He’s surrounded by allies

Written by

Ophelia Benson

in

Janet Murray writes:

I’ve now been contacted by numerous people about the ‘Boob Man of Oxford’.

Those who work or study at Oxford have asked for anonymity, so I can’t share identifying details. But some common themes have emerged:

  • Unsurprisingly, women describe feeling uncomfortable about a male lecturer wearing what appear to be oversized prosthetic breasts in their place of work or study
  • Some question whether there is a sexual element or whether it is a ‘power play’. These are their concerns, rather than established explanations for his behaviour – but are legitimate concerns nonetheless
  • They say they’re afraid to raise concerns because he is surrounded by ‘allies’, including staff, who defend his appearance as ‘self-expression’

STOP RIGHT THERE.

Jesuschrist on a raft has everyone forgotten everything we all used to know? He’s not there to fucking express himself, he’s there to teach. Teach teach teach – ever heard of it? At a university? At, in fact, a fairly well-known university? Not a bible college in Alabama but a rather large institution in a town some 50 miles northwest of London? Dreaming spires and whatnot?

Self-expression doesn’t matter. The self doesn’t matter. The ego doesn’t matter. Forget about it. Put it aside. Look outward, instead. Consider other people, people who are not you. Do justice to them first, then if there’s time left over you can preen yourself over your exquisite fascinating unique ego. Your job is to teach students, not to taunt and embarrass them with your gruesome mockery of female bodies. Do. your. job.

Comments

3 responses to “He’s surrounded by allies”

  1. twiliter Avatar
    twiliter

    Causing discomfort, also confusion and distraction, which is not helpful in a learning environment. It’s entirely self centered. How can this guy be an effective teacher while maintaining such an over the top clown show? I wondered the same about Rhys McKinnon when he was teaching in his drag costume.

    Do shitty self absorbed teachers turn out shitty self absorbed students? Is this the lesson here? Might as well get a degree out of a CrackerJack box.

  2. GW Avatar
    GW

    I wonder what the “established explanations” of his behavior are.

  3. Your Name's not Bruce? Avatar
    Your Name’s not Bruce?

    They say they’re afraid to raise concerns because he is surrounded by ‘allies’, including staff, who defend his appearance as ‘self-expression’

    I’ll bet they wouldn’t be as eager to defend someone whose “self expression” included knife throwing or pyromania. Granted, these two counterfactual examples might result in a higher body count, but this lecturer is far from harmless.

    I wonder what the “established explanations” of his behavior are.

    Probably the “gender identity” lie. Let’s look at the context of the phrase:

    Some question whether there is a sexual element or whether it is a ‘power play’. These are their concerns, rather than established explanations for his behaviour – but are legitimate concerns nonetheless

    Basically, they’re wondering out loud if he’s not “really trans,” and that his putative “identity” is nothing but window dressing or camouflage for the sexual element and abuse of power. It’s as if they’re conceding, for political expediency, and the chance to air their concerns at all, that his being “really trans” would make it all okay. Of, course, it would not, but it sounds like they’re couching their argument this way to try to avoid the whole trans “rights” mess. Of course his behaviour is inappropriate and grotesque regardless, As “gender identities” are completely invisible, as a matter of course and in the interests of safeguarding, we should always work from the assumption that people like this guy are acting in bad faith. As there’s no way to tell the opportunistic predators from the “genuine” trans identified males, it makes sense to treat all of them as threats, “self-expression” be damned.

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