Like a transgendered academic scorned;
In his book, he argued that some people born male who want to cross genders are driven primarily by an erotic fascination with themselves as women. This idea runs counter to the belief, held by many men who decide to live as women, that they are the victims of a biological mistake — in essence, women trapped in men’s bodies. Dr. Bailey described the alternate theory, which is based on Canadian studies done in the 1980s and 1990s, in part by telling the stories of several transgender women he met through a mutual acquaintance. In the book, he gave them pseudonyms, like “Alma” and “Juanita.”
Other scientists praised the book as a compelling explanation of the science. The Lambda Literary Foundation, an organization that promotes gay, bisexual and transgender literature, nominated the book for an award.
But days after the book appeared, Lynn Conway, a prominent computer scientist at the University of Michigan, sent out an e-mail message comparing Dr. Bailey’s views to Nazi propaganda. She and other transgender women found the tone of the book abusive, and the theory of motivation it presented to be a recipe for further discrimination.
A tale of the cherished freedom of academia to think as the left does.
The National Post weighs in.
Outside of North Korea, there is probably no group of human beings on the planet so intellectually stunted by orthodoxy and group think as academics in university humanities departments. Bailey threw a brick at acolytes of a victim narrative, and they howled right back at him, using all the usual rhetorical cliches (not to mention borderline libels) at full volume.
But since the subject here is supposed to be a science, how is it that one’s “gender” becomes a biological mistake? How is this “mistake” made? What are its specific physical manifestations? What can you point to as proof that nature goofed? And aren’t we awfully close to anthropomorphizing nature here, by claiming that it makes “mistakes?”
National Post has an editorial on this story.
Political correctness trumps science and research for all matters near and dear to the Left.
One of my favourite sites is “www.fire.org”.
This is the Foundaton for Individual Rights in Education. It protects the rights (particularly freedom of expression and association) of both students and teachers in U.S. higher education. Many (but by no means all) cases involve the rights of conservative and religious groups, who are often under attack by the forces of political correctness.
The site is a great read and highly enlightening. I strongly recommend it.
Canada has an equivelant to FIRE at “www.safs.ca”. Unfortunately the site seldom changes, and is no where near as interesting.
Again we see the chronic egocentric banality of the deviant culture…..as if the well adjusted majority needs to be lectured by individuals with pathological identity issues…or those hawking the newest “Pop” Theory.
Thanks, Mark. I added that.
They point to several recent cases, like that of Helmuth Nyborg, a Danish researcher who was fired in 2006 after he caused a furor in the press by reporting a slight difference in average I.Q. test scores between the sexes.
…..And, as Larry Summers found out at Harvard when he suggested males may have more of an aptitude for math.
The lefty response to anyone heretical to its sacred dogmas, a parody played out over and over and over again, of the worst intellectual fascists invoking Hitler to halt debate is getting old. The left dismantled free speech and a level playing field of ideas on campuses all across western civilization.
The Group of 88, almost all from victim studies departments, that publicly convicted the Duke Lacrosse players in a self-paid newspaper ad because they were affluent white boys is another example of the viciousness and moral bankruptcy of lefty academics.
If you scratch beneath the surface of too many of the lefties that show up here like John whose discussion on healthcare quickly devolved into calling Americans “savages”, you find angry, rigid, intolerant people.
Muzzled scientists and academics need funding to fight back against these capricious lefty driven Inquisitions one Scopes trial at a time. You can bet Al Gore & Co would never place themselves on a panel with scientists whose data refutes their dogma in an open public debate. Or, fatso Michel Moore either.
rabbit – FIRE wins 90% of its cases which demonstrates the ease with which the bad behavior of the left can be effectively countered in the right forum such as a court of law where the First Amendment trumps the left’s attempts at muzzling free speech.
David Horowitz has done a superb job in exposing academic misbehavior too.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/
Penny:
FIRE is indeed remarkably effective, particularly when it comes to getting draconian speech codes overturned.
I’m not always sure why they win so easily. It may be because (1) university administrators are enlightened people who move quickly to address an injustice or illegality once its pointed out, (2) administrators can see that FIRE is well versed in the law and are afraid of law suits, or (3) administrators are completely gutless when it comes to defending their actions in the full light of publicity.
I hope it’s (1) but often suspect it’s (2) or (3).
