'Feminist' Germaine Greer has faced criticism for further attacks on the transgender community after condemning Cambridge University's Murray Edwards College for changing its admissions policy to allow female identified transgender students to attend the institute.
Murray Edwards College was founded as a single-sex female only college in 1954, but has announced that it will now accept any person who identifies as female.
'At the admissions level, we will consider any student who, at the point of application, identifies as female and, where they have been identified as male at birth, has taken steps to live in the female gender,' the college has said in a statement.
Since the establishment of the Equality Act of 2010, it has been illegal to discriminate against transgender people, and to demand that trans people provide proof of their gender where a cisgender person would not be. This includes areas such as bathroom facilities, changing areas, and single-sex only institutions such as Murray Edwards College. Despite this, very few single-sex institutions have policies in place for transgender people.
Despite this, Germaine Greer has spoken out against this change. Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, she said 'It's a silly situation, and I'm sure that Murray Edwards will have their own reasons. But it's a difficult relationship, having transgender people in an all-female environment.
'If Murray Edwards really don't believe that gender is binary, then they really shouldn't be a single sex college. Their position is ridiculous. The only sane thing for them to do is to cease discriminating on the basis of assigned gender of any kind.
'There are plenty of women who have served their time in women's colleges, who are pretty whiskery, but nobody did a DNA test on them. But they had to live women's lives - with all the disabilities that that entails.'
This is not the first time where Greer has spoken out against the transgender community, having previously stated that transgender women are 'some kind of ghastly parody', and that trans women cannot be women as they 'don't know what it's like to have a big, hairy, smelly vagina'.
She has also stated that 'because you lop off your dick and then wear a dress doesn't make you a fucking woman.'
Despite this outlash from Greer, the President of Murray Edwards College, Dame Barbara Stocking, has defended the decision.
'We are a college that is open to all outstanding young women and so it is absolutely right, both legally and within our set of values, for anyone who identifies as female to be able to apply to study with us.' She said. 'Society is changing and there are now a greater understanding of the complexity of gender.'
The College has also said that it will accept existing Cambridge students if they transition whilst attending.
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Amazing eh, she is pro FGM and child marriage, wrote a book full of pictures of 'sexy' pre pubescent boys, is anti contraception and abortion and hates intersex people nearly as much as she hates trans women..
ReplyDeleteYet she is a 'feminist' icon.
It's a sad thing that someone who has done some important things in the past can't see how the world has changed. She's stuck in her ways and has become just as bad as the people she used to be against.
DeleteDear God - realy! GG has gone so far over the top as to be a parody of herself. So much for equality - I'm not sure what her position even is! Surely if someone is transgender then they have made a concious decsion to live as a woman and all that that entails. They would identify and live accordingly - that Germaine is surely something to be accomodated in a tolerant society.
ReplyDeleteShe is NOT pro FGM and child marriage etc.Stop telling lies you foolish man.She is pro women,and she acknowledges biology.Transgender women are men.
ReplyDelete"Biological sex" encompasses five different things, none of which occur as a binary or with a one-to-one correlation with anything: karyotype, genital phenotype, hormone levels, secondary sexual characteristics, and internal reproductive structures.
DeleteKaryotype, AKA sex chromosomes, is usually falsely represented as a binary option between XX and XY. However, the six most common karyotypes are X, XX, XXY, XY, XYY, and XXXY, and the vast majority of people never have their karyotypes tested.
Genital phenotype: the external, visible part of the reproductive system, usually falsely presented as a binary option between vulva or penis&testicles. At least 1 out of every 100 people is born with an "atypical" genital phenotype, there is a massive amount of variation within even each classification category of genital phenotype, and the exact percentage of people born with ambiguous genitalia is impossible to determine because, until quite recently, doctors were not required to seek parental permission or in any way document cosmetic surgery performed on infants to make their genitals easier to classify.
Also, genital phenotype, as I just mentioned, can be surgically altered.
Hormone levels: every single person has a unique combination of hormone levels, and the way hormones affect each person varies wildly. They fluctuate constantly and can be changed by a wide variety of things.
Secondary sexual characteristics: Things like body hair, waist-to-leg-length ratio, voice, size of hands and feet, facial bone structure, body fat percentage and distribution, skin texture, hair thickness and luster, pelvis width, carrying angle, etc. Different for each person, highly subject to change both intentionally and accidentally.
Internal reproductive structures: Everything except the externally visible genitals. Massive amount of variation possible, and most people never know exactly how their internal structures are arranged. They change massively over the course of a person's life, and can be changed even more both intentionally and accidentally.
So clearly there's an infinite amount of variation possible within the umbrella term "biological sex." There's no one-to-one correlation between any of the things that fall under that heading, but the dominant social narrative in the Western world is that secondary sexual characteristics can be used to classify someone as one of two binary options: XY=predominantly testosterone=penis&testicles=internal structures that produce sperm OR XX=predominantly estrogen=vulva=vagina&uterus&ovaries.
The main problem with trying to sum up biological sex as "male or female" is that those terms can in no way express the massive variation possible in human bodies, the majority of which is unknown by individuals.
Transgender women are men,in every sense of the word.If you are angry with GG for telling the truth,then you should read a Science /Biology book sir.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should take your own advice and perform some research on the subject. Science doesn't support your argument on the matter. Perhaps read beyond anti-trans documents and find a more balanced and scientifically accurate viewpoint.
DeleteCat, I hope you don’t identify as a feminist because anyone reading your comments might assume that you are lacking in the inclusionary Department......����
ReplyDeleteSadly there are a number of feminists who don't see trans women as women. It's sad when a group who argue that women are more than their genitals and baby factories argue against trans women for not having cis female genitals or the ability to carry a child.
DeleteNicely summed up Amy.
DeleteThe feminist community has moved on from the exclusion of TERF and embraced inclusion. There is not a singular experiance of being a woman beyond being outside of the patriarchy and subject to the whims of fragile and toxic masculinity and rape culture.