Institute of Physics appoints an Inclusion and Diversity representative

[RoyalCorgi]

Physics as a profession is dominated by white men.

So guess who the Institute of Physics has appointed as its new Inclusion and Diversity representative?

Go on, guess.

https://www.iop.org/about/news/dr-clara-barker-appointed-iop-inclusion-diversity-rep

What a fantastic question!

I wonder what Athene Donald thinks of this?

@drhf - I have a feeling they could be summarised very succinctly by the phrase: the fucking bigots can fuck off.

"Since mid-2017, more than 800,000 pounds has been raised via about 27,500 donations to fund about 16 trans-focused legal cases on CrowdJustice, a crowdfunding site set up specifically for lawsuits, according to a tally by the Thomson Reuters Foundation."

Call me naive but I thought science (particularly physics) was all about facts? Over £800,000, how much over? one penny? a million pounds? About 27,500 donations and about 16 cases. Not one single exact figure to make their point.

Surely it would have been clearer and relatively easy to take a fixed number of cases and the total raised by an exact number of donations? But I suspect that would not show that money is being raised to bully trans people, rather that people are mobilising to help people like Maya Forstater to defend themselves against bullies.

To be fair “diversity and inclusion” isn’t about getting more women into STEM.

Well, actually for the IOP it is - it’s no. 2 on the list:

girls will make up at least 30% of those taking physics at age 16-19

https://www.iop.org/strategy

Of course we won’t know how many of these “girls” are actually female as it will just mean “identify as a girl” in reality.

Fuck off fuck off fuck off fuck off

Agree with @WorkingItOutAsIGo though:
I think it can be a career cul de sac for women scientists to be pushed into these sorts of roles so actually it’s good if female physicists are doing physics rather than EDI nonsense.

I was keen to get involved in the local chamber of commerce (non science) women's committee but then found it would actually be lumbered with "all the diversity stuff" - luckily I found out before I agreed to join. Fuck that shit - we have enough to do without having to fight everyone else's battles / make the organisation think it's ticked the inclusion box

What are Dr Barker’s views on protecting the rights of gender-critical physicists under the Equality Act?

As I linked below, Clara is on the record as thoroughly disapproving of Maya Forstater and others being able to crowdfund her Equality Act legal challenge, so I imagine they are fairly negative.

Yep, Clara's ridiculous comments on fish are still up on the Oxford Natural History Museum website:
https://www.glam.ox.ac.uk/outinoxford-natualhistory

The Bluehead Wrasse fish is an important example of non-standard biological sex in nature. When aging, even after sexual maturity, some females may transition to become breeding males. The Bluehead Wrasse is not the only fish species to change sex. Some species of clownfish exhibit similar behaviour, with individuals changing from male to female. (Nemo’s father should have become his mother in the popular Pixar movie!) The Wrasse are not born with both male and female anatomy, but they change from one sex to the other in order to maintain a gender balance necessary for population stability. This process is called sequential hermaphroditism.
As with the human transgender population the transition is neither a decision nor choice they make
. These sex changes are due to the levels of hormones in the environment, based upon the ratios between the sexes of Wrasse. A similar process is thought to be responsible for transgenderism in humans, but in this case due to the hormonal environment in the womb during development.

Has the difference between sex and gender been explained to Dr Clara yet? He seems confused - although if he’s comparing himself to a fish that’s probably the least of his worries.

There is no comparison between hermaphrodite fish and transgender humans!!! Clownfish transition physically with no outside intervention. They are born with this ability, it is an integral part of their physiology. The change is complete because they are physically designed that way. It is a far cry from the situation of humans, who cannot transition physiologically without substantial intervention, and even then it is an ersatz, superficial change.

The paragraph Barker has written about Honey Bees on the same website is possibly even more wrong:

"Honey Bees are an interesting case. They have three classes: a female queen, female workers and male drones. Their sexes cannot be compared or categorised in the same way that they are for mammals, however. The 'male' bees develop from unfertilised eggs and are, in effect, females. They possess only one set of chromosomes, contradicting what may be perceived as the 'normal’ male and female gender-binary. With some bees never reaching full development, It could even be considered that there is actually only one sex of honey bee.
Examples like the Honey Bee are important. It is simple to define humans as having male or female sex and a corresponding gender, classifying anyone who bends or deviates from pre-defined gender norms as odd and freakish. But, as we've seen, sex and gender variation are found throughout the natural world. Maybe it is time to think outside the box! "

So, Barker says The 'male' bees develop from unfertilised eggs and are, in effect, females. This is total BS. The male drones are, well, male. They can mate with the queen and produce sperm. They are fertile adult males. So not any kind of female at all.

Barker then says With some bees never reaching full development, It could even be considered that there is actually only one sex of honey bee. Again, total BS. Bees all reach their full development, they are either a queen, a worker or a drone. Female workers don't get to reproduce, but they are adult bees.

The last paragraph is just... words fail.

Why was a chemist/physicist asked to write factual information about a biological sciences display??

That stream of consciousness goes some way to explain why Dr Clara thinks that growing your hair, putting on a frock and saying please please please whilst crossing your fingers can turn men into women.

Indeed.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FTiyX_KmYhY

Perhaps his approach to I&D will be to bring people who spout utter nonsense into science and then try and pass off their witterings as fact?

Oh my goodness I'd managed not to see the paragraph on bees!

and yes, that final paragraph:-

"Examples like the Honey Bee are important. It is simple to define humans as having male or female sex and a corresponding gender, classifying anyone who bends or deviates from pre-defined gender norms as odd and freakish. But, as we've seen, sex and gender variation are found throughout the natural world. Maybe it is time to think outside the box! "

Yep, that explains everything . . .

What does a gender non-conforming bee look like, I wonder? Pink stripes and high heels, with glitter on its antennae perhaps?

And this bloke is supposedly an intelligent physicist 🙄

Are we going to find out one day why seemingly intelligent people in science are either believing this shit or just going along with it?

It actually makes my brain hurt to think that anyone can read that drivel and not conclude the writer is rambling incoherently and has absolutely no grip on reality.

What the honey bee communities do to the drones...

Probably not a variation this person would like to see reflected in the human communities.

In any case, we really should stick to mammals in finding comparable animal models.

@SirChenjins What does a gender non conforming bee look like? They have rainbow pollen sacs of course! I guess you haven't studied at clownfish college like me.

God, it never occurred to me to think about none of my lecturers being female beyond A level. My physics course was about 25% women. Apparently the % of women was a lot lower 20 years later.

Quelle surprise.

(His greasy hair 🤢)

Can we complain?
https://www.iop.org/about/contact-us#gref

As it is a generic E&D role and not one specifically reserved for women, there aren't many grounds to complain about their choice, other than maybe to point out that judging on past actions Barker may not treat all characteristics (ie women with the protected belief of gender critical feminism) fairly.

I fear my lack of qualifications from clownfish college is very evident here 😢Perhaps I should speak to Dr Clara and ask him to include me in his diversity program?