Oxford has let down transgender students, vice-chancellor says

[OvaHere]

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/09bf9abe-621d-11ee-977c-44b3e2b54888?shareToken=302ed8ee24e0d0eaa19691a4ec0c3781

Not the worst article on the face of it. She's right that people do have to put up with legal speech they don't like or agree with.

However I'm unimpressed with what once again seems like gaslighting women around the issue of abuse. In real life and not just online.

“This means some legal free speech will be hard for some individuals to hear. However, I am also disturbed by what I witness as an amplification of discourteous, intolerant and hateful rhetoric on social media platforms under the guise of free speech.
“I was deeply saddened to learn of the abusive and threatening language and behaviours that our trans community suffered this year. We should have done more to support them; rest assured lessons were learnt."

Whilst I'm sure this happens sometimes the far larger issue is the abuse and threats meted out to non compliant woman from trans activists. The fact that she must be aware of the abuse Kathleen Stock received yet not reference that once is quite telling.

Until the supposed adults in the room stop giving TRA's a pass for abusing women and girls and throwing massive tantrums there will continue to be problems at universities.

I wish people would recognise the phrase 'TWAW' as hate speech and abuse. Then we would start to have something of an even playing field.

She is a disgrace and very much part of the problem which continues to privilege men in academia.

Outrageous.

I'm afraid that when I raised the subject with a female professor there I happen to have known a long time she said she didn't want to discuss a divisive subject.
As if it was something she was outside of.

I'm glad she's acknowledged the toxicity of the discourse on social media. Someone needs to show her terfisaslur.com.

My son is applying to Oxford to read history this year.

The open day was eye opening. Some of the colleges are more 'right on' than others. One young lady (she/her) took delight in telling my son her entire undergraduate history degree has focussed on the history of gender and gender discrimination (she didn't mean sex although some of it will be a conflation of women's rights and trans women's rights to have them, no doubt). At Oxford I think there is the opportunity to be more selective over which parts/ themes of history you study than many other universities.

My son is very Gender Critical. He already knows to keep his mouth shut and does so at college. Free speech this is not.

But I do ask myself why, in 2023, are only 29 per cent of our professors women? The gender gap is far from closed.

I would be genuinely interested to hear her answer to this rhetorical question. Though I expect she would likely limit what she has to say for political reasons. You don't get to be vice-chancellor by rocking the boat too hard against the patriarchy.

I'm so bitterly disappointed by this. Irene Tracey is a phenomenal woman who I have long admired. She is incredibly intelligence (but then so is Margaret Atwood). I was so pleased when she was offered this role but here she is letting women down. I hope it's just the case she hasn't read widely about this issue because this is so disappointing if she has.

Kathleen Stock on this in Unherd

https://unherd.com/thepost/am-i-really-such-a-danger-to-oxfords-students/

Methinks the VC needs to do her own homework, not just copy what the noisy kid tells her.