The gender-critical academic ‘cancelled for thoughtcrime’: Feminist professor Kathleen Stock was hounded out of work by trans activists for doubting that biological men can become women – and she’s still pilloried for her views
- Professor Stock left the University of Sussex in the face of trans activist protests
- The criticism intensified when her book Material Girls was published in May 2021
Gender-critical professor Kathleen Stock will face a rally led by angry trans activists as she gives a talk at the prestigious Oxford Union debating society this evening.
The feminist academic, 51, was hounded out of her job at the University of Sussex after being ‘cancelled’ when she questioned transgender ideology in October 2021.
Prof Stock has been continually pilloried over her views since leaving the university amid claims she is ‘transphobic and trans-exclusionary’ for opposing gender self-identification and saying biological sex is real.
The philosophy professor has repeatedly insisted in the past that she is not a transphobe, but attention on her views began when she published a number of blog posts criticising extreme transgender ideology.
She also explained her views to Parliament in November 2020, setting out that the ‘the claim “transwomen are women” is fiction, not literally true’ and ‘spaces where women undress and sleep should remain genuinely single-sex in order to protect them’.
The feminist academic, 51, was hounded out of her job at the University of Sussex after being ‘cancelled’ when she question transgender ideology
Prof Stock was hounded out of the University of Sussex in the face of protests led by trans activists
Protestors pictured at a gathering in Library Square at the University of Sussex to protest against Prof Stock
The feminist professor, who identifies as a lesbian, said she first became aware of the complexities of the trans rights movement when she saw ‘men’ on lesbian dating websites.
READ MORE: Feminist academic Kathleen Stock says ‘it’s not hate speech to say males cannot be women’
But hatred of trans-right activists towards her then intensified when her book Material Girls: Why Reality Matters For Feminism, a book about gender identity, came out in May 2021.
She claims trans women are not women; and sexual orientation is determined by same-sex attraction, not attraction to gender identity.
Prof Stock also wants a ban on transgender women in women’s changing rooms, saying in 2018 that ‘many trans women are still males with male genitalia’.
But her views have been met with a fierce backlash from campaigners, who have slammed her as a ‘Terf’ and ‘transphobe’ on social media.
She quit her job at the University of Sussex after 18 years of teaching following a ruthless campaign involving protests led by trans activists, who set off flares during protests and placed posters calling for her to be sacked.
Scores of people were also criticising her online under the Twitter hashtag #ShameOnSussexUni in a bid to oust her.
The University’s Vice Chancellor Adam Tickell strongly defended her ‘untrammelled’ right to ‘say what she thinks’, whilst more than 200 academics from other universities signed a letter calling out alleged abuse from ‘trans activist bullies’.
But Prof Stock announced on Twitter that she was ‘sad to announce’ she was leaving her position, adding that she hoped ‘other institutions can learn from this’.
She said returning to the campus to retrieve her belongings was an ‘anxious’ experience.
Most of the Oxford Union’s members are current or former Oxford students (file picture)
Dr Stock’s Oxford Union appearance this evening was announced in the society’s ‘term card’
She has previously said she is ‘at odds’ with a large section of academics because she believes gender identity is not more important than facts about biological sex, ‘particularly when it comes to law and policy’.
READ MORE: Oxford students will be given ‘welfare resources’ to help them cope with a talk by professor Kathleen Stock
Shortly after leaving the university, the academic said she would never work again in British higher education due to a lack of free speech.
She accused universities of competing for young people and thinking of their students as ‘customers that they have to please, which is not good’.
The Oxford Union announced last month Prof Stock had been invited to give a talk at the debating society.
Ahead of the event, The Oxford Union said it will provide ‘welfare resources’ to students due to the ‘sensitive nature’ of the occasion.
But hundreds of trans activists from the unversity’s LGBTQ+ Society will protest rather than joining the this evening, claiming she is ‘transphobic and trans-exclusionary’.
