Anyone else work at a Uni?

[Phunkychicken]

Just having a uni wide 'meeting' - much pressure from the LGBTQ+ group about what they are going to do re the SC ruling to ensure trans staff/students are safe - management saying they're seeking guidance on what to do practically going forward. Tentatively posted that some of us welcome the ruling and have had 6 thumbs up - so they're at least 6 of us.

It's so hard not giving myself away but the push back has been insane

If there's a class action I'm in - it's been implied I'm a bigot; I've had to sit through sessions where we are told cis is a perfectly acceptable term; I'm under constant pressure to add pronouns to my email whether; and we've all been told if we are in the toilets and a man comes in we mustn't leave as that's a micro aggression

I’m in on class action. I’ll get the coven to chip in.

I feel like I’m going mad. I’m making poor decisions because I don’t know who or what to trust anymore.

What really struck me was that in an email marking the 'International Day of...' the focus was 100% on the university sector in the UK. No mention of the poor souls who get chucked off buildings etc in other parts of the world.

(I don't work in a uni, but I have had a fair bit to do with academics. Having been preached to about the value of 'speaking truth to power' by people who have considerable clout but who HATE being disagreed with or challenged, and observed how the way to get ahead seems to involve cuddling up to the prevailing ideology in the department, my respect for them plummeted over the course of 4 or 5 years. NAAALT, obviously, but a significant number are. Also, many of them wang on about social justice having come from positions of immense privilege, and have no clue how the other half lives.)

@EdithStourton you have reminded me of my MSc, years ago.

The course organiser's research was on the black community that conveniently lived right next to the university in one of the poorest areas of the UK.

His whole career is based on 'shining a light' on their experiences and how everything was racist.

The sum total of his 'shining a light' as far as I can make out is that he is now a professor.

There has been zero change for the community he studies, regardless of ethnicity, they are still poor and living in a dump.

They've bastardised and oversimplified it, as they do everything. I haven't read Butler's later work. But her earlier stuff - Foucault's too - explores in detail the mechanisms by which 'gender' (MF is very clear gender is socially constructed) is embedded within society. Butler saw gender as a process of 'iteration' (naming), reiteration and performance; Foucault saw it as gender constructivism rooted in power and its dissemination.

That's the reason 1980s feminists writing after Foucault were largely enthusiastic about his theories. They liked the fact that gendered constructs (women are nurturers; men are breadwinners) no longer necessarily tied them to a biological destiny.

I'm guessing it's the latter idea that's been twisted to its nth degree. The idea that biology doesn't tie women to the kitchen sink is quite appealing, but it can never get us away from the reality that we are the ones whose bodies are designed to bear children: and mens' are not.

Queer theory isn't necessarily saying what the gender ideologists claim it's saying. But that comes as no surprise. The law and the SC aren't saying what the GIs claim they are, either.

And here. Existing policy remains unchanged. I'll reserve judgement until full guidelines have come out.

My institution is full of people like those you mention in your last paragraph. It’s so tiring!

Excellent points @SerafinasGoose

I've taught (briefly) queer theory from a feminist point of view - some years ago now (I'm probably not considered safe to do so any more). I use an excellent essay by Bernhard Schoene (in a Cambridge Comp to QT iirc) which takes the students through Foucault's thinking. I briefly mention Butler, but I prefer Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's work. Much more grounded in the evidence (mostly literature).

Totally agree about the bastardisation of QT - it reminds me of teaching in the cultutee wars of the 1990s, when there was a lot of what I call "vulgar post-modernism" spouted by students - you know the lazy stuff they used to say:

"If everything's subjective, then that means I can say anything without evidence, doesn't it?"

No, it does not.

I have some sympathy for those who've decided not to change policies until the full code of practice / EHRC guidence is out (I'm a bit unsure about what it is we are waiting for). In a sector of cowards anyone who moves early will be out on a limb. If their new policy goes further then the guidence ultimately sets out they will be widely seen as big transphobic meanies. They are probably gambling that the chances of being sued in this interim period are slim, and they are better off waiting and making the move once. Probably not a stupid decision, if a cowardly one.

