40 Oxford dons sign letter in support of Kathleen Stock

[ArabeIIaScott]

This seems pretty significant.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/16/free-speech-oxford-university-trans-row-kathleen-stock/

'Oxford dons have warned students that freedom of speech is at risk as a trans row engulfs the university.
More than 40 academics - including Prof Richard Dawkins, the evolutionary biologist, and Prof Nigel Biggar, the theologian - have intervened in support of a planned appearance at the Oxford Union by Prof Kathleen Stock, a leading feminist, in a letter to The Telegraph.'

...

Letter includes:

'“Professor Stock believes that biological sex in humans is real and socially salient, a view which until recently would have been so commonplace as to hardly merit asserting.
“Whether or not one agrees with Professor Stock’s views, there is no plausible and attractive ideal of academic freedom, or of free speech more generally, which would condemn their expression as outside the bounds of permissible discourse.”'

He doesn’t know the difference between ‘emit’ and ‘omit’. 🙄

He, his boyfriend (at a different university) and his friends caused a massive Twitter storm after the Telegraph article was published because they felt they should have been able to write potentially defamatory claims about Kathleen Stock anonymously and they were hopping mad that the Telegraph named Amiad and his vice president.

He must have some intelligence to get into Oxford, but on Twitter he doesn't come across as one of the world's great intellectuals.

This must be a disciplinary matter, I can't see Oxford letting him bring them.into such disrepute on radio 4 with no consequences.

He lost me at genderqueer. I mean what does that mean when we're at home?

This piece was published in the Oxford Student newspaper last week

twitter.com/theoxstu/status/1657327802301964290?s=46&t=SPorwN-mokktL467rcZ57g

www.oxfordstudent.com/2023/05/13/is-oxford-a-welcoming-place-for-trans-students/

I hope not or else we are going to hell in a handcart.

He seems to think it means he is more oppressed than women have ever been!

evenoxfordneedssaving · Today 12:55

Text of the letter:

I enjoyed reading that. It was succinct and pulled no punches.

It's particularly stupid that he's complained that they misgendered him when he says on his alt account that he uses any pronouns.

What a numpty

From that silly student newspaper article:

Stock has gained prominence through her gender critical views, arguing that proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act threatened a “secure understanding of the concept ‘lesbian’” and womanhood more broadly, and that “many trans women are still males with male genitalia”.
The University’s LGBTQ+ society was first to respond, releasing a tweet that stated it was “dismayed and appalled” that the Oxford Union decided to “platform” Stock, arguing that, the Union was “disregarding the welfare of its LGBTQ+ members under the guise of free speech”. Stock retweetedd^ their statement, saying that it was “probably defamatory”, leading to more than 1 million views on the society’s social media page. Within the statement, the society alleged that Stock had campaigned “against trans rights”, “supporting conversion therapy”, and supporting “hate groups” like the LGB Alliance.
Soon after this, a pile on ensued. The Telegraph wrote about the personal detailss^ of the society’s President Amiad Haran Diman, and Zoë-Rose Guy, the society’s Secretary and de-facto Vice President. GB News ran s^ on the ‘no-platforming’ of Stock. This led to members of the society receiving thousands of hateful messages, and eventually the committee took down posts on social media for fear of retribution.

https://twitter.com/addihd02/status/1655164878540210176?s=46&t=SPorwN-mokktL467rcZ57g

"Kathleen Stock is bringing her attack on trans people to the Oxford Union, and we will not stay silent. There is nothing that the TERFs hate and are confused by more than trans joy! Come join us, and reach out to me if you'd like to help!"

interesting that the lecturers are in support of this. They’ve been taking the blame for indoctrinating students - so in my opinion it looks like it’s more the student leaders and activists coupled with social media.

It's a subset of academics in specific disciplined, usually sociology and politics and related humanities subjects, that push queer theory and gender identity to the students. I'm glad to see sociology academics on the list of signatories.

But yes, the student unions push it hard. Part of the problem is the democratic deficit in student unions. Voter turnout for SU officer elections is very low because most students can't be bothered to vote for officers in an institution that affects them for only three years. It's very easy for an activist with lots of friends to win an election with a three figure vote and then claim to be the voice of a five figure number of students.

Students rarely seem to have consequences for this sort of thing these days.
Did the ones who directly persecuted Kathleen Stock suffer consequences?

No, I don't think so @TheCountessofFitzdotterel

He's complained that his boyfriend has been doxxed and then reposted the article on his Twitter account?

Also this guy thinks he's going to solve the Israel Palestine conflict, he needs to be able to demonstrate an ability to see arguments from different perspectives. Having heard his rant on WATO, I'd say he's utterly incapable of doing that.

Sadly, it's quite possible. Look up Wes Streeting's time as Cambridge SU president and then NUS president. As NUS president, he dropped the long-running "grants not loans" campaign that was brought in after the student finance changes in the 90s. And now has the rank hypocrisy to be a Labour MP.

Thank duck for that!

I was reading about some female academic I'd never heard of who had withdrawn her work on 18th century humour because Oxford University Press is daring to publish a second book by Holly Lawford Smith.

twitter.com/aytchellesse/status/1657161481002291200?s=20

Clymene · Today 14:26

It's particularly stupid that he's complained that they misgendered him...

And hypocritical. Whatever pronoun they used, he'd have faked a hissy fit about it. It's all about the fake outrage and "Lookit meeee! I'm a victim!!!" with this lot.

He's delighted to have lead (hitherto anonymously) a lynch mob against Professor Stock and to have caused her to be vilified, threatened, abandoned by her colleagues and union and hounded out of her job, but he doesn't want the general public to know it was him.

He's a reprehensible little watchamacallit.

And hypocritical. Whatever pronoun they used, he'd have faked a hissy fit about it. It's all about the fake outrage and "Lookit meeee! I'm a victim!!!" with this lot.

100%

Think it means he occasionally dons earrings, corsets and clinging tops, and thinks this makes him extremely oppressed.

Part of the problem is the democratic deficit in student unions. Voter turnout for SU officer elections is very low because most students can't be bothered to vote for officers in an institution that affects them for only three years. It's very easy for an activist with lots of friends to win an election with a three figure vote and then claim to be the voice of a five figure number of students.

Funnily enough, this exact same dynamic plays out in grown up political parties, too.

Funnily enough, this exact same dynamic plays out in grown up political parties, too.

Yes, especially eg SNP, Lib Dems and Green Party.

Meanwhile, I wonder if these young people at Oxford have the slightest inkling of how it looks to the rest of the country that they're complaining about being oppressed.