The intersection of science and fantasy
Oh good god.
There is no “intersection of science and identity.” They don’t intersect. “Identity” isn’t science, it’s a buzzword, it’s rhetoric, it’s a loose label for how we think of ourselves. Sometimes it’s just a basic fact recorded on a birth certificate and/or passport and/or driver’s license and so on, but most of the time these days it’s a tedious Magical Spiritual Essence that nearly everyone is sick to death of hearing about. That version is more or less the antithesis of science.
What does Dr. Clara Barker say?
There is a push to keep identity politics out of STEM – to keep those parts of my identity separate. I have talked before about how it is not so simple: I am trans. Sure, on most days I can simply be a scientist, but on some days I cannot; whether it is comments or sneers across a meeting table, old collaborators no longer wanting to work with me, or having to consider where I travel for collaborations or conferences.
That applies to everyone. Everyone has to deal with meetings and colleagues and travel. Everyone has a life outside of science, including scientists. I wonder if the old collaborators don’t want to work with him not because he’s trans but because he’s self-involved. Can you be trans without being self-involved? It seems to be all but impossible for most who try it.
Many people are supportive of trans inclusion. We are also seeing a challenge to trans-medical experts by a minority, but I hope that we will start trusting those experts again. Whether you support trans rights or not, how we handle the topic will impact science across the board, or else before long we will be throwing out the theory of evolution, saying dinosaurs are fake, the world is flat, and aeroplanes cannot fly.
And that people can change sex.
“Barker” as in barking mad? Hmmm. Or what does he identify as, exactly? Maybe another species.
They identify as medical experts
Damn straight he’s right. If we support the claim that trans women are women in every respect, that being trans is an innate soul-like state of being, and all the rest of their claims, we will be throwing out evolution, archeology, and aerodynamics. All those things are based on rigorous and careful analysis of factual evidence, thoughtful formulation of Theory and hypotheses, and thoroughly designed experiments to test these. I think Barker got so carried away with the delusional righteousness of his rhetoric, he forget his science.
Pedantic nitpick here. Dinosaurs are paleontology, not archeology. Archeology studies humans.
Done with my pedantry. As you were.
Pedantry appreciated! I hesitated over the word with some part of my brain saying ‘no, not right’, but the right word never came. Let’s put it down to my tired old brain having gone on holiday already.
Or the fact that he’s a delusional liar. I’ve reached the point where I can’t see TiMs like this in any other light. He’s not correct in believing he’s a woman, and he’s lying when he tells anyone he is. It doesn’t matter how many people believe or support him, or if Parliament passes a law saying he is. He’s not a woman. Never has been, never will be.
Let’s do a little experiment.
How seriously would you take someone who was a furry? Would you quietly accept that, yes, they’re really another species and just happened to be assigned human at birth? What if your department or company hired one? How would this person’s claim effect your desire to work with them? What if they were presenting and performing their animal identity all the time, including in the lab, at meetings, at conferences? What if they expected you to call them by their Animal name rather than their human one? Would you want to be a co-author, sitting in the audience admiring your colleague’s pelage as they presented the results of your work? Unfortunately, the organization of which you are a part is going along with their furry’s wishes, and enforcing them on staff. Some of your fellow employees are surprisingly enthusiastic about playing along, calling out and penalizing those who don’t. Where does this leave you?
Clearly, this person is not the species they claim to be. They’re human; always have been, always will be. And yet, the insistence. How would you ever be able to trust their judgement about anything, when they are so egregiously wrong and dishonest about this basic fact of their material existence? Anything at all? And your colleagues? Your company?
Somehow you’ve managed to wake up in a badly garbled rewrite of Kafka’s Metamorphosis. Rather than being the sole character to be transformed into another species, you’re the sole character who refuses to admit that one of your colleagues hasn’t. No less nightmarish despite the changes from the original storyline.
It sounds ridiculous when you’re talking about someone claiming to be a different species, but when it’s a guy saying he’s a women, we’re suddenly supposed to take it seriously. But a TiM’s claim is just as ludicrous impossible as our furry’s. Why the difference? How is one impossible claim obviousy outlandish while the other enforced by law and workplace codes of conduct? Don’t furries have feelings? Are they not marginalized and vulnerable (well, at least to predators, assuming they don’t identify as one. Would a furry who claims to be a wolf vulnerable)?
But the furry comparison isn’t the one that TiMs fear most; it’s the Dolezal/Sainte-Marie one that’s most threatening to their claims, and that are most vigorously denied, though they never seem to get far enough beyond the indignation to explain why the parallel is not appropriate or justified. People who claim to be another race than they appear to be may actually have the requisite genetic background, because human racial characteristics are like a spectrum; they can show a range of expressions, and mixtures of features and characteristics. Absent a DNA test, or a family member willing to give a contradictory account of family history, there might be no reason to dispute such a claim. It could very well be true. Claims to be the sex one is not need no such investigation or agnosticism. Like the “trans species” claim, we need no further data; there is no need to withhold judgement. There can be no honest, good-faith disagreement. Anyone who suggests otherwise is trying to sell you something, or fool you into letting them get away with something.
He has no idea how true this is. This guy thinks he’s on Team Science. Funny how nobody’s claimed that Nobel for the work that shows that humans can change sex.
Or simply for the same reason most of us wouldn’t willingly enter into a minefield. Who in their right mind would want to work with someone who’s constantly monitoring their every word, move, facial expression etc. for signs of thoughtcrime and a pretext to have them branded as transphobes, canceled, fired from their jobs, attacked and vilified over the internet, especially someone into proof by assertion, sound volume, and endless repetitions, and not overly concerned with backing up their claims.
Rob, maybe we need to listen to They Might be Giants: I am a Paleontologist
Or perhaps “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. We’re not allowed to say what everyone can see.
For gay men and lesbians, “coming out” at work meant simply that co-workers knew one more fact about them. Once the disclosure was over, everyone resumed doing their work. Nothing else changed. It turned out that the “gay agenda” meant going to work, going home, grocery shopping, cleaning the house, going to the bank, caring for children (sometimes), taking vacation, etc. That is, just living life and doing pretty much all the same things that other couples and families did.
If a trans woman like Dr. Clara Barker simply changed what they wore to something appropriate for women in their work environment, and then just got on with their work, we wouldn’t be having all this turmoil. It’s the insistence that modifying what you like to wear (again, whatever it is should be appropriate work attire) actually changes your physical sex that causes all the problems. They can’t simply get on with their work. They have to monitor everyone’s speech, force themselves into women’s spaces, often wear things that are INappropriate for work, and tell lies constantly. People withdraw and don’t want to work with you, not ‘because you’re trans,” but because you’re an insufferable narcissistic liar who can’t just get on with your work.