Oxford university EBD Lecture

[BlueLegume]

https://www.ox.ac.uk/events/edb-lecture-2026-gender-and-the-pursuit-of-liberation-trans-inclusion-in-education-sports

I think the link explains itself.

Couple of threads on X about it. I feel we have lost any battle as women now. We have tried. We are being erased by the cult of trans.

It is depressing, but I wonder why it produces such despair in you, since it is only one incident among many in the university sector? Is it the cache of its being an Oxford event? Oxbridge has never been immune from this kind of stupidity (or stupidity in general). I'm often surprised how parents posting on MN seem to overvalue Oxbridge.

I notice that last year's lecturer at this event was Jason Arday - Cambridge's own example of the failure to operate equality and diversity in a rigorous and actually helpful manner. So I'd see this particular event as just one more example of a university sector that has gone astray. Hopefully the Arday affair will be the beginning of a reckoning.

Edit: wrong thread

As JK observed - it’s the elite who have bought into this not the normal person
and that’s where it will take longer to turn

I really wouldn't worry.

It's one woman and her journey/thoughts/experience - which is quite an unusual one and so I imagine many people will be interested in listening to it.

I would find her story interesting although I wonder whether probing questions will be allowed or if it's just a talk/screened questions.

We shouldn't be afraid of people talking. We just want the same courtesy extended to people from other viewpoints in universities - without protests and demonstrations.

I understand that we should not necessarily look to Oxbridge with starry eyed awe. Just reading the intro of the lecture enhancing how oppressed trans people are but zero mention of women who have been directly impacted - Sandie Peggie, Jennifer Melle, Darlington Nurses, Sarah Redvers is for me such a depressing sign. These are working class women. This lecture does back up JKRs point about the elites pushing the trans agenda.

This is the intro:

The last six years have brought record-breaking amounts of legislative attacks on transgender rights. Public media seems to constantly debate where trans people belong – or, rather, where they believe trans people do not belong. “Transgenderism must be eradicated,” claimed one conservative commentator. Trans people, of course, do not need to be eradicated. Transphobia does. But how? True and lasting change not only comes when leadership shifts, but also when society does. Backed by research and science and threaded with humanity and passion, this lecture will debunk common misconceptions about trans people and trans rights, centering common humanity, directly answering audience questions and empowering attendees to be better allies.

I could pick the para apart but I am able to see they have used specific language to push buttons of sex realists. I definitely have trans fatigue and cannot see anything changing to address what this is - a mental illness requiring treatment through body modification.

Yes, actually I agree, Ali. Looking a little at the speaker, it seems that they aren't actually even an academic, more of a professional speaker. So this can't be a very hardcore academic event. So perhaps we should feel able to relax a bit and just look for whatever is of interest in the speaker's presentation.

Appreciate the responses. I suppose my view is that young impressionable students may see the speaker as someone to emulate. It feels very different than the men who are larping as women. The speaker also had a book out in 2023.
Perhaps I need to move with the times and be more open minded. I do struggle pretending around this gender stuff so perhaps I am the problem. I see a woman on stage not a man.

Yes, even without my glasses and a small picture, I saw a woman.

I need to step away at times too as it becomes too much. The juggernaut is turning, just very slowly.

@ickky I feel we have entered a fresh phase TBH. The young women drawn into the trans movement are a different kind than the men larping as women.

The young women who have transitioned over the past 10 years or so are presenting as bright sparky interesting and success stories - such as the speaker at Oxford. My issue is a young female student fresh to Oxford, perhaps autistic, perhaps unsure of her sexuality could see a pathway via trans and that concerns me.

Would they platform an anorexic to extoll the virtues of anorexia?

I do hope you are right about the juggernaut. I do not hate anyone, I hate being told that unless I step in line and affirm lies about people I am a bigot.

I don't think girls and women who have had mastectomies, hormone treatment and other surgery are presenting as 'bright and sparkly' at all. I think many of these people have multiple physical and mental health issues - eating disorders included. Some may try to put on a brave face to try and convince themselves that everything in the garden is rosy - and I wonder if this is true for Schuyler, who would likely have been a very successful female athlete.

Edited to note that Schuyler was indeed a top female swimming athlete and would likely have continued to be very successful in this category.

There is also a much larger group that in school/university made social changes name pronouns) and style changes in hair, makeup and clothes and have (as you do as you get older and go into the workplace) changed this.

Well I learnt something from the talk summary - that "winningest" is an actual word, in actual dictionaries, and not just some idiot spewing nonsense. A Reddit thread pointing out that it sounds like random babble has some suggestions for related wordforms:

Winning, Winninger, Winningest.
Winningful.
Most Wonninged.
Winnifred.

Don't despair......turning this thing around was always a long term project. Havng become embedded in so many institutions, and especially in academia ( from where it originated) it has become part of the identity of many people. People have constructed their public personas on this stuff and others have made careers out of it.

This lecture looks like a side show - most likely only to be attended by those who are already committed or politically active.

I sense that 'trans' has already peaked and had its day. Identities are now being constructed around mental and physical ill health and/or disability of one sort or other, or around 'neuro-divergence'.

As a side note, I have become aware in recent weeks that 'goth' personas and fashions are making something of a come back.

Excellent to hear that Goth is having a revival.

Bring back mods and rockers, let's have some more punk or glam rock.

Looking at Schuyler’s Wikipedia page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schuyler_Bailar

it’s obvious that a promising career as a woman unsurprisingly stopped dead on transitioning. Then all that appears after that is a third best and something won by a team Schuyler was in.

So Schuyler is flying the flag for “inclusion” policies that Schuyler is personally disadvantaged by. That’s dedication to the cause.

First trans man I’ve seen on the men’s team but according to that Wikipedia page her amazing wins go to top 15% and top 34% once she transitions. So a very good athlete competing against men but would have been outstanding against women.

Agree I’m not too worried that she is speaking. We have never wanted to gag trans activists, only to preserve women’s spaces and rights.