Biggus Titus of Oxford University

[Forecastsayssnowbutthereisnosnow]

Sadly, not a Monty Python sketch.

Matt Rattley, a large bearded bloke who wears giant fake breasts, appears to be happily working at Oxford Uni.

I was really hoping this wasn't true but there is even a youtube video with him talking while wearing the giant breasts and red lipstick, applied to a degree any circus clown would be accused of overdoing it. The video includes a slide stating he works as a lecturer and tutor in the Biochemistry Dept at Oxford. He's also on LinkedIn.

I mean, how obvious can it be that this is a sexual fetish which he is involving unconsenting students and staff in???

Dr P on X has been (correctly) very robust on this case:

""This is Matt Rattley saying, "I can do whatever I please and nobody can stop me".

This is highly antisocial, abnormal, boundary-violating, paraphilic behaviour.

And we should not be afraid to say so."

Yes I'd love to know this too. @BlueLegume I find myself nodding along to your posts all the time

No. That's all very nice, but there are sensible limits and boundaries, and this is way, way past them. This is ridiculous.

Saying 'I don't see it as a fetish' is echoing today rather painfully with Starmer trying to tell the electorate he's the best man for the job in the face of today's facts. Identity politics' day is very done.

I'm not at Matt R's college so I don't know how the college is handling any potential student complaints. We don't know what if anything has happened behind the scenes.

From my experience I would say that colleges now handle student complaints of sexual harassment in a much more robust and sensitive way than they did previously. A lot has changed over the course of my academic career. That doesn't mean that everything is perfect now, but progress has been made. The possibility of litigation is also now very real, which is a good thing; it means that uni admin is less likely to close ranks and ignore complaints made by students or colleagues.

Where I differ with most people on this thread is that I don't see Matt R as having done anything complaint-worthy, unless further information comes to light.

We all dress in ways that make us feel comfortable, whether that means wearing makeup or cutting/styling our hair or choosing particular clothes or having plastic surgery. I don't see wearing prosthetic breasts as categorically different. Yeah, it might look a bit ridiculous, but that's not the same as abuse.

Wishing everyone a good weekend.

“I'm really tempted to engage with some of the questions, but it's such a hostile and one-sided space here, it feels like a self-destructive exercise from my point of view (in that I'm just setting myself up to be attacked).”

Aren’t academics (especially Oxbridge ones) used to having to engage with robust challenge? I thought it was one of the cornerstones of the gold-standard tutorial system?

I'd like to know when and where this nonsense attire is deemed acceptable. At the bank? An estate agent? A solicitor?
People would vote with their feet, surely.
Students are stuck with their teachers. So it's a calculated move by Matt, isn't it?

So you're ok with, for example, observant Muslims self-excluding from the course?

And how can any student complain given the witch hunt against Dr North? They obviously can't. Relying on complaints where there's a totalitarian imposition of the gender religion is just another way of shutting down concerns and excluding people.

Yes! But the thing is, we don't personally attack each other. We may be dead opposed to one another's ideas, but there's still an underlying assumption of good faith. Ideally anyway!

Here on the MN threads it feels very different. When I was younger I cared more about engaging with anyone who was up for it. Now I'm just older and tireder. Sorry! (and thank you menopause)

If you come to Oxford, DM me and we can meet for coffee.

Hands up anyone who's professional dress code permits large sexualised costume appendages?

but it's such a hostile and one-sided space here

Well, if you engage in good faith, and at least try to answer the questions you clearly would rather not answer, then the space becomes not one-sided, surely?

I would say that race and gender are very different issues, in some ways it's a big red herring (not to mention downright racist) to conflate the two

I, for one, would be very interested in an explanation about this statement, if you have one? We were discussing the use of blackface to "represent" certain people in a derogatory way and the use of "woman-dress" (for lack of a better term) to represent women in a derogatory way.

I'm very happy to chat about this with people one-on-one

But, you would rather not discuss these issues in public or on a forum? Even if you are anonymous? Is this because you don't have any actual credible information? Or are you used to dealing with only one person at a time? That would be difficult, I imagine, when dealing with students all the time as an academic.

I don't have the time or capacity to reply to all the comments, nor do I have all the answers.

Oh, my mistake, you've covered part of that question already. So, just "translating" a bit here, you are saying from the outset that you are not going to answer any questions you don't feel like have time to spend answering. Ok, no problem, you're not obliged to answer questions. Perhaps just don't expect us to believe what you state without evidence.

Also massive fake tits are not clothing. They have no practical purpose. He's not wearing them, he's using them.

Are other sex toys allowed at work at Oxford? Massive dildo?

