Is sanity finally being restored at UK universities?

[LadyBracknellsHandbagg]

https://thecritic.co.uk/gone-in-90-seconds/

This is excellent from Helen Joyce, the bit about the Irish young woman is hilarious whilst also being Orwellian, how must her parents feel?!

I agree totally @SidewaysOtter!

And I never realised that sooo many TRAs were experts on 1930s Germany. "Oh it's just like 1930s Germany!" they howl. Oh really? They've never read a history book in their lives!

My old Oxbridge college, women-only when I was there many decades ago, actually has a Junior Common Room Trans Officer for an undergraduate body of less than 400 and a transition fund for binders, etc. My eyes couldn't roll hard enough when I read that in the college yearbook.

Reading this excellent piece, I'm also getting the sense of people feeling freer to say what they mean than they did five years ago. Back then, every opinion would be qualified by something solemn about "of course, trans people have rights" and "of course, we support the desire of trans people to live peaceful lives" etc. Now, it's more, "This is just a bunch of ridiculous nonsense, let's all stop giving it the time of day, shall we?"

Yes, I agree.

Gloves are coming off all over the place

Meanwhile, this - where sanity is definitely NOT being restored! x.com/JournalistJill/status/1891921256976380016?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

I suspect the crunch question is "What happens to a sensible bright student (or a member of staff) who misgenders somebody or lets slip that they don't think TWAW?"

Actually laughed out loud when I saw that lot

I wouldn’t trust any of them to “help” me with what day of the week it is, let alone policy advice.

I live in cambridge and you're so right, I used to go to some specific places for gigs but the trans and cronies have literally taken over the spaces and made them so unfriendly

Me too, it’s like some awful parody isn’t it? Except we’re meant to take it seriously 🤪

My daughter is 13, there is one "non binary" girl (as in a girl who sometimes pretends she's a boy) in her year, the rest of them think it's attention seeking nonsense and have no time for it - so hopefully by the time today's younger teens get to university a bit of sense will be restored

I work in a university, and I don't think it is getting better at all. We are currently hard at work drafting a new trans policy for staff and students which gives them complete access to any single sex spaces purely on their own identification. It will be a long road back. We don't have policies on misogyny or on how to deal with our inaccessible buildings, but I guess those are not priorities.

HR are useless, the legal team are giving advice that is wrong, and the only part of the university that seems to be well funded is the gender studies team

A friend of mine has a niece who oscillates between trans and non binary, depending on whether she has a boyfriend or not. When she’s in a relationship it’s long hair, full make up, massive eyelashes etc., when she isn’t it’s a crew cut and a breast binder. This ideology is the very definition of insanity.

Nice to see Lurch from The Adam’s Family keeping himself busy.

DD16 has been saying for the last couple of years that in her school all things trans/non-binary QT++++ are 'so year 7' (with an eye roll).

So I am also hopeful that the younger generations will see through the crap 🙏.

Good though. It’s just further evidence of just how doo lally they are.

If someone shies who they are believe them, and all that.

Have just made myself miserable by reading the EDI declaration of the Fitzwilliam Museum, a lovely museum I am enjoying less as they increasingly sneak lectures at you.

I think most Cambridge people going to an art gallery already know slavery is bad?

It's their questionnaire that asked me if I identified as disabled. Am sure my DH, proud owner of a new free bus pass, will be thrilled to know that if he just identifies as having 20/20 vision everything will be fine and no doubt he'll be allowed to drive again.

Their statement shows their commitment to inclusivity which seems to consist entirely of being anti-colonial and anti-racist. Obvs being racist is not good, but not a thought to any other types of inclusivity.

Have they considered that their visitors are mainly white because they are in the middle of East Anglia?

I know quite a few GC older women doctors...

I liked the Joyce article, but I'm not sure that this sort of thing is helpful. Even if these men looked like women, they'd still be men. Single sex spaces are important irrespective of what the people in them look like.

I'm a GC academic. I don't shout about it to staff, but my frehsman female students are noticeably more GC than they were 5 years ago.

Beowulfa · Today 15:35
In Nazi-occupied Poland, there was a secret network whereby the universities aimed to teach in Polish and issue degrees underground, after higher education was banned for Slavs. Students and academics attended these clandestine classes at the highest personal risk

That’s interesting - how many people were betrayed?
In the former East Germany there were secret networks but these were sometimes betrayed and punishments to dissidents were very harsh.

Did anyone read the petition Joyce linked to her in article? She makes a reference to this bit:

"She states on her social media profiles that ‘Shame needs to switch sides’, implying that individuals should be ashamed of being transgender, but not of promoting anti-trans prejudice."

As Joyce points out, whoever wrote the petition is apparently unaware that "Shame needs to switch sides" is a quote (extremely-well-publicised) from Gisele Pelicot about rapists and rape victims. So much for the supposed intelligence of University of Oxford students. They haven't even paid a glimmer of attention to one of the major news stories of the past six months.

If you read the rest of it, it's just meaningless, narcissistic babble. Take this bit:

"Just as climate-change deniers are not invited to teach us about meteorology, we should not invite someone who’s work on the topic has been described as an “incoherent set of vapid polemics,” to explain sexual difference. Can the University of Oxford, purportedly the best university in the world, do no better?"

Is it too much to expect University of Oxford students to know the difference between "who's" and "whose"? Is it too much to expect them to be able to frame a simple, logical, evidence-based argument?

After reading the petition, my conclusion is that, far from being the best university in the world, the University of Oxford is populated by dunces.

@nocoolnamesleft

I am a "GC older woman doctor"!

Pleased to meet you. We are growing in number! (And we are so done with that shit)

I have to say my Oxbridge experience is rather different from previous posters, consisting primarily of a rather large proportion (10-20% on the courses I teach, up from nil a few years ago) of "non-binary" students of both sexes, though perhaps slightly more often female, generally nice enough but usually showing very obvious traits of neurodiversity. I also once encountered an extremely obnoxious trans woman, the epitome of toxic masculinity in a short skirt and crop top with a loud, highly camp voice and no hesitation about noisily and publicly expressing his disdain for non-binaries, which I was tempted to report as transphobic bigotry.

I wonder if I saw the same obnoxius transwoman? He came into a v small cafe with his female hanger on, the two dominated the space while he waved his girly hands a lot and spoke in a lady voice and she giggled at his awesome cleverness.

When they left the rest of the cafe broke out chatting to each other in relief.

I later saw him again on University Challenge.

I think you and I may have gone to the same college! I was so unimpressed with the "safe rooms" nonsense, I decided that I would never donate another penny to them. I only go back for gaudys and the summer garden party very occasionally.

It sounds like it! I was not impressed with them. FFS, how are these students going to survive in the world?