The plot to stop the talk comes despite the university’s student union defending a commitment to free speech.
Since Prof Stock’s invitation, the university’s Student Union and Oxford Union have been embroiled in argument.
The student union barred the Oxford Union from having a recruiting stall at future freshers’ fairs – a decision criticised in a letter signed by 44 Oxford academics.
It comes as the rise of ‘no-platforming’ has seen high-profile speakers banned from holding talks on campus, often at the 11th hour.
They condemned the Student Union’s decision to sever ties with the Oxford Union, and said they were united in their belief that ‘universities exist, among other things, to promote free inquiry and the disinterested pursuit of the truth by means of reasoned argument’.
Posters put up in the tunnel from Falmer station to the university’s campus earlier this month said she ‘makes trans students unsafe’ and ‘we’re not paying £9,250 a year for transphobia’
A previous protest by activists demanding Stock leave seen at the University of Sussex
Attention on her views has intensified since her book Material Girls came out in May
In her own words: What does Kathleen Stock believe about gender and trans issues?
Kathleen Stock explained her views on trans issues in written evidence to Parliament in November 2020 here:
- Womanhood and manhood reflect biological sex, not gender or gender identity;
- The claim ‘transwomen are women’ is a fiction, not literally true
- Sexual orientation (being gay, being lesbian) is determined by same-sex attraction, not attraction to gender identity
- Spaces where women undress and sleep should remain genuinely single-sex, in order to protect them;
- Children with gender identity disorders should not be given puberty blockers as minors.
A coalition of Oxford organisations and activists is set to hold a Trans+ Pride event in the city centre today, which will include a rally and march culminating outside the Oxford Union, where Prof Stock is due to speak at the 200-year-old debating society.
But as hundreds of campaigners prepare to rally during her talk, Prof Stock today insisted ‘it’s not hate speech to say males cannot be women’ and warned of ‘massive public resentment’ if controversial ideas are not discussed.
She said ‘controversial and difficult’ views need to be ‘tested in the public square’.
Prof Stock told the BBC: ‘ ‘It is not hate speech to say males cannot be women. You can believe what you like, and I am not stopping anybody believing any different, but it is certainly not hate speech to say that.
Nothing I’m saying is unreasonable. I am quite compassionate, I’m measured. It’s really important, especially that younger generations, are exposed to ideas that they haven’t come across before, that they haven’t thought about.
‘Sometimes that will be very challenging to them, not because it will influence them into thinking those ideas are right because – they have minds of their own. Just controversial and difficult ideas need to be tested in the public square.
‘We need to think about them properly and we also need to enable discussion of ideas that seem attractive to people, because if you try and shut it down there will be massive public resentment.’
Her comments come after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak waded into the row, saying Prof Stock has a right to speak on campus despite the protests.
Intervening in the university’s free speech debate, Mr Sunak told The Daily Telegraph: ‘A free society requires free debate. We should all be encouraged to engage respectfully with the ideas of others.
‘University should be an environment where debate is supported, not stifled.
‘We mustn’t allow a small but vocal few to shut down discussion. Kathleen Stock’s invitation to the Oxford Union should stand.’
Earlier this month, Oxford University’s vice-chancellor Irene Tracey defended the right for Professor Stock to speak there as a matter of ‘freedom of speech’, saying she believes that part of the university’s role is to enable students to deal with differing viewpoints.
She told The Times newspaper: ‘Most students actually get it and are quite impassioned about the fact that people should have a range of views.’
In a statement last month, the Oxford University LGBTQ+ society called for Professor Stock’s invitation to speak to be rescinded as it claimed she was ‘transphobic and trans-exclusionary’.
It also accused the Oxford Union of ‘disregarding’ the welfare of the society’s members under the guise of free speech.
Professor Stock said on Twitter that the the LGBTQ+ Society’s statement contained ‘several falsehoods’, was ‘probably defamatory’ and made it look ‘utterly ridiculous’.
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