Thursday, October 15, 2015
'Stepford student' culture threatening free speech
Opportunities for debate are being denied to students because a minority believe that shutting down the debate is akin to winning
Unfortunately, the recent decision by the University of Manchester’s students' union to ban radical feminist Julie Bindel and right wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos from participating in a union debate on free speech, is just another example of the ludicrous "Stepford student" culture - a term coined by journalist Brendan O'Neill - that is engulfing our universities.
The event, ironically entitled: “From liberation to censorship: does modern feminism have a problem with free speech?” had originally been intended to provoke a challenging debate among open minded students.
However, following outcries from sections of Manchester’s student cohort, who accused Ms Bindel of transphobia, her involvement was declared unsuitable as it broke the unions “safe space policy”.
Manchester University’s women’s officer, Jess Lishak, commented on the union’s decision via Facebook in a post that has now been deleted, stating: “Julie Bindel is a journalist and activist who’s been on a crusade against the trans community, and trans women in particular, for many years.”
Miss Lishak’s comments were in relation to Ms Bindel’s article in the Guardian from 2004 in which she wrote: “I don't have a problem with men disposing of their genitals, but it does not make them women, in the same way that shoving a bit of vacuum hose down your 501s does not make you a man.”
Undoubtedly some contentious views. But why ban her from the debate? So she has some difficult to stomach views, it doesn’t change the fact that she’s been a lifelong contributor to the feminist cause, and could rightly be regarded as an expert in her field. By all standards a good addition to a healthy debate.
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7 comments:
her involvement was declared unsuitable as it broke the unions “safe space policy”
What is a safe space ?
Are students never going to live in the real unsafe World ?
I hate to give away the secret but this is why progressives can only emote on an issue and not defend it with logic or reason. they go through their entire educational careers without ever having to do more than "feel".
MDH
"By all standards a good addition to a healthy debate."
There's your problem right there.
Time to return them to where they came from these leftists scumballs
I order to have a debate you need to have at least one or more competing ideas.
If the participants are all in furious agreement its not much of a debate.
And the irony is delicious - that a debate entitled 'From Liberation to Censorship' should exhibit such proof of its topic.
Universities have become sheltered workshops for leftist ideals. Is there any wonder why graduates can't find jobs in the real world?
The University has gone from the "bastion of Free Thinking and Free Exchange of Ideas" to the "bastion of the overly coddled, all clamoring for their 5 minutes of Victimhood!"
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