Kathleen Stock’s OBE may be the most useful one ever awarded. Oh, my God, if people weren’t aware of how academia has been infiltrated by some of the wooliest bullies on earth, they sure know now. We’ve already covered poor old Jonathan Ichikawa’s attempt to rustle up a mob, and subsequent shyness when it didn’t go in the direction he’d requested.
Jan 7, 2021Liked by Graham Linehan, mole at the counter
Thank you so much, Graham, for discussing this really important area, and for linking to the Mumsnet thread where, as usual, a lot of good sense was posted. There was one particularly poignant plea from a student:
"I realise this board isn't for me as I'm a student, but I wanted to come and say that from a student's perspective, it's very reassuring to see staff who are GC. Not so much because that's what I am, but because when you have a lecturer or tutor who you know (either cos they've said it or their online profile) say that biology isn't real, it totally undermines what you're being taught both by them and the other faculty members who aren't openly GC. Obviously it shouldn't, but if you had a lecturer telling you the Earth is flat and anybody who says it's spherical is a) a bigot and b) behind in understanding basic science, then they teach you about some new research/topic you don't know much about, you don't know whether to believe them. It makes learning really hard because you wonder if they're trying to indoctrinate you about something else, but you just don't know what yet. While we can all go and check research etc there simply isn't time to investigate everything you're learning.
It also impacts how we write essays, because clearly not even the most basic of things can be assumed in certain departments and you don't want to have someone marking your work who thinks you're a bigot.
So (apologies for long post), it really matters that those teaching us and producing research around us are shown to know basic science.
So thanks for anybody able to speak out.
(I shall disappear from this thread now and leave you alone!)"
She was invited very warmly to STAY on the thread, I'm glad to say!
What an utter shitstorm in academic life!
My son went to New College, Oxford, where one of the young men in his student digs was pretending to "change sex" or be "gender fluid", I can't remember. My son introduced him to me, seriously, with a female first name. My son didn't blink. I felt shocked at this 20 year-old's confusion, but I was of course polite. He left quickly. They all spent their time in a library so it didn't really matter at Uni, but it sure will matter later. I hope that he recovered his grip on reality.
That clown image will haunt me for days...
Thank you so much, Graham, for discussing this really important area, and for linking to the Mumsnet thread where, as usual, a lot of good sense was posted. There was one particularly poignant plea from a student:
"I realise this board isn't for me as I'm a student, but I wanted to come and say that from a student's perspective, it's very reassuring to see staff who are GC. Not so much because that's what I am, but because when you have a lecturer or tutor who you know (either cos they've said it or their online profile) say that biology isn't real, it totally undermines what you're being taught both by them and the other faculty members who aren't openly GC. Obviously it shouldn't, but if you had a lecturer telling you the Earth is flat and anybody who says it's spherical is a) a bigot and b) behind in understanding basic science, then they teach you about some new research/topic you don't know much about, you don't know whether to believe them. It makes learning really hard because you wonder if they're trying to indoctrinate you about something else, but you just don't know what yet. While we can all go and check research etc there simply isn't time to investigate everything you're learning.
It also impacts how we write essays, because clearly not even the most basic of things can be assumed in certain departments and you don't want to have someone marking your work who thinks you're a bigot.
So (apologies for long post), it really matters that those teaching us and producing research around us are shown to know basic science.
So thanks for anybody able to speak out.
(I shall disappear from this thread now and leave you alone!)"
She was invited very warmly to STAY on the thread, I'm glad to say!
What an utter shitstorm in academic life!
My son went to New College, Oxford, where one of the young men in his student digs was pretending to "change sex" or be "gender fluid", I can't remember. My son introduced him to me, seriously, with a female first name. My son didn't blink. I felt shocked at this 20 year-old's confusion, but I was of course polite. He left quickly. They all spent their time in a library so it didn't really matter at Uni, but it sure will matter later. I hope that he recovered his grip on reality.