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[Ogdibus]

What does that have to do with the quality of education?   It's a video that ridicules a woman for her weight.  Fat isn't the same as stupid or ignorant.

[nenjin]

Well, her weight and the horrendous non-verbal shrieking she was doing.

[Reelya]

It's all sorts of ironic, a discussion which is basically about how one political agenda has drowned out all other voices on campus, and they "prove them wrong" by doing the exact behavior that is being criticized.

And it is worldwide, e.g. at The  University of Melbourne, Sheila Jeffreys only retired last year as a professor of "professor of feminist politics", and she was basically a hate-speech spewing transgender-hating lesbian separatist feminist. I bolded transgender hating because she made a big deal of that, publishing entire books on the subject as recently as 2014. That basically shows you can be a huge bigot, but as long as you wrap it up in the guise of "feminism" you'll get a pulpit at a major university, without the protestors going for you. Where the fuck are the feminist protesters when this woman speaks? Nowhere to be seen. People who claim "intersectionality" when it suits them are somehow silent on these leading feminist scholars who spew hate speech against selected oppressed minorities.

BTW if these were only fringe individuals, the "feminism hates transgender" thing would be questionable, but for Sheila Jeffrey's anti-trans book, one big plug is given by Janice Raymond, "Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies and Medical Ethics at the University of Massachusetts", who herself wrote a book called "The Transsexual Empire". Note, that Transsexual Empire came out in 1979, just two years after Star Wars. "Empire" was definitely a loaded term, and not in a good way. Women's Studies courses are often run by similar bigots who take an essentialist view of gender (anyone born with penis is the enemy), yet somehow claim to be doing away with gender.

[Willfor]

It's all sorts of ironic, a discussion which is basically about how one political agenda has drowned out all other voices on campus, and they "prove them wrong" by doing the exact behavior that is being criticized.

And it is worldwide, e.g. at The  University of Melbourne, Sheila Jeffreys only retired last year as a professor of "professor of feminist politics", and she was basically a hate-speech spewing transgender-hating lesbian separatist feminist. I bolded transgender hating because she made a big deal of that, publishing entire books on the subject as recently as 2014. That basically shows you can be a huge bigot, but as long as you wrap it up in the guise of "feminism" you'll get a pulpit at a major university, without the protestors going for you. Where the fuck are the feminist protesters when this woman speaks? Nowhere to be seen. People who claim "intersectionality" when it suits them are somehow silent on these leading feminist scholars who spew hate speech against selected oppressed minorities.

BTW if these were only fringe individuals, the "feminism hates transgender" thing would be questionable, but for Sheila Jeffrey's anti-trans book, one big plug is given by "Janice Raymond is Professor Emerita of Women’s Studies and Medical Ethics at the University of Massachusetts", who herself wrote a book called "The Transsexual Empire". Women's Studies courses are often run by similar bigots who take an essentialist view of gender (anyone born with penis is the enemy), yet somehow claim to be doing away with gender.

Have you looked? Because I can find the criticisms within seconds, and this is actually one of the biggest current fights inside modern feminism with criticisms flying back and forth. Like, I get that you might not have experience with this stuff, but saying that there isn't resistance to it is basically like saying there's no one fighting against climate change deniers. This fight is everywhere if you're actually paying attention to the discourse in feminist theory.

[Reelya]

But the thing is: these people are still made university professors of reputable women's studies / feminist politics faculties. Compare that to MRAs. MRAs basically inhabit internet message boards. There are not too many professors who literally specialize in being MRAs out there, compared to the anti-trans feminist college professors.

Certainly, I think criticizing feminism because anti-trans people are made university professors of women's studies is a more valid criticism than say negatively labeling someone who brings up sexual assault stats against men is an "MRA" (Implying you're in agreement with the worst bigots on the men's side).

But I think that might be due to power. Feminist academics are pretty powerful at colleges (whereas MRAs are basically a joke/have no power, no college faculties, and no research funding), so therefore there's something for the feminists to fight over: which sub-strain of feminism is in charge. That's basic Marxism really: conflict is going to center around gains and losses in power, closely tied to the economics of the issue. If MRAs had any revenue for being MRAs you'd probably see the same sort of politics developing.

[Willfor]

Yes, they're being made university professors. As are their opponents. Because this is all still a work in progress, there are multiple dissenting opinions, intersectionality is a comparatively new thing in feminist discourse which leads to a lot of the second wave of feminism -- people who more entrenched in the academic fields, and also usually more of an age to be made head a department -- not accepting it as valid. It's lead to a situation where the old guard is still stuck in an outmoded set of views. You find this everywhere. But somehow it's a stark blow to feminism when some old assholes with tenure are still kicking around? Not to say the problem is exclusively confined to an older generation, but you'll definitely find these ingrained attitudes in those populations.

[Ogdibus]

- snop -

I second: "You probably weren't paying attention."  It's easy to miss.

It also looks like your knowledge of feminism is shallow and outdated.  Some feminists are anti-trans, and some aren't.  I think most are ok with it, but I don't have any numbers.

[Helgoland]

Still, the point stands: Doing the same sort of stuff on the MRA side of things would get your tenure revoked quicker than you could say 'feminazi conspiracy'. Apparently on the other end of the spectrum it's not a problem to be a professor in the field and publish anti-transsexual books. Don't you think there's a wee bit of a discrepancy here?

And I'm by no means saying we should be more lenient with MRAs. Those guys are assholes and should probably just go masturbate until their dicks fall off.

[Willfor]

Apparently on the other end of the spectrum it's not a problem to be a professor in the field and publish anti-transsexual books. Don't you think there's a wee bit of a discrepancy here?

We're saying it's a problem. I'm saying it's a problem. Please, for the love of God, help it to stop being a problem. It's a problem that many people are trying to get addressed with the same exact methods.

[Helgoland]

It's a problem that many people are trying to get addressed with the same exact methods.

Those methods must be shit then. When's the last time you've seen a news story about a TERF being chased out of office? And, remind me, how long has it been since Shirtgate?

[penguinofhonor]

When have you seen any professor being chased out of office for being transphobic?

[TheBiggerFish]

What's a TERF anyway???

...Shirtgate?  how am i missing this stuff

[Lord Shonus]

What's a TERF anyway???

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist

[Arcvasti]

What's a TERF anyway???

...Shirtgate?  how am i missing this stuff

to be honest, missing out on anything with a -gate appended to it probably improves your quality of life

_{although i think shirtgate isthe thing where this one dude wore this vaguely offensive[i don't remember why it was offensive] shirt in a nasa photo or something and then suffered huge consequences}

[Frumple]

When have you seen any professor being chased out of office for being transphobic?

... has it actually happened? I mean, it's hopefully going to start in the near future, but previously, uh. Transfolk have kinda' been open season in the everywhere, from the basically everyone.

Though insofar as, like, personally encountering situations where professors get kicked out, I can't recall a local-ish one that got kicked out for anything except getting caught screwing their students or some variety of embezzling. I guess people make a big deal about professors getting shanked for doing stupid shit just because it's so goddamn rare, especially for anything that's not ridiculously pedestrian (i.e. not keeping it in their pants).

And TERFs are trans-exclusionary radical feminists, iirc. Mostly old ones, at this point. And ninja'd, ah well.