Outcry as academics liken feminist conference to ‘enabling eugenics’
‘To compare feminist ideas and debate to the ideology that led to the murder and sterilisation of millions worldwide is disgusting’
UNIVERSITY academics have compared a feminist conference promoting women’s rights on campus to “enabling eugenics”.
Police were called to University College London (UCL) yesterday as about two dozen transgender activists banged on windows and allegedly assaulted a woman while the Education For Women’s Liberation conference was held.
Some 900 people including academics, students and writers gathered on the leading Russell Group campus to discuss how scholarly research can “bring feminism back into the lecture theatres”.
But as it began at 9am, two lecturers who co-direct qUCL, a staff and student research group on gender studies and queer theory, released a statement comparing the conference to eugenics.
Dr Simon Lock, a UCL associate professor of science communication, and Dr Xine Yao, a lecturer in American literature, wrote: “We are deeply concerned that inviting speakers and organisations who are well known to promote anti-trans and anti-queer views on to our campus invalidates the hard work UCL has undertaken over the last several years to address issues of EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion], including the legacy of eugenics and debates about anti-Semitism.”
Their statement added: “Debate and dissent are foundational to scholarly inquiry, however false equivalence is damaging.
“To entertain uniformed positions that hurt, or worse question the validity of marginalised peoples, places UCL in the position of once again enabling the likes of the eugenics conferences that ran on campus through 2017.”
It sparked condemnation from leading professors in attendance, especially since UCL was the first UK university to admit women on equal terms to men, in 1878.
Alice Sullivan, a professor of sociology at UCL, who spoke on a panel, told The Sunday Telegraph: “The idea that believing that sex matters is somehow comparable to eugenics is grotesque and defamatory.”
Another panel speaker, Prof Jo Phoenix, a criminology expert at Reading University, said: “To compare feminist ideas and debate to the ideology that led to the murder and sterilisation of millions worldwide is both supremely anti-academic and, quite frankly, disgusting.”
The Metropolitan Police confirmed they were called just after 3.40pm to “disorder associated with a demo” and there was “an allegation that someone tried to grab something”.
Katy Worley, 39, the founder of the Make More Noise feminist group, said she was filming about 25 trans activist protesters chanting when “a hooded gentleman came up to me, said ‘Stop filming me’ and then grabbed my phone, wrestled it out of my hand and threw it over a wall”. Trans activists were chanting “When trans rights are under attack, we fight back”.
Judith Green, of Woman’s Place UK which ran the conference with the UCL Women’s Liberation group, said: “While initially peaceful, this did become intimidating and caused distress.”