Even academic writing

From the abstract of an academic article by a sociologist

This article examines the development of anti-transgender debates within the United Kingdom, which have gained traction due to proposed amendments to the country’s Gender Recognition Act (GRA). A group of determined lobby groups, taking their lead from like-minded organizations in the United States, has protested vigorously against the proposed changes to the GRA, especially with respect to “single-sex spaces”. As a result of this furor, the lives of transgender people have become the subject of open debate.

“The lives of transgender people have become the subject of open debate”? Is that academic language? Is it the language of sociology? Surely “the lives of” various categories of people is a core subject in sociology? And thus a subject of open debate? That sentence sounds more like a Twitter blurt than an academic truth-claim.

And anyway, of course they have, because changing the meaning of “single-sex spaces” to “not-single-sex spaces” is naturally subject to open debate. Why wouldn’t it be?

Trans people now see their legitimacy questioned, and their ability to access services increasingly being placed under the microscope.

What does “their legitimacy” mean? What does it mean within the discipline of sociology? Going back a step, what does “trans” mean?

This article argues that the literature on radicalization – developed in response to domestic terrorism – can explain these developments. UK lobby groups are successfully pushing a radical agenda to deny the basic rights of trans people…

It’s not a “basic right” for men to be in women’s spaces. It’s the other way around – the basic right is that of women to be away from men when they need privacy. Women are vulnerable to men in ways that men are not vulnerable to women. It’s repellent for some smug academic to pretend otherwise in order to berate women for wanting to be safe.

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