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A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

economist.com

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Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#61
post #21

> The arguments the two sides put forward, in other words, are complex and debatable. But many trans activists think that any disagreement is tantamount to hate speech and try to suppress it. This is 100% my personal experience also. Even on HN last week someone said I should try to be a "better human" and compared my suggestion that maybe someone might oppose transgender women in women's spaces for reasons other tha…

The proof is that this article, a "The Economist" article, has been flagged. It shows [flagged] next to the title.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#62

There’s a lot that’s already been said in this topic but I feel compelled to bring up the damage imposed by TERF talking points. The conversation goes something like this: “Transgender women possess an innate maleness that carries a non-zero threat to female spaces.” They believe that dictionary definitions of woman are prescriptive, declared at the chromosomes during birth, rather than descriptive, as in how one pre…

I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss what seems to be a reasonable discussion as simply “TERF talking points” and then reframe what your opponents are saying in an un-sympathetic way.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#63

There’s a lot that’s already been said in this topic but I feel compelled to bring up the damage imposed by TERF talking points. The conversation goes something like this: “Transgender women possess an innate maleness that carries a non-zero threat to female spaces.” They believe that dictionary definitions of woman are prescriptive, declared at the chromosomes during birth, rather than descriptive, as in how one pre…

I don’t think it’s fair to dismiss what seems to be a reasonable discussion as simply “TERF talking points” and then reframe what your opponents are saying in an un-sympathetic way.

Maybe it's like telling ME patients it's all in their head, and they can be cured psychologically. It may work on some, but for many they get permanently damaged from too much pressure and stress. After such abuse and being ground down, it's hard to be sympathetic to ignorance and abuse.

I don't know enough to conclude, but trying to understand and ask more questions is a first step.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#64
post #6

A flyer with an image of a gun and text reading “shut the fuck up, terf” (trans-exclusionary radical feminist, a slur) was circulating Not accepting incivility from people is hardly what I'd call a "backlash". We don't operate our universities on the heckler's veto.

> We don't operate our universities on the heckler's veto. I've seen a few videos from various Universities where invited speakers are shouted down because of supposed wrong views. But then it isn't the heckler's veto if their views are wrong or what?

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Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#65
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> TERF isn’t a slur. I think the economist's usage was OK, as it appears in the supplied context to have been used as a slur (I'm not adequately connected on the topic to know what the "normal" usage would be). > The whole article is suspect to be sympathetic to anti-trans politics as a result. Clearly, given what I said above, I don't agree with this diagnosis. In particular I think a few articles like this are a go…

There’s a difference between saying it’s used as a way to disparage someone and as a slur here. I’ve generally associated the term slur with a significant history of using it against a demographic, such as f ggot, n ggr, ch*nk, etc. saying that TERF is on the same level as those terms struck me as politicking and not journalism, which made me suspect the rest of the piece as political nonsense from the right.

Language is dynamic. Use something as a slur often enough, and it becomes a slur. And here it's clearly being used as a slur. That doesn't make it always a slur (yet), but here it clearly is.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A slur is an insult, no one has to have died for something to be a slur, not sure where you got that idea from.

Right, but "slur" by itself is used as shorthand for "offensive slur" - typically racially-offensive slurs or homophobic slurs, and so on - I'm not aware of normal public discourse referring to everyday insults as "slurs" - whatever the original definition slur had it now has a connotation of insulting the target by way of comparing the target to an intentionally hurtful stereotype. (I could enumerate examples but no…

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Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no historical reason to think that not supporting extreme speech will lead to fascism. There are historical reasons to think that curbing extremist speech protects democracy (see the Weimar Republic).

Why focus only on fascism? What about authoritarianism? Look at the USSR and the modern CCP.

Because the west and especially the US has, very specifically, a fascism problem.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#68
post #27

Freedom of expression/free speech doesn’t mean freedom not to be offended or that you have to agree with the views. If we do not support even the most offensive speech then we risk a very slippery slope leading to censorship and 1984.

There's no historical reason to think that not supporting extreme speech will lead to fascism. There are historical reasons to think that curbing extremist speech protects democracy (see the Weimar Republic).

There are also historical reasons to think that tyranny has to suppress free speech in order to survive. So even if extreme speech can lead to tyranny, free speech can lead you back out - if you can keep the tyranny from destroying the free speech.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Truscum" being the word for someone who thinks that changing one's gender and sexual characteristics might not be the greatest idea ever unless you actually have , like, gender dysphoria. Never mind the many, many people who are now pursuing "detransition" after going one step too far. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

"many, many people" -- do you have numbers as to how many people detransition, not due to being pressured but because they aren't trans after all, and only after making irreversible changes?

Seems like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detransition might be a point to start. YMMV with how much weight a controversial topic like that on WP should carry.

Re: A backlash against gender ideology is starting in universities

#70

There’s a lot that’s already been said in this topic but I feel compelled to bring up the damage imposed by TERF talking points. The conversation goes something like this: “Transgender women possess an innate maleness that carries a non-zero threat to female spaces.” They believe that dictionary definitions of woman are prescriptive, declared at the chromosomes during birth, rather than descriptive, as in how one pre…

That seems to me a very uncharitable take on the TERF position. For example, approximately 1/4 of women have been raped at some time. It's not very hard to see that such women could have a problem with someone who's biologically male in the women's room - a serious, traumatic problem.

You can say that and still be sympathetic to the plight of trans people.

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