Alice Roberts in The Times

[Igneococcus]

Mostly plugging her new book but the interviews bring up the trans issue:

"I am not trying to propel Roberts back to a 2019 skirmish in the trans wars in which she tweeted that “biology is, quite simply, messier and more wonderful than some people like to believe” and advised doubters to “ask a clownfish” — a clownfish being a fish that starts life as male but becomes female. It does, however, strike me that if human female and male brains are the same, how can it ever be said that a baby possessing male genitalia was born into the wrong body.
There is quite a pause.
“I think that’s a very difficult philosophical question. It’s very difficult to pin it down, isn’t it? And we’ve had decades of feminism where we’ve been trying to get away from women being reduced to their genitalia. My own feeling is that you approach everybody as an individual.”

No Alice, it really isn't difficult to pin down, and it's not about genitalia, it's about gametes.

On a side note, it seems if it weren't for Alice we'd still be clueless about the causative agent of plague:
"Her chapter on the Black Death of the 14th and 15th centuries reveals its genesis as the Yersinia pestis bacterium,"

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/31f84383-e923-42d5-8011-64d0dd7c1ff9?shareToken=2d6448182015ccd30701f4cb6c84de9f

There is a trend in modern history writing for authors to “discover” details about the past which have been well-known and discussed for decades (or, with Yersinia Pestis, for over a century) and then write well-publicised books explaining their discoveries to the world. I know that this is partly the fault of publishers and publicists, but I wish they would stop…

Yes, it's rubbish, I agree. It's fair enough if they have a new discovery, or a novel interpretation, but that should be explicit.

She isn't an archaeologist, so why she should be the poster girl for archaeology beats me

Now be fair, she does pick up a trowel and do a bit of scraping on Digging for Britain.

I went to a talk of hers a few years ago, about her life and career. It all started when she joined her archaeologist boyfriend on digs, then she was on Time Team, and it grew from there.

As for who becomes "poster girl", it's a wide range of things, isn't it?

I'm a fan, by the way, and hoping for her to get past the gender stuff!

TBF a PhD in palaeopathology does kind of qualify you as an archaeologist of sorts - it’s part of the archaeobiology subdivision.

But I’d still think of people like Mick Aston as an archaeologist, rather than someone with a very specialised set of skills like Roberts.

YetAnotherSpartacus

I think this honour should go to the late Mick Aston, or, if not to Phil Harding, Carenza Lewis or Helen Geake.

It should definitely go to Mick Aston! He made the subject come alive, and is much missed.

I think she is bloody amazing so intelligent I thought she might have aspergers or some-it..I'm a dislexic athiest with a chainsaw addiction.I only watch her becasue the wife does and I have an old mans crush on her, one question did the vikings know about the chinese and what did they wipe their arses with.

That’s the world these days it seems. Alice was brought up in a very oppressive religious household. I can understand why she’s wary of religion. If you read her interviews about her mother , I can see why she felt she could t see her anymore.

I don’t agree with her views on biological sex,
but I can still admire her work and programmes.

Oh that is why the clownfish came from! Oh dear...

Zombie thread, I don’t think she’s said anything of note recently?

You're right Errol but at least I've got the clownfish song stuck in my head. Right, work...

Yes, it was incredibly unpleasant , and I also very much doubt that she would have done the same to any other religious group.
She used to get reasonable replies on Twitter, calm, rational argument from other women, but she would tweet that she was being bullied and would flounce off . She is oddly unintelligent in her argument for someone so well educated. I think she may be one of those people who is good at exams, good at remembering large amounts of information and repeating it, but not a flexible or truly intelligent thinker.

Another smart person pretending to be stupid for trendy points.

Well done, you've just summed up a puzzling and damaging social phenomenon in 10 words, Lottapianos!
It's stored away in my brain to be used next time some eejity celeb says something eejity about gender

However, I don't know why anybody would pay much attention to a TV presenter's views on contentious social issues. What next, Ant and Dec asked to advise on immigration? Claudia Winkelman on knife crime? The cult of celebrity has a lot to answer for.

To be fair, all sides of this debate seem to obsess about the pronouncements of an author of highly successful and enjoyable fiction, so this behaviour isn't entirely without precedent.

Yes, but you might have more than a good inkling that she is boxing clever over this stuff. Just like the NHSF personnel (some doctors no less) who waffled on about sex being so complicated. Mosaicism (I think caused by some cells from the donor) when receiving transplant etc. Then under questioning from SP’s side, admitted that doesn’t at all change you sex. So, they had been talking pure sh&te!

Some said they didn’t know what sex they were because they didn’t know what their chromosomes they had. Hmm.

She's a privileged arse, isn't she ?(I fully expext this post to be removed btw).

That makes it worse, really, doesn’t it? You know it has a detrimental impact on the rights, opportunity and very safety of women and girls. Yet you do a quisling statement.

Och naw , what's Lucy's said ? Thought she was sensible.

Most famous archaeologist???
Alex Langland

Oh ffs

“Ask a clownfish”

yes Alice, but we are not clownfish. Nor are we fruit flies or any of the other non-human creatures often used to justify this ridiculous pseudo-argument.

Yes. I always think, "they can breathe underwater, too. And?"

Also, clownfish change sex all by themselves. They don't need surgery or drugs to do so.

What's Lucy Worsley done? I admit to having found her programmes tending towards her personal theatrics over time so stopped watching, but I haven't seen her say anything of the gender-woo variety?

It's also, apparently, complete ignorance of the difference between genotype and phenotype.

Maybe the inability to understand the meanings of words (or to just look them up?) is behind the related category errors of confusing phenotypes and socially constructed gender stereotypes.

Then again, if they let themselves see any of that, they'd discover they were sex realists and that would spell the end of their existence as Kool Kidz. The horror.

Without getting mired too far 😀I think it's only fair to point out that it's Professor (Prof) Alice Roberts.

Fuck pronouns, but I think it's only fair to use someones academic title when they have earned it. And especially in a world that regularly actively downplays womens achievements. Regardless of how wrong they are.

Same for Profs. Brian Cox, Hannah Fry and (Dame) Mary Beard.