For the distress caused
Here’s the whole letter sent to all Cambridge sociology students by the big boss of sociology:
In the first sentence Desai takes for granted that “distress was caused to” the students by the fact that Helen Joyce was giving a talk at Cambridge – as if she were a proponent of genocide or something equally horrifying.
In the next sentence she takes it for granted that Helen Joyce’s lecture is “potentially harmful” – as if she were a proponent of genocide or something equally horrifying. It’s pretty evil, this kind of thing. If someone were giving talks at universities advocating slavery for lesser races, or literal non-metaphorical LITERAL genocide, or the right of men to murder their female relatives, I would consider that harmful, but after all these years I still don’t consider it harmful to point out that humans can’t change sex.
In the next sentence Desai says with regret that “we” (the good people?) can’t tell independent colleges to disinvite speakers “we” disapprove of. She doesn’t, of course, go to the trouble of saying why “we” disapprove – she treats it as self-evident.
In the next sentence Desai gloats that the University’s alphabet groups have written to the guilty independent college to “express dismay.” Hooray for universities and students and the right and need to think carefully about things!
In the next two sentences Desai says grovel grovel grovel grovel please don’t hit me.
In the final sentence Desai says there’s a “welfare event” and a “gathering” in the evening – I guess so that the stricken prostrated students can get medication and prayer and mugs of Horlicks.
What a pathetic display.
And when it comes to creating the conditions for students to get a liberal education and to understand the meaning of such, this galah is still a troddler in play school.
Remember back in the heyday of New Atheism when we used to complain about Creationists, Islamists, homophobic preachers, and other assorted wackos being able to hold events in university buildings because it gave them the veneer of credibility? I guess this is a case of be careful what you wish for isn’t it? Never thought the existence of sex in humans would end up being lumped in with the belief that the universe is only a few thousand years old, or that vaccines cause autism.
A single email mentioning Helen Joyce positively caused such harm to trans students that the university leadership needed to issue a missive of their own, with a tone that is by turns reproachful that Joyce managed to secure an event booking, and apologetic for the psychic wounds inflicted upon the precious and delicate transes and enbies. The event itself is so harmful that merely staying out of the hall is not enough; the campus needs to throw its own event so the poor wounded dears can gather and wrap each other in a soft downy blanket of mutual support. I predict their conversations will use sentences of extremely awkward structure, so that they may replace the maximum number of second person pronouns with third. They might even make soft cooing noises at each other.
I guess the very existence of the event radiates baleful energies through the walls and throughout the campus, or maybe the gendersoulz are psychically sensitive to distant instances of wrongthink. I hope the room the tea event is in is lined with both lead and soft cotton wool for the poor dears.
Meanwhile, saying public spaces need to be sex segregated for the safety and privacy of (primarily) the female sex is characterised as creating a psychological dependency, conditioning women to believe themselves vulnerable and hence maintaining permanent fear. A total 180.
Don’t forget homeopathic dilutions of whatever you happen to sweep up off the floor, along with “thoughts and prayers.”
I know it’s been mentioned before, but Helen’s talk is about freedom of speech.
Sorry, I should have warned you to put your irony meters in a Faraday cage before I said that.