Speaking of that Times article…
A feminist artist who was due to speak at Oxford Brookes University yesterday had her talk cancelled at the last minute after students accused her of holding transphobic views.
The event featuring Rachel Ara, hosted by the university’s fine art research unit, was called off after the LGBTQ+ society sent a letter to Anne-Marie Kilday, the pro-vice-chancellor, condemning her invitation.
That’s all it took. One letter, from stupid uninformed people complaining of the sharing of two tweets.
The letter to Professor Kilday was signed by a number of people, including the chairman of the university’s Labour Party Club and the president of the LGBTQ+ society.
They should have read it more carefully.
Ara, 53, said that her art was clearly “too challenging for today’s youth” and lamented that “the world has gone slightly mad”.
She added: “I was going to be talking about feminism and art, and the difficulties that exist for women trying to break through. It was nothing to do with trans issues. I’m not transphobic. I have been openly gay for 35 years. I think this movement is misogynistic — they are only targeting other women.”
It’s unmistakably misogynist.
Comments
4 responses to “Targeting only women”
Clearly the Oxford Brookes University thinks misogyny is hunky-dory.
Targeting “other women”? The targeters are not women. Only the targeted are women.
With respect, it took more than the letter from the trans activists for the event to be cancelled. It also took the readiness of Oxford Brookes to comply unhesitatingly with an unreasonable imperious request. We don’t know why the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Student and Staff Experience – there are five others) did so. There were other options. A flat “no”. Procrastination. Consultations with the governing body. And so on.
Well that’s what I mean, though. All it took was the letter to make the people at OB comply. It’s still the same question: why do administrators fold this easily?