How do we be more scary?
The Telegraph on the Jo Phoenix win:
The Open University “feared” being seen to support gender-critical beliefs when it failed to protect a professor from harassment, a judge ruled.
But the Open University apparently didn’t fear being seen to throw feminist women to the wolves.
Why is that?
Why is opprobrium from team luxury gender so much more terrifying than opprobrium from feminist women? Why do the small number of men who pretend to be women matter so vastly much more than half the population?
A ruling found that the Open University’s failure to protect her from harassment from colleagues and trans activists was motivated by “fear of being seen to support gender-critical beliefs” and “fear of the pro gender identity section” of the university.
So how do we get institutions to fear us even more than they fear trans activists? How do we get more scary? Halloween masks? Brandishing swords? What?
The tribunal heard that in June 2019 The Sunday Times published a letter signed by Prof Phoenix and other academics registering “disquiet over a perceived inappropriately close relationship between the LGBTQ+ charity Stonewall and UK universities”.
Her views were described as “problematic and scary” by senior lecturer Dr Deborah Drake, the hearing was told and another staff member demanded she be punished.
In October 2019 Prof Louise Westmarland reduced Prof Phoenix to tears when she raised her gender-critical views in a meeting.
“Prof Westmarland said to [Prof Phoenix] that ‘having you in the department was like having a racist uncle at the Christmas dinner table’,” the tribunal found.
I wonder if Louise Westmarland ever apologized. I wonder what she’s thinking now.
Why do they fear being seen as supporting gender critical views? Framing.
Transwomen are supposed to be women suffering under debilitating circumstances and crippling stigma. This affliction, while its origins stem from a sad trick of nature, is primarily due to choices made by other people. It’s a choice to doubt the existence of gender identity. It’s a choice to consider reproductive sex more significant than mental sex. It’s a choice to refuse to accept what trans people say about themselves. And all those choices are made from a bigoted, narrow, rigid inability to be welcoming and inclusive.
Once this is accepted by enough people it becomes not only hard to openly state disagreement or even support the right to disagree, it becomes hard not to try to believe it oneself.
Why? Why are publishers afraid of printing comics depicting Mohammed and not those depicting Jesus? Terrorism. We’re dealing with social terrorism.
Why do they fear the TRAs and not the GCs? Easy. Only one of those groups will threaten your job, funding, reputation, friends, business, career, family, large protests, boycotts, or violence.