PC rediculiusness rears its silly head i mean a watched a version of tom sayer or huckleberry finn and they called INJIN JOE,CRAZY JOE and i can imagine if RUBYAD KIPLING were alive today they would have made him call it THE RAINFOREST BOOK and back when some nit wit MICHEAL W. FOX was saying we should call PETS get this COMPANION ANIMALS and PET SHOPS should be called COMPANION ANIMAL SHOPS i can imagine on MAILLA GORILLA mr peebles would have been made to call it PEEBLES COMANION ANIMAL SHOP and just imagine LITTLISTS COMANION ANIMAL SHOP i mean this FOX is a idiot
Most of all, FIRE is trying to show stubborn administrators that the era of hiding gross civil liberties violations behind a PC wall of silence is over: the group wins more than 95 percent of its cases.
I just read that in an article about FIRE at City Journal. The article mentions similar problems in Canada, a good read.
http://www.city-journal.org/html/17_1_free_speech.html
Penny:
Naturally it’s a good read. John Leo is like the best. essayist. ever. There isn’t anything of his that isn’t worth reading.
I think, though, that he’s in semi-retirement.
It’s ironic how the far left (moonbat fringe) invokes the name of Hitler at the first transgression of political correctness, yet they exhibit the most totalitarian tendencies of any group, save Islamists.
On the other hand, who gives a rat’s a*s what they think. They don’t own the media anymore, and demographics (people aging and becoming somewhat wiser)ensure their viewpoints aren’t automatically granted dogma status.
The more I read about the gay, lesbian and transgendered members of society, the more I think we were a far healthier and happier society in many ways when these freaks were in closets.
The more I read about the insanities of the academic world, the more I think we were a healthier and happier society before the commoner was given the right to higher education.
All thanks to Pierre E Trudeau the destroyer of the Dominion.
My freely expressed thoughts.
Sue me.
shamrock – I think we still have to concern ourselves with the left; they dominate academia – and as an academic, I assure you – it’s almost total domination.
And, their maliciousness, their viciousness against anyone who thinks and talks differently from them – is constant, open and powerful.
The left runs the Canadian research granting agencies; it runs the academic unions; it runs the social science and humanities departments. If you are someone who doesn’t ‘toe the leftist line’- then, you are in trouble in those departments. You’ll have trouble getting tenure, getting grants, getting promotions, getting anything. You’ll be derided and marginalized and, if they can, kicked out.
And – they are ‘teaching’ (in quotes) our children those same biases and intolerance of freedom of thought. Students know very well that they don’t stand a chance of passing in many classes unless they mirror the professor; they know that they won’t get accepted as graduate students in someone’s dep’t unless they mirror the dominant ideology.
What should be done? Make this totalitarian ideology public – like the National Post comment, like we are doing on blogs.
Like their leader Stalin, give the left some purges. We need to bolster our claim to the arctic like the russians. Lets send lefties to some camps…
‘One of my favourite sites is “www.fire.org” ‘ http://www.thefire.org
I’ve always wondered why some really ugly men, who make really, really ugly women would even think to become a woman…..now it makes sense.
Modern universities have been described as “Islands of repression in a sea of freedom”. Unfortunately the sea may be drying up. That being said, there is hope. I do see students who’ve been so confined in the straight jacket of academic political correctness and the claims of the PCs becoming so risibly untenable that students are quietly, secretly, rebelling. It’s usually passive resistance — smile, roll your eyes when the prof’s back is turned, but it is happening. After all, there’s none more skeptical of PC claims than the refugees from the former communist block.
Celina:
Oops. Thanks. Somedays I wish I could edit my previous posts.
DrD:
Its too bad the old “East Germany – DDR” is gone. All the PC lefties enamored of strict left orthodoxy would have been reminded that the ‘walls have ears’.
Notably, 1 in 50 inhabitants was a STASI informant.
On the other hand you could send them all to Angela Merkel and she could recount her lessons on growing up in the “Workers Paradise”.
In Canada’s academic world there is an unwritten ‘secular orthodoxy’ to adhere to, otherwise life can be made very difficult, as we have discovered.
In short, you have all the academic freedom you want as long as it is ‘approved’.
But then the DDR produced some remarkable transgendered athletes due to the wonders of steroids.
Don’t you remember the DDR women’s sport teams that looked like the “The Amazons” ready to crush anything in their path?
DrD – I hope you are right. Unfortunately, the lefy apparachiks on campus have our kids delivered to them when young people are in prime age appropriate rebellion mode. What’s more gratifying than throwing out undigested Marxism and all of the other stick-it-to-the-man garbage when you are liberated from the house for the first time.
The quality of our public schools is so crappy that critical thinking skills aren’t like they used to be. Smart kids, those that have responsible parental input in their lifes will figure it out quickly, but, there are too many people, look no farther than many 60’s boomers, that aren’t serious truth seekers nor update life’s map when new information requires it.
Today’s ideological slop starts in kingergarden. I’m waiting on my grandson to share with us as time goes on, his kindergarden started this week, all of the education taboos/permissions/pc dogmas/lame GW themes that weren’t in place when his mother was his age.
