Pledgey McPledgerson
You will sign the Loyalty Oath or else.
Staff at a top university say they feel coerced to subscribe to a Stonewall agenda by signing a pledge to oppose transphobia and demonstrate “allyship” by sharing their pronouns.
Exeter University last week asked its academics to sign the “inclusive practitioners commitment” produced by its “LGBTQ+ colleague and student” group.
Well that will be why they feel coerced, then – the fact that their employer “asked” them to sign a pledge to believe in bullshit.
The online document requests staff make six pledges to prove they are “the kind of person that LGBTQ+ people can confide in and feel safe around”.
Isn’t it fascinating that universities have never “requested” (actually demanded) that staff make pledges to prove they are the kind of person women can feel safe around?
These include promising to “affirm trans staff and students” by using their chosen names and pronouns. They are then encouraged to seek out LGBTQ+ people’s contributions to their teaching subject and ensure when they refer to trans and non-binary experts they “respect their identities, names and pronouns”.
Lecturers are also told to “educate” themselves about how anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment can be perpetuated through “micro-aggressions, dog whistles and talking points”.
Honestly, how does this happen? How do adult people running universities take this childish drivel seriously? Why aren’t they all rolling their eyes and throwing it in the recycle bin?
In addition, they are asked to promise that they are “firmly against” transphobia, bi-erasure, acephobia (discrimination against asexual people) and intersexism, a term for prejudice against people with variations in their sex characteristics. Finally, staff are asked to ensure their “allyship” is visible by sharing their own pronouns where appropriate.
Who is in charge of all this asking?
Exeter University is part of the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index, which ranks employers on how LGBTQ friendly their working environments are. It is also a member of the charity’s controversial Diversity Champions Scheme, which has been criticised for encouraging employers to stifle free speech and debate in relation to trans issues.
It sounds more like a daycare facility than a university.
It kind of makes me wish I still worked for a university, so I could dare them to fire me for declining to share my pronouns.
Having worked for one, do you feel the same incredulity that adults sign up to this childish nonsense? Or is it all too plausible?
And “acephobia” — that has to be the least fear-inducing gender identity of all! If anything, I’d expect them to resent that we don’t find them the slightest bit threatening.
[I know, the term is immediately qualified as “discrimination against” the asexual. Umm, how would I even do that? Not ask them on dates?]
Ophelia @#2 — I quit my university job decades ago to pursue better opportunities in self-employed land, and by the way I couldn’t stand my boss. So I don’t speak from recent experience. Actually, here in this red state, DEI in higher education has recently been abolished, so who knows, they might even hire me back! But I’m not interested.
Aw poor Aces, not scary to anyone. Sad.
Having recently retired from academia, I can say that I felt pressured to do a lot of things. They had not yet gotten to the stage of using ‘preferred pronouns’, but we were headed that way. We were ordered to accept that someone who appeared to be in the wrong bathroom knew where they belonged and not challenge them. They fired one person for claiming transwomen are men. Pronouns was almost certainly the next step.
I think the reason college administrators can buy this is that they are not really about education, but about enrollment and retention. The bottom line is what matters. Many of them were never professors, never taught anything, and are just there to make sure money matters are handled correctly. Even most of the administrative work is done by those not part of the college higher administration; the logistical dynamics of a college or university are managed by a large staff of administrative assistants, paid far less than the (bloated) higher administrative staff.
As for my personal pronouns? I/Me/Mine (Also, those belong to George Harrison. I am in good company.)
Peter N #3 :
Given the Pope and the Dalai Lama are effectively “asexual”, I fail to see how “asexuals” are a persecuted, marginalized minority group.