I find it deeply ironic that OF finds this online space where they're not required to come "a hostile space" but the space Matt R is creating for female and tbh male students with his giant rubber breasts where they are required to be not at all hostile

If this was a woman with naturally large breasts then any manager in a decent workplace, one with any professional standards, would have a word about appropriate t shirts and necklines. Fgs most in education and services are aware of things like not showing cleavage, about professional dress that won't make any of their clientele uncomfortable with some awareness and consideration of the diversity of people and backgrounds and cultures they work with.

This is a man with a fetish having a laugh.

And apparently a workplace bonkers enough that they're no longer fit for purpose. The ivory tower needs dismantling now,I have a horrible feeling Reform will probably do it in the next few years, and to be fair they've brought it upon themselves. Cloud cuckoo land.

Does it matter if one person feeling 'comfort' makes many others uncomfortable? Are naturist lecturers allowed?

Ok @oxfordfeminist

I too am old and tired but thankfully post menopause.

I do not think this thread has been especially hostile towards Matt or yourself.

All we are asking is why is he wearing a massive pair of rubber boobs? As a Science teacher surely he deals in actual facts? The fact he ensures the boobs are always visible in all of his photos is a deliberate act. You must see that?

At best it is silly and provocative and at worst it is a massive red flag to see what reaction he gets and if the reaction is negative he can pull out whatever card people objecting to fake massive boobs is now a hate crime.

We have got to a point where in my opinion and experience, mediocre people in the workplace adopt a ‘characteristic’ that we no longer can challenge as everything from anxiety to stress to fetish has to be tolerated.

What is the next boundary to be pushed? When can we as women say no, enough?

Actually I dress in a way that is appropriate for the occasion or event. Not just comfort.

You say there are differences between race and gender that make white people in blackface offensive and unacceptable, but male people in womanface or giant fake tits simply self expression.

Can you please back this up by giving some example of differences and explain why as a result the impact of these acts on members of the two oppressed groups is so different?

What if he felt comfortable wearing a codpiece like Grayson Perry has been known to, would that be okay?

I think overall I'd personally find a naturist lecturer less threatening as I know there really are people who just like to go around naked. I don't think it's appropriate in a workplace because I do think it'd exclude many students. However it's is less likely to be a sexual fetish imo than massive fake tits.

@oxfordfeminist your granny has died, or perhaps your infant grandson, and the man who comes to your parents' or child's house to organise the funeral is wearing oversized fake breasts. Do you think that is okay?

It's a genuine question, I'm not trying to trip you up or be hateful, I really would like to understand your thinking.

We’re note even allowed to wear strappy or see through tops. Not that I would.

@oxfordfeminist much of this thread has been about boundaries. The point has been made time and time again that what Matt is doing is crossing many people boundaries by making them feel uncomfortable. Surely as an academic you can see the reality?

You seem so determined to make out this is hostility. It is not. We are women, and possibly some men, who feel tired and weary of this whole ‘bring your whole self to work’ nonsense. It does not improve productivity. I am retired now but honestly just before I finished work I was so tired of having to pander to peoples ‘whole self’. Come in, represent the organisation in a professional manner, do your job.

I'm a bit worried now I've mentioned naturists that Matt will decide that he needs to be naked next to feel comfortable at work. After all the definition of naturist is (my bolding): naturist
/ˈneɪtʃ(ə)rɪst/
A naturist is a person who practices non-sexual social nudity, often for reasons of health, comfort, and a desire to live in harmony with nature

To be fair I think most naturists are a bit more considerate of other people's discomfort than Matt, or indeed Oxford Uni.

Naturists would be easily covered by indecent exposure laws.

Offensive slogan on t-shirt may be a better comparison, from a legal perspective.
Would a tutor wearing "Adult Human Female" be permitted, if it made some students uncomfortable? The point where workplaces get to decide their own balance vs where does Equality law apply is not clearcut at all, post FWS case.

I wonder if a student would be allowed to go to his lectures wearing a bald cap, fake straggly beard and red lipstick

@oxfordfeminist
If I had sat in a supervision in the other place and told my supervisor that I wasn't going to engage with the question he asked me - one that struck to the core of the position I was attempting to hold - because he wasn't asking in the right way or being solicitous enough, I can imagine the reaction. But those were the days when we actually had to argue our position and couldn't just run away citing lack of time or mental health concerns.

You seem to forget, or perhaps you haven't fully cared to realise, that the college has put this man in a position of considerable power over young and vulnerable women.

I would say that race and gender are very different issues, and in some ways it's a big red herring (not to mention downright racist) to conflate the two.

So @Kucinghitam of this thread, and Dr Dr P (https://x.com/Psychgirl211), both of whom have experienced racist abuse and who draw a quite explicit link with the gender larping mindset and the abuse women experience are 'racist' because they complain about both .

You are so privileged.