This wretched island
Brighton and Hove News reports:
A targeted campaign against a philosophy professor accused of transphobia has been condemned as harassment by the University of Sussex.
Posters demanding the university fire Kathleen Stock appeared on campus this morning, and smoke bombs were set off as a masked protester held a banner saying Stock Out at the entrance to campus.
The protesters say Professor Stock seeks to exclude and endanger trans people by, for example, supporting female-only spaces and sport and questioning the safety of puberty blocking drugs prescribed to minors.
In other words she seeks to support the safety of women and of minors who want to harm themselves by halting puberty. She doesn’t seek to endanger anyone, and she seeks to “exclude” men from women’s spaces, because women need some spaces away from men. Some kinds of exclusion are permissible and necessary.
This latest campaign today posted a “mission statement” on its Instagram page which said: “Stock is one of this wretched island’s most prominent transphobes, espousing a bastardized variation of ‘radical feminism’ that excludes and endangers trans people.
Yo, radical feminism is about women. It’s not about trans people, nor should it be.
It concludes: “Our demand is simple: fire Kathleen Stock. Until then, you’ll see us around.”
A University of Sussex spokesperson said: “We were extremely concerned to see the harassment towards our staff member and took immediate action in response to this, which we continue to do.”
This rhetorical inversion has become ubiquitous with young activists; they assume that the most extreme possible version of their goals are simply the natural state of things, and every other idea is a bastardisation and an inversion of all reason. It is most evident with the blatant redefinition of common words, which the “more reasonable” activists chalk up to “language evolution” and try and bully us old fuddy-duddies to “update” our speech, but that is just an obvious expression of what is going on.
I think I’ll start calling this argumentum ad inversum, in which one not only assumes one’s position is correct, one pretends said position is the long-standing consensus view and, by virtue of the interlocutor’s obstinate disagreement, the countering view is the radical redefinition which requires extraordinary evidence and persuasion to keep from dismissing out of hand.
The truth is that the “bastardised version” of radical feminism is, of course, the one which asserts that woman is as woman does and there can be such a thing as a “female” penis or a “male” vagina. That this position is a radical redefinition of radical feminism is not in itself enough to dismiss it out of hand, but asserting that it is the default which needs no further argument is simply deluded.
I am extremely glad that the university is backing Stock. So many other harassment campaigns have had different results.
“…ignoring the medical consencus [sic] around it’s [sic] safety and nessecity [sic].”
Someone needs an editor.
“They’re spiteful bootlickers, with Stock alone spitting out years worth of tweets, articles, and organizing that make her distaste for our existence abundantly clear.”
Ah, there’s nothing like good, reasoned, measured academic debate.
One of the many things that blows me away about all this is that when I did my undergrad degree tumpety tump years ago, we fought the university non-stop to allow us to say whatever we liked and to invite who we wanted to speak on campus.
Now students want the university to police and prevent speech. They want that power taken away from them and handed back to the university.
It’s yet another sign that we’re dealing with a generation of people who never grew up and were never told no. They want the parent-like authority figure to protect them from all harm: real, imagined and potential. They want the university to be their mummy. They want to scream and stamp their feet and make demands… but they want to do it in complete safety, shielded from all consequence. They don’t want to do anything themselves about the world’s problems, they want to scream until someone else does something arbitrary, regardless of who is hurt.
The most enraging part is that I can’t entirely blame the students. Where are the adults? Why aren’t they in the room? Why aren’t they teaching those children empathy, compassion and understanding? Why aren’t they teaching them to be brave and to think for themselves? Why aren’t they teaching them not to burn fucking effigies of their lecturers in the campus?
And this is Brighton, for Christ’s sake.
When people accuse GC feminists of “transphobia” I tend to revert to ingrained habits of thinking that the position needs to be expressed more clearly, or in a different way, so that those on the other side recognize that it’s reasonable even if false … but I can’t do that here because I read Kathleen Stock’s book.
Trans activists seem to be leaving the comparison between Trans Rights and Gay Rights behind in favor of equating Trans Rights with Human Rights. There’s no other way to account for the vitriol and the constant harping on harm, damage, extinction, and genocide. Even if someone believed that TWAW, they ought to recognize the distinction between a transwoman using the men’s room and Jews being marched into Auschwitz.
