Tag: Selina Todd

Vanessa Thorpe at the Guardian reported yesterday on the shunning of Selina Todd. She did it in a very cautious, fearful way.

Already at the subhead things are peculiar.

Anger as Oxford historian Selina Todd is forced to pull out of speaking at Ruskin anniversary conference

No, anger as Oxford historian Selina Todd is removed from her scheduled speaking slot at Ruskin anniversary conference. She wasn’t “forced to pull out,” whatever that would mean, she was told she couldn’t do it. Selina Todd is not the one who “pulled out”; she was removed.

The alleged “no platforming” of feminist historian Selina Todd the night before the conference prompted loud protests from the packed hall at the former site of Ruskin College, the spot of the original meeting in 1970.

It’s not alleged. There is video of two of the organizers explaining to the audience why she was no-platformed. They say, over and over and over again, that they told her she couldn’t deliver her scheduled two minute talk. It’s not alleged. They’re not going to sue the Guardian for saying they no-platformed Todd because they can’t because they said they did, although to be sure they also kept insisting that telling her she couldn’t give her scheduled talk wasn’t the same thing as… telling her she couldn’t give her scheduled talk.

“This is cowardice. How can we do this to a woman who has worked all her life on behalf of other disenfranchised women?” asked Julie Bindel, the radical feminist writer.

There was no coherent answer.

Organisers said that Todd had not been banned from the conference, but was asked to give up her short “thank you” speech slot on behalf of the Oxford University history faculty in response to a boycott threat from other speakers.

Yes, they did, they said with forced gaiety that she was welcome to attend the conference, she just wasn’t allowed to give her scheduled talk.

Author Lola Olufemi, a billed panellist who had pulled out of the event when she learned of Todd’s involvement, said in a statement that she felt the conference planners had not done enough to investigate Todd’s alignment with the Woman’s Place UK group, which she regards as “transphobic”. “I have seen first-hand how middle-class white women with social capital have used their gatekeeping power to harass trans people, threaten them with defamation, actively work to curtail their rights, refused to extend solidarity, and then claim victimhood,” she said, explaining why she withdrew from the event.

I have seen first-hand how middle-class white men with social capital have bullied and insulted and no-platformed feminist women while claiming victimhood.

More:

The organizer did indeed make heavy weather of that, and did make it sound as if Todd had done something sly or unreasonable by not replying.

They didn’t even thank her. Even when she pointed out they hadn’t thanked her, they didn’t thank her. It’s all so shitty.

You know who else takes help and services and support and scutwork for granted? When it’s women giving it?

Yup, you do.

But then at the event they treated that compromise as a generous kind all anyone could expect move.

This shit rots people’s brains.

My Twitter has much conversation about the rude last minute censoring and EXCLUSION of Selina Todd. (All caps because of the irony of the constant yapping about “inclusion” while excluding a feminist woman scholar from a feminist event because she doesn’t Center men in her feminism.)

The exclusion was so abrupt and last minute that they had to whiteout her name on the printed schedule.

You have got to be kidding.

Another shameful headline:

Exeter lecturer accused of ‘transphobia’ for saying ‘only females menstruate’

Sometimes the stupid feels like a swamp of thick muddy stinking muck closing over your head. Of course only females menstruate. Only females gestate infants, so only females need to menstruate. Only men inseminate, only women menstruate. It’s like the first page of the sex ed book. What the hell is wrong with people, flinging accusations at people for saying something so obvious and basic and accurate and pointless to deny?

An Exeter lecturer has been accused of transphobia after a series of tweets sent from a private account were uncovered.

“Uncovered” – why? By whom? By what right? Are women not allowed to talk in private?

One of the tweets sent by Economics lecturer Eva Poen read: “Only female people menstruate. Only female people go through menopause.”

The tweets have been criticised by LGBT+ Society, who say the attitudes shown are damaging to the wellbeing of trans students on campus.

What “attitudes shown”? Uttering a factual and non-insulting truth is not an “attitude.” If it’s damaging to the wellbeing of trans students to point out obvious facts about women then trans students should just be learning to deal with it.

“She is in a position of power over vulnerable young people while openly singling out trans people, especially trans students, with dismissive, disdainful attitudes,” the society told The Exeter Tab.

She’s a woman; she’s an economics lecturer. She’s not a corporate executive or a dictator or a man. She has “power over” students in the sense that she has some say over how well they do in her classes, but that’s all – it’s not a very worldly or far-reaching kind of power. Women have a right to state true facts about women, and confused students shouldn’t be trying to punish them for doing so.

These damn fools are marching backward.

Another one.

About the event:

Join us for this anniversary event celebrating 50 years since the first Women’s Liberation Conference!

Held on the site of the former Ruskin college – the original venue for the 1970 conference – the day will be packed full of conversations, panel discussions and reflections.

In and at Oxford, this is. Oxford, where Selina Todd teaches history. Women’s history.

Eventbrite hasn’t scrubbed her from the schedule yet.

Women’s Liberation is about the liberation of women.

Todd says she was no-platformed – about 18 hours before she was due to speak! – because of her connection with Woman’s Place UK.

It’s a god damn outrage.