Cambridge

[DdraigGoch]

I don't even know where to start with this:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/25/cambridge-faculty-apologises-distressing-emails-gender-ideology/

Organisations need to stop being scared of "cancellation" & push back against these extremists.

It's like they've forgotten the vast majority of the world understand sex exists & do not andorse this extremism.

Apologising only makes it worse, they can smell fear.

Apologising = pandering !

Paywalled for me, here’s the Varsity article in case anyone else has the same issue.

Utterly childish behaviour by the Master & Senior Tutor, frankly. Who I’m sure are livid, incidentally, at being referred to as “teachers” in the Mail’s coverage - I thought from their headline it must be education/PGCE students kicking off; not the most senior members of the SCR 🙄

(Anyone wondering how to pronounce “Caius”, btw, it’s “keys”, as in, of a piano or the wee bits of shaped metal that are designed for opening the locks they match.)

As some further background, in May Prof Ahmed told Varsity he believes free speech is so important students should be told about it alongside consent.
At the start of this month Prof Ahmed wrote an article for Varsity titled “Cambridge needs students who are free to speak their minds: The University requires students willing to think for themselves – new students should resist the pressure to be silent.”
On October the 14th Varsity published an article titled “Students condemn decision to host gender critical feminist: Helen Joyce, known for her controversial views on trans issues, will be speaking at Gonville & Caius College later this month.”

The Professor is pretty brave to have kept speaking up throughout the VC-ship of Stephen Toope. Toope’s Report+Support system might have only lasted a week in May 2021 but I’d not be surprised if that’s because it crashed & was irrecoverable under the weight of students claiming Prof Ahmed had raised his eyebrows at them 🤦‍♀️

I like Prof Ahmed: 'Cambridge is not a primary school. Free speech is non-negotiable.'

How did Cambridge let such snowflakes into their university? Needing a cup of tea for their welfare just for seeing an advert?!
Bravo to Prof Ahmed, he's right, they are acting like children.

I saw snippets of Helen’s talk and they had tried to drown her out from outside the venue.

Helen says on twitter that the whole thing was filmed, which is excellent

I would certainly not rush to get my kid into an institution with this bunch of lunatics. But it is typical of the left-wing as they used to disrupt lectures they didn’t like when I was at university. They do not believe in free speech - only their own. This is how Lenin got to power. These people should go to Russia and try it on there. They are just a cowardly bunch of hypocrites

I would certainly not rush to get my kid into an institution with this bunch of lunatics. But it is typical of the left-wing as they used to disrupt lectures they didn’t like when I was at university. They do not believe in free speech - only their own. This is how Lenin got to power. These people should go to Russia and try it on there. They are just a cowardly bunch of hypocrites

Steady on - I was at uni 30 years ago and I have no recollection of left-leaning students disrupting lectures they didn't like. Are you mistaking the U.K. for Khmer Rouge Cambodia? It's easy to mess them up I hear, if you're trying to make hay out of the pushback against gender ideology.

I’ve heard of several academically successful students (think 9-10 x 9’s @ GCSE, predicted 3-4 x A stars at A level and pretty full personal statements) who won’t even apply to Oxbridge because of this kind of nonsense. Does anyone have experience of how this is playing out at other top-ranked unis?

My son started at Cambridge this year. He's joined the Union and is hoping for some robust debates....he says there are many open minded students who don't shy away from stuff, and thinks trigger warnings etc are infantilising - but a lot of noise and hot air is still being made by a vocal minority. It's not just elite institutions (Brighton/Kathleen Stock) either.

I also don't think it's new. There was an outcry at O or C when the National Front leader at the time (Griffin?!) was asked to debate and students kicked off. He was then on QT and made to look utterly stupid.

DH studied Arabic and Islamic studies in the early 90s at a RG uni, and was penalised heavily in his essays because he was critical of Islam and was studying in a faculty staffed only by Muslims.

Academic freedom of thought and speech are a precarious thing; it needs to be robustly protected, particularly on the women's rights/trans demands issue where it seems people's brains have fallen out. 😉

Helen mentioned that before around 2010 referrals for gender dysphoria were largely middle aged men. However around this time there was a shift towards younger people and an increase in girls identifying as boys or non-binary. A social shift prevalent at a time when teens/youth are at their most vulnerable perhaps. So I don't blame the kids really and I would put the youth protesting yesterday in that bracket, this stuff is currently in the air they breathe.

The frightening thing is the Master and Senior tutor behaving like this, the journalists failing to report on the assertion of trans properly, all the giant corporates joining in, the Labour Party refusing to acknowledge any issue for women and children.

Kids/young people need wiser old people to hold boundaries for them. The fact that so many are not is what really concerns me. I agree completely about the courage of Prof Ahmed.

The question of "the existence" of trans people came up again. It is clear that no-one denies that people who id as trans "exist" or have a right to "exist". The question is whether or not an existing person should painfully and expensively change their body to fit in, or whether it is bettere to try to change social attitudes to be less prescriptive of how the sexes should behave, whilst recognising that sex matters and the implications of sex have greater consequence for women and that children should be protected. The fact that adults holding priviledged and influential positions describe that as "hateful" is very concerning.

How could there be 2010 referrals for middle age men, when Gender Extremists say that if kids aren't allowed to be trans they will commit suicide?

How did these men even make it to middle age?

Youth who identify as non-binary is like new age Hipster X Emo culture, without the musical influence. They're just trying to be edgy & androgyny is nothing new.

Not believing in someone's religions isn't denying their right to existence.

These people live in an echo chamber online & are sad the real life isn't like their fantasy virtual dystopia. Imagine having a sense of self & emotional so fragile that you're driven to suicide by someone's opinion of you....The mind boggles

Helen Joyce is so invited to my imaginary dinner party BTW

Daughters trans mate recently went to that college, and now has a criminal record for being involved in extinction rebellion stuff.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the campaign, whatever the wrongs of the draconian policing, this young person was vulnerable and desperate to belong. So slow hand clap groomers.

There are two other threads about this event:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4657837-cambridge-university-lgbtqi-students-we-are-not-attempting-to-silence-free-speech-we-just-want-to-deplatform-helen-joyce

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4658959-master-and-senior-tutor-of-caius-college-cambridge-on-the-subject-of-free-speech