The way some are communicating about it though is something else. They are telling female staff whose rights are now being upheld that they are really sad about that and wish it wasn't true. So that suggests it's ideological, rather than just pragmatism / realpolitik.

Well, the problem is that there are many female university academics who are very committed to trans activism and misogynistic policies. If you look at the various open letters, the signatories skew female. I’ll never understand this … not only do these women undermine the interests of their own sex, they give university management an excuse to continue discriminating against women. Yay sisterhood!

Precisely this. And some of the names on those letters are known to me.

Young students - many of whom are from vulnerable demographics who have been sold the lie that transitioning is their route away from whatever has led to their feeling unhappy and excluded - qualify for sympathy. I'd go all out to support those students, and have done many a time.

For supposedly intelligent colleagues, capable of critical thinking, to appease aggressive male rights activitism under the guise of TRA because it's a fashionable cause, and in doing so knowingly throwing their own rights under the bus and those of other women along with them? They are a different matter entirely. I now respect those people far less and will neither forget nor forgive it.

Some of the signatories are in my department ... They're nice people, we get on well - I don't think they're raging TRAs, just not v knowledgeable about the issues.

Many respected colleagues signed these open letters, yes … are they ignorant? Malicious? Afraid of the consequences of not signing? Do they actually think male sex offenders should be in female prisons? Male police officers strip search women? Or are they just really invested in the theory that sex differences do not exist and if they did, they have to be erased?

Desperate to be 'progressive' whatever the cost.

I'm pleased to report that the (top rated) university I work for has confirmed that the single sex toilets in older buildings on campus do mean single sex as per the SC ruling (through gritted teeth). They are pointing out that "gender neutral" facilities are widely available. I think this is as good as it gets.

Separately, I have seen high level communication whereby departments are being asked to review the wording and links on their EDI pages. The phrasing being queried suggests a grown up has taken notice of the Sussex and SC ruling.

I think we're at the same place, did it come out on Friday? It does then say they won't really police what loos people use . . .

Dept message on Thurs, all staff briefing on Fri so quite possibly it's the same institution. I don't think it's ever been as bad here as some places though.

Yes a Uni. We had something small put out about the SC judgement via comms bulletins, completely incorrect. I supplied a very factual correction. This resulted in the entire senior team treating me negatively last week. And one of them trying to come and get me to say something they could use to discipline me. I know they're scared about the Sussex case & OfS fine.

Agreed though my job is data including sex and gender and I have to tie myself in knots making clear the distinction and where each is appropriate without 'outing' myself. None of my colleagues would talk to me if they found out my beliefs.

Do they actually think male sex offenders should be in female prisons? Male police officers strip search women?

I really don't think they think it through. Or they say that these are exceptions. Because ...
they just really invested in the theory that sex differences do not exist and if they did, they have to be erased

There's a large group of 'anti-carceral' academic criminologists who think there shouldn't be any prisons at all.

I went to a conference with some of these academics and a bunch of prison service staff.

Things got so heated the prison officers walked out.

I’ve asked people before who favour abolishing prisons/the police how exactly society would work - they don’t seem to have the answers. It’s a completely elitist luxury belief. The people who would suffer most are the poor and marginalised.

Have you seen The Purge? That's how I imagine it. On the plus-side, the weakling non-binary types would be the first to be picked off, I'm sure.

That was basically how the conference went.

Posh middle class academics spoke about how everything was awful, prisons were oppressive and nobody in the prison service gave a shit.

They were then surprised that the group of largely working class prison officers, all of whom cared very deeply about this issue and making prisons better, got upset.

Ah ha ha, the anti-carceral feminists! The ones I have met are complete numpties who would break out into tears if confronted with fairly minor interpersonal aggression. Similar personality profile as female pro-sex work academics. They’ll never have sex for money and they’ll never go to prison and deep down they know this.