Modern pedagogy holds that it is important to keep the student “safe” from any possible distress. When I was in college, if my instructors didn’t cause distress they thought they were doing it wrong.
I suspect part of the student’s pushing so hard rose from the advent of students getting to evaluate teachers at the end of the semester, and the fact that these evaluations went (immediately) from being a tool for the teacher to improve in the classroom to being a part of their overall school evaluation with the possible threat of termination. Now students hold a lot of power, and teachers are almost afraid to fail anyone (maybe not almost; I’ve been called in to explain why some student failed my class. When I said they never came, my boss asked why I didn’t engage them. I said because they never came, not even to one class, but the common thinking is that is still failure to engage, to sent just the right email to students before it starts, etc).
Even in my school, deep in Trump country, deep in red Nebraska, school administrators often bend over backwards to accommodate trans students. And even then a parent or student will declare it isn’t enough, they are transphobic etc. The course of least resistance for busy, exhausted teachers is to give in rather than trying to rock the boat and fix the situation.
So far, our science instructors are being the unruly bunch (as we usually are) and not caving. We still teach that XY is a male genome and XX is a female, and we teach the variations without assuming this makes trans real. I hope to be retired before it seeps down into our classrooms.
latsot #4 wrote:
I think they not only taught their children empathy, compassion, and understanding, they overtaught them, so that anguished personal testimony or the needs of friends completely blot out critical thinking and the ability to analyze a claim dispassionately. The parents not only taught them to be brave and think for themselves, they overtaught them, so that fighting injustice and self-determination became blind retaliation and a firm conviction that people have an inalienable right to define “who they really are inside” for the outside world.
But the one about not burning effigies of their professors— yeah, the adults missed that one.
So, I realize that Brits (to their credit) are not as jingoistic as Americans, but this seems like an odd way to build support for your cause.
Sastra:
You could well be right and that’s what I used to think, but I’m now less sure of it. I think they’ve learned to expect (demand) empathy etc from others while not practising it themselves. I see no evidence at all of bravery of thought or action, even misplaced. I see kids in a sandpit complaining about their toys.
Screechy,
I think it’s a reference to Britain being TERF Island, which they mistakenly believe to be a bad thing.
Screechy, latsot,
If you read the whole screed, you’ll see they also refer to it as “this colonial shit-hole”. I think it’s a bad attempt to parody John of Gaunt’s speech in Richard II (and I suspect that’s why Ophelia chose the title she did).
No, actually, I was just echoing their phrase; the “this England” speech didn’t occur to me. I’m a little doubtful that they’re all that tuned into cis colonialist privileged Will Shakespeare.
latsot wrote:
Most of the protesters are probably allies, not trans themselves, and regularly refer to the exclusion, bullying, harassment, denial, hatred, violence, and abuse directed towards the most vulnerable, marginalized minority. Frankly, it’s starting to remind me of public outcries against people who callously leave their dogs locked in heated parked cars. The outrage is intense, and usually includes recommendations that the owner be left to expire the same way, with loss of job, home, income, family, and any status a given. Yet it’s all fueled by empathy, compassion, and understanding the needs of a dependent animal.
I don’t particularly disagree, but I was speaking more generally. I’ll expand on my thinking another time.
Can’t assume Wilhemina Shakespeare was cis!
Perhaps it’s just me, then; I’m on a bit of a Shakespeare kick lately.
But they may be aware of the speech, even without knowing the provenance. I remember a while back there was a tourism campaign that used the speech to try to convince Yanks to visit; of course, it ended with “this England”; nothing about the island being “leased out…/Like to a tenement or pelting farm”. But it makes me wonder if the speech is taught as patriotic propaganda, much as we learn the intro to the Declaration.
Yes could be. I just refreshed my memory of the speech and recalled why I don’t particularly like it. The last couple of lines are the familiar sentimental ones but most of it is…overkill. Shakespeare improved RADICALLY over time. In his youth he liked to over-egg the pudding.
As someone who fosters rescued and abused dogs, I don’t have an intense desire to hate their previous owners. So I’m not quite ready to accept that it’s the love of dogs that inspires people to hate those who mistreat them.
Overkill, and so easy to take out of context. Re-reading it, there’s irony (intentional or not, I don’t know) in Gaunt’s emphasis on “This fortress built by Nature,” given that the Plantagenets owed their crown to two invasions (William’s and later Henry II’s), and of course Gaunt’s son was about to return to England and conquer the throne.
