Trans pioneer Dallas Denny published an article on TA about expressing her misgivings about the upcoming publication of a book promoting Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) hate. She just received a chilling response from a group of TERF academics declaring war on trans people.
The anonymous author declares war on me and for that matter on all transpeople. He or she and his or her six compatriots claims that they will raise an army of graduate students who will oppress me and others like me and render us impotent and invisible– in the name of academic freedom. It’s a peculiarly-worded and most impolite declaration of war based upon an irrational philosophy of who I and others like me are. Happily, he or she is not the arbiter of who I am. I get to say who I am. – Trans pioneer, Dallas Denny
Here’s are portions of the chilling letter from the TERF academics:
I am writing to let you know that we were all sent a copy of your recent letter to Rutledge Press in reference to Sheila Jeffreys’ forthcoming book, Gender Hurts, and have organized a small but growing group to address the issue. We realize a corrective is urgently needed. We have held preliminary discussions to ensure that as academic women we will confront the questions beginning in the fall semester 2013 and again in the spring semester 2014.
The letter, a prodigious example of arrogance and bullshit sounded a warning and rallied us from across the curriculum. We recognize the telltale signs of a dangerous movement that feigns legitimacy in postmodern pseudoscience and meaningless jargon—, you catchin’ my cis drift?
We will continue to coordinate our efforts so that our classrooms will be at the forefront of questioning transgender as a valid political movement—or perhaps that is just a veil for a misogynist hate group. We will take a holistic approach and posit the distinct possibility of a fatuous diagnosis designed to camouflage less sympathetic and socially accepted issues. Students after they sift through the death and rape threats sent by Transgender “activist” to women and feminists will understand why the syllabi are not posted on-line or on the blackboard, and our decision to procure texts from other than usual sources will make clear sense to them.
The questions students will invariably ask is: why? Why the distinctly male rage? Why the threats and why the attempts to silence women and other academics? In order to illuminate these questions we will turn attentions toward Michael Bailey’s The Man That Would Be Queen and Dr. Anne Lawrence’s notions on transgender narcissistic rage, as both may serve to posit alternate theories of equal merit that students can understand.
In the classroom the first order of the day will confront the ever ubiquitous over used manipulative claim of “transphobia”—which sounds hollow when students see that the primary victims are natal women who happen to hold opinions and write things that you and others do not happen to like.
Be cognizant that any reasonable undergraduates will question a movement that lies and plays fast and loose sans accepted ethical considerations… That’s called education.
Thank you for your time and attention, and most specifically for the inspiration and the opportunity to show another generation what academic freedom really means on the ground and in the classroom. We wish you all the best in your future endeavors to delude people, and yes we’re flippin’ you the bird. Take this as the “fuck you” it is intended to be.
Sincerely
Women For Academic Freedom
J.K.-NY
B.N.S.-NY
L.L.-NJ
C.M.-NH
M.S. -IN
N.S.-OH
A.E.-OH
A quick google search turned for Women for Academic Freedom turns up TERF opinion leader Cathy Brennan’s site.
Read the full declaration of war against trans people here.
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As a child, I learned one simple thing from feminism. “No one is allowed to tell me who I am.”
That some modern day Radical “Feminists” have found an exception to this concept for the sake of further excluding an already marginalized group of people, shows not only the double-standard by which they choose to live, but a degree of inerrant hypocrisy in their supposedly “academic” standpoint.
The moment bigotry becomes defended as an “academic freedom” brings to my mind conservative politicians attempting to save a “Christian Nation”. It exposes their ignorance of a great number of people, in the pursuit of an agenda.
The agenda appears to be “Natal Female Supremacy”, and nothing more.
It makes me sad to see such highly educated people, secure in their ivory towers, casting judgement upon a group of people for not conforming to their “values”.
How can a group fight the Patriarchy, by adopting its tactics, to attack the same people the Patriarchy would keep down and marginalize. Congratulations, on becoming the enemy you once sought to challenge.
If one has to define themselves by their intolerance of another group, they are anything but “academic”.
I am no threat to them, just as “gay marriage” is no threat to “family values”. I used to grow weary of such wanton intolerance of diversity.
Now, I’m simply bored by their ridiculous behavior, just as I’m bored of the same old conservative rhetoric.
No one is allowed to tell me who I am.
From the term “distinctly male rage,” I detect the stench of gender essentialism as expressed by people who falsely claim that they believe that gender is an artificial social construct. Such essentialist terms wouldn’t drip so readily from their lips if they didn’t truly believe, deep down in their hearts, that there are differences between the male and the female brain. All else is Puritanism, the belief that that which is once tainted can never be cleansed.
Try as they might, I don’t see how they’ll squeeze this into their accounting and phys ed courses.
C’mon. This is satire right? A trans person wrote it to make fun of terfs.
We are dangerous – hear our anonymous roar!!! – tremble before our anonymous syllabi!!!
Into the valley of death bravely hid the humongous horde of the mighty six!
snort – more please!
I <3 this comment!
It’s comedy genius.
Holding up a f**kwit with an F**Ksaw who’s no longer allowed to teach many classes.
http://gawker.com/5800291/northwestern-stops-offering-a-minor-in-fucksaw-sciences
and a physician with this record:
http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/lawrence/anne-lawrence-incident.html
as threats and feminist icons.
It’s comedy gold Jerry!
Imagine how creepy a real professor would look to a student when they presented these people in class and how many complaints they’d get.