FIRE needs to extend their services to grade schools. And, we need to start suing bad science and failed ideas out of the education system.
“And, their maliciousness, their viciousness against anyone who thinks and talks differently from them – is constant, open and powerful.”
penny,
One quick trip around the blogosphere will clearly show this behavior is NOT exclusive to ‘lefties’.See the following quote from this very thread…
“The more I read about the gay, lesbian and transgendered members of society, the more I think we were a far healthier and happier society in many ways when these freaks were in closets.”
JW,
Happier and healthier for whom?
I stand in awe of your compassion for others.
I don’t believe scientists yet have ANY real understanding of what happens to these individuals to cause them to have abnormal sexual identities.
For all any of us know,these ‘freaks’,as you call them,may simply be mentally ill.One thing is for sure….no mentally balanced individual would CHOOSE such a world of confusion and pain for themselves.
If you must find a group to be disguted by,then consider the gay ‘activist’ whose real mission is to completely NORMALIZE sexually deviant behavior in our society.They are the ones ‘pushing it in your face’ daily.
It is a given that most of academia is ruled by leftist twits as everyone here is moaning about. Why don’t the rightist academics simply break away and start their own institutions that offer solid studies instead of the mush being pushed by the loons? Give the students the choice and see who wins in the end. Until that happens I refuse to listen to what is coming out of soft studies academia. My motto has become, “Show Me”.
Anybody remember the Lefty fire storm around The Bell Curve back in 1994? That was my introduction to the intellectual vacuity of one Dr. David Suzuki. He was supposed to debate one of the authors, and spent his debate time calling the man a racist. No discussion of methods or study design, no evidence to refute, just “You’re a RACIST!!!”
What a mental giant is David Suzuki.
Prior to that I cut my teeth on E.O. Wilson’s “Sociobiology” back in school. It had just come out, and Lefties across the USA were throwing pies at Dr. Wilson whenever he would speak in public. They didn’t like his book, and they were damn well going to silence him. Thirty years later E.O. Wilson is still trucking with a new book every couple years, and Lefties are still trying to shut him up.
So I’m never surprised when the Left tries to silence, shame or destroy people who say things the Left doesn’t like. Coercion is the essence of who they are.
How anyone thinks they could scientifically “prove” that a woman was stuck in a man’s body, and that this is therefore an indisputable fact of science, is beyond me.
Canadian Observer – you seem to be saying that the comment of ONE poster here, someone NOT representing academia as with the lefty academics in the article is as equal and as relevant. Your quick trip “around the blogosphere” never left Kate’s site, for God’s sake.
How about staying focued on the issue at hand, that the behavior of Dr. Bailey’s detractors is bad and too typically represents the repressive lefties entrenched on our campuses.
The quote you assigned to me isn’t even mine.
BWAAAHAAAAHAAAAAA! Oh YEAH, when you have questions about gender identity, or you seek informed discussion of sexual diversity, look no further than SDA.
Not one person here is actually interested in the academics. Most are interested only in attacking academia for being critical of itself (oh noes!!!!), as if this gives some strength to anti-PC bitching and moaning. One commenter at least honestly came out and called them ‘freaks’, etc., just to show that no one cares about the intellectual issues here – this is ALL PARTISAN ALL THE TIME.
You guys are a f*cking joke. What is your purpose? What do YOU contribute?
William L. Anderson, an acacemic himself, has written a graphic description of politically-correct rabidity at Duke University.
penny,
My apologies,I was indeed quoting…
“ET at August 22, 2007 12:05 PM ”
My point stands though.
Attacking a political opponent’s character or intelligence has dominated the direction of debate in the blogosphere to the point it has reached redundancy in the extreme.
I was pointing out the hypocrisy alive and well amongst some posters here.
BTW,I don’t see your name at the header of this site.
Maybe if you were broad-minded enough to approach topics at hand from more than one POV,you’d actually understand the relevance of others’ opinions.
I will tell you what the joke is. It is people who come here and get all offended when they encounter right-wing opinion. Geez, what do you expect? For all of us to convert to the church of leftardation just because some moonbat makes a point? If you are searching for like minded peeps, head to a pride parade, or down to Cuba.
penny wrote:
The left dismantled free speech and a level playing field of ideas on campuses all across western civilization.
Penn & Teller on Universities today:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=UsLBkbPUF_g
http://youtube.com/watch?v=qNTzEC4EmPU
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6lOk4KZf2LQ
fire.org is mentioned.
You’ll have to excuse the language if you have sensitive ears.
“Not one person here is actually interested in the academics.”
That’s because, unlike you, they took the time to read the link.