But I’m babbling.
Oh babble away, I’m always up for Shakespeare babble.
And so is Tim Harris, so that’s at least three of us.
Yes, and you both would make me feel quite the Lilliputian in that discussion.
I always enjoy the Shakespeare babble, and sometimes it reminds me of parts that I’d forgotten. I agree; babble on.
@JA #18
That’s fair, it’s certainly not entirely a love of dogs behind the bloodthirsty reaction, but other factors, too. I think I recollect a popular agony columnist (Dear Abby?) saying that the letters she got in response to a post on animal cruelty seemed to be far more punitive than even those addressing child molestation or rape. Trump’s followers might not have cared if he shot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue, but I wouldn’t bet that their attitude would be the same if he kicked a puppy.
Sastra, right now I can understand that, My dog is at the vet needing multiple surgeries after a pit bull attack last night, and we’re not sure he can be saved. My thoughts be bloody.
Oh no. That’s horrible, I’m so sorry. A neighbor’s beloved dachsie was attacked by a pit bull a few months ago – snapped her neck. Died in her lap on the way to the vet. I hope yours pulls through.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/embed-test/6479dea1-8584-42c2-81f7-26c4f464daaf
THIS time I’ll get it right.
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/embed-test/6479dea1-8584-42c2-81f7-26c4f464daaf
The Pit Bull has been selectively bred for aggresiveness and viciousness, and they are a horrible lesson in genetic manipulation. I have only ever been attacked by one dog in all my years, unprovoked while I was working, a Pit Bull of course. My daughter’s chocolate Lab was also attacked last year, tore up pretty bad along with my son in law’s hand when he finally was able to pull the (off leashed) Pit Bull off of their young Lab. The people who adopt these creatures and go on about how sweet they are are naive and ignorant, Pit Bulls are not to be trusted. I have been around German Shepherds, Dobermans, Rottweilers, Akitas, and other so called dangerous dogs, but none of them make the hair stand up on my neck like a Pit Bull. Even the ones I have met that are housepets and have never attacked anything give me the creeps. It’s in their genes. Pit Bulls are always inches away from attacking, no matter how benign they seem. It’s not the dog’s fault of course, they didn’t ask to be born, but I find the owners mostly naive and irresponsible sorts who are either looking for a weapon, or out to prove how misunderstood they are. I understand them just fine, and never let my guard down when one is around. My daughter called the cops and pursued the owner for damages, but the Pit Bull owner lied and the cops couldn’t do anything, and they had nothing but their word and their injuries for proof, so their was no way to go forward in small claims court either. I am a dog lover to a fault, all shapes and sizes of them, except one. I think breeding them should be outlawed, but I’m sure the ‘freedom’ types would disagree. They have literally killed wolves to the brink of extinction, but don’t deny them their man made monstrosities. :P
twiliter, they tried to ban pit bulls in our town a few years ago after several incidents with different dogs. The people who screamed freedom on that are probably the same people going through the grocery store unmasked and unvaccinated because of freedom.
Of course, if the city would enforce leash laws or other laws about not letting your dog roam free, things like this wouldn’t happen. But police will say they are too busy (not in this town they’re not; we have more police than criminals).
Thanks for your good wishes; I hope I’ll have better news tomorrow, but it didn’t sound good today.
My heart goes out to you and your dog, iknklast. Hoping for the best today.
Ugh, iknklast, that’s horrible.
Update. My dog came through surgery well, and is home. He is walking slowly and has stents sticking out, but it appears he is going to be okay, though I suspect he may have a limp. I imagine he’s practicing how to tell all his dog buddies “You should see the other guy”.
Thank you for your wishes. I think I may actually stop shaking soon.
Good to hear. Thanks for the update!
Aww iknklast I’ve been worrying about your dog all day! Glad to hear he’s ok. Give him a hug from me. I can’t even imagine what that must have been like. There’s been a recent emergence of “tough guy dogs” around my way, I can’t stand seeing them. Cropped ears, full of steroids, wannabe gangster owners. I’m just glad my dog is small enough to pick up in a crisis.
Oh whewwwww. That is good news. Baby him like crazy – “Would you like cheese with that raw chopped sirloin? Can I get you another cashmere blanket to lie on?”