Kathleen Stock, 49, is a writer, philosophy professor and feminist. She is the author of the recently released “Material Girls: Why Reality Matters For Feminism” (“Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism”, still untranslated into Portuguese) and one of the most prominent critics of theories that aim to dissolve any differences between men and women.
Her disapproval of the so-called “queer theory” as well as her defense of the primacy of biological sex led dozens of students to resign from the University of Sussex, where she taught for eighteen years. Last Thursday (28), three weeks after a wave of protests on the university’s Brighton campus, complete with posters and graffiti, Stock announced his resignation.
“It was a very difficult few years, but the leadership approach was admirable and decent. I hope that other institutions in similar situations can learn from this”, published the teacher on her Twitter account. Stock said it was an “absolutely horrible” time for her. Earlier this month, police asked the teacher to stay away from the campus after an investigation into “institutional transphobia” had opened.
A university spokeswoman, however, told British newspaper The Guardian that there was no substantive evidence that she had committed any wrongdoing in arguing that public policy should be based on biological sex rather than self-identification. “Professor Stock leaves the University of Sussex with our gratitude for her significant contributions as a professor and academic. Her departure is a loss,” the note said.
In an internal email, Sussex Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell, Sussex Vice Chancellor, reinforced the support: “We expected Professor Stock to feel able to go back to work and we would have supported her to do so. She has decided that recent events mean this will not be possible, and we respect and understand that decision. We will miss your many contributions, which the university benefited from during your stay here.”
Despite the regrettable outcome, the institution’s effort to swim against the current of cancellation, dominant in American universities, must be recognized. “I am particularly happy to see the University [de Sussex] emphasizing that bullying and harassing anyone in their workplace because of their legally held beliefs is unacceptable,” Stock reported.
It is also worth noting the arbitrary and totalitarian character of the students who denounced Kathleen Stock for “transphobia”: in 2019, Stock, who is a lesbian, wrote a rehearsal stating that he has no problem with “using preferred pronouns for colleagues and students and would consider it rude not to do so”. It has also repeatedly argued that transgender people deserve full human rights and protection from discrimination and harassment.
His “crime” was to criticize the legal imposition of the so-called “neutral” pronouns and the access of biological men to feminine spaces. As Quillette digital magazine editor Claire Lehmann writes, “whether someone agrees with your arguments or not, [Kathleen Stock] presents them with care, reasonably, and with the independence of mind one would expect from an academic philosopher.”
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source https://pledgetimes.com/pursued-by-gender-activists-university-of-sussex-professor-resigns/
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