit.

Absolutely this is it.

Yup. I’d rather be called a c* than c**

Thank you @IamAporcupine for that link to Kathleen Stock’s lecture on diversity. How interesting.

@TinselAngel

My question with regards to the modern concept of EDI, is where does it leave the people that are excluded by it, and how can excluding some people in the name of inclusion be justified?

Eg if a conservative Muslim is uncomfortable with his employer celebrating Pride, where does that leave his right to "bring his whole self to work?

Or are we saying it's OK to exclude religious people from some workplaces? If so, how does that fit with the Equality Act?

This isn't an abstract scenario. I was a student with a man who went into law, a very committed Catholic. Over the years his firm, which was mostly corporate law, became very much into doing all the usual social justice stuff, and one of the things they wanted was for everyone to walk in the Pride parade with a banner for the firm. It became increasingly uncomfortable for him to avoid it. Not because he was going around proselytizing or even talking about his faith but because he was being expected to be involved. Eventually he left.

Honestly this is a silly argument.

Race, sexuality, and gender are not directly comparable in every way. They refer to different things with different origins and significance. Saying that segregating people on the basis of race is not a good thing does not tell us whether or not it might be good or bad to segregate on the basis of sex, or under what circumstances.

Humans have biological sex. Male and female refers to biological sex of all sexed organisms. Man and women refer only to human beings.

Are there ideas attached to human sex that are not inherent biologically? Sure. But that does not mean the word is referring primarily to those things rather than the category to which they are attached. Which should be clear since the attached elements tend to differ depending on where and when a person lives whereas language to describe the human sexes is ubiquitous.

@Libraryghost

In my limited experience those that bang on constantly about diversity and inclusion are the most likely to exclude other people and their opinions.

Maybe because your "opinions" are that certain groups of people shouldn't get to have equal rights.

I've just come back to this thread, and (insert pronoun) is still lecturing us.

Equal rights is not about treating all people the same. If we did that, we would bin all lifts and disabled ramps, and tell the disabled to walk up the f***g stairs like everyone else.

No, equality in law is about 'reasonable adjustments'.

And yes, everyone should have rights.
But men should not be claiming women's rights.

Men are not women.

Indeed - I haven’t seen any offices or stores who have made a big thing of their inclusivity do much that actually helps include people with physical disabilities, help with caring responsibilities (children or elder relatives), ramps, braille, software for visually impaired, BSL translators available… nope - it’s change the loos and stick a rainbow on their website.

My pet peeve is a local gym that put a poster on the window of the ‘rainbow railway’ - like the underground railway? Comparing this to bloody slavery?

LOL about not believing in equal rights.

@Lekisa658, my sweet, I absolutely believe in equal rights for all. Radically, this includes equal rights for women (by which I mean the old-fashioned kind). The right to be safe. The right to fair competition in sports.

I am constantly boggled by the inability of some posters to grasp that a clash of rights doesn't mean that one side - the women - should roll over and beeee kiiiind. We know where that got us over the centuries, and we've had enough.

The whole ‘inclusion’ means that my sister can’t use ‘mixed’ changing rooms on her own. She is registered blind and is terminally ill (as a result) and has days when she is not so ‘sharp’.

She used to be able to manage (some vision) on her own but there is no way she could manage in a changing room (she used to love to shop) where men can be present.

Why is her dignity less than other peoples? Those demanding inclusion already have the right to change, exercise, change… they just have decided that they want to do these things in spaces that they arent allowed.

So those already in their own spaces are squeezed out because they don’t feel safe or feel that their dignity is being taken away. They don’t have anywhere else to go.

Biological science also shows that sex is anything but binary.

Have we been linked up with evidence for this?

Bets on what we will be linked up with??? Drinks at the bluestocking on offer!!

Trans women on HRT grow breasts and have an increased risk of breast cancer.

Males can have breast cancer. Some males have developed breast tissue for other reasons too.

A male on artificial hormones that develop breast tissue is still a male on artificial hormones.

Sex is binary.

Have we had the name of the other sexes?

Have we had the name of the other gametes other than small and motile and large in Homo sapiens required for reproduction?

Did I miss those? If so I am sorry, all I could see was some very tired old trope being reeled out.