The event, titled “Criticising gender-identity ideology: what happens when speech is silenced”, is being hosted by Arif Ahmed, a Caius fellow.
Students received notification of the event via emails across different faculties. the invitation of Joyce has created a storm among students, ignited by the disapproval of activists and LGBT reps at one of Britain’s top higher institutions of learning. The disapproval draws a thin line between the established right to freedom of speech, and the offence that freedom can sometimes cause to certain demographics affected by its free expression.
The email said that Joyce, former Britain editor at The Economist and the author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, will be interviewed by Sir Partha Dasgupta about her interest in the “controversial subject of gender-identity ideology”, and the positive and negative reactions to her work. Advocates of gender identity at the university, who are familiar with the contents of her book or her philosophies on the wide-ranging topic will be very apprehensive of having a woman of her ideological leaning being given the floor to express many of her percing views on a matter that has long divided opinion in the UK and abroad.
The scheduled event has divided Cambridge university students, some of whom accuse Joyce of being a TERF (a trans exclusionary radical feminist). That term, considered offensive by some, refers to the beliefs of gender critical feminists, who tend to be sceptical of some claims made by trans activists. They are also concerned about the potential implications of allowing people who were assigned male at birth into women’s spaces.
Joyce, an outstanding and intelligent writer and journalist, has written extensively about the topic of gender identity, probing the myriad factors underlying gender dysphoria, and appraising the complexities that surround the very sensitive and controversial topic. Joyce is on record as attributing transgender issues to a ”psychogenic illness”, and cited research from numerous researchers who highlight complex psychological reasons influenced by external forces for the transition from one gender to another, who feel her visit may exacerbate pre-existing insecurities transgender people have had to endure and come a long way to overcome.
Renowned in her field but resented by her detractors who insist her views are counterproductive to the overarching objective of promoting equality of treatment, her appearance at the event will pose a testing ground for both students and the journalist herself.
Exactly how she handles the emotional wave of criticism awaiting the experienced writer if her invitation is not rescinded between now and her visit, will be interesting to see.
Hateful
One post emotively branded Joyce “hateful” and “ignorant”, in an effort to express solidarity with Caius’ transgender students.
Quite clearly, a number of students are apprehensive about her visit, but crucially, none has cited any particularly rhetoric from the seasoned writer which they find harmful enough to warrant cancelling the event.
It is not the first time the opinionated journalist has faced opposition to being granted a platform to engage an audience about her profoundly engaging yet controversial views.
Earlier this year, Joyce was due to speak at a top conference for trainee doctors to discuss her views on gender theory, but was disinvited just days before the event. Organisers were forced to postpone the event, following the inclusion of the transactivist on the panel, claiming that it would make trans participants feel “unsafe”.
The Eye of Media. Com has heard that LGBT college reps have condemned the planned event at Caius, accusing the staff involved of “allowing transphobia to proliferate within the university” and “potentially putting transgender students in harms’ way.”
Embodied in their statement was statistics detailing the prevalence of mental health issues within the young trans community, as well as the disturbing rise in levels of transphobic hate crime.
Disgusted
They wrote: “this kind of rhetoric is fundamentally against what we as LGBT officers stand for, and we are unanimously disgusted by the platforming of such views by Caius … Transgender identities should not be put forward as a subject for debate, and their existence is not an ‘ideology’.”
Cambridge SU also added their voice to the agitation against having Joyce at the university , arguing that it would do nothing but “contribute to the further alienation of trans students, to whom the university has a duty of care.”Pre-emptive
Commenting on the decision to invite Joyce, Ahmed told The Eye Of Media.Com:
”I think it is pre-emptive to conclude that inviting Helen Joyce will be detrimental to the mental health of trans students who may attend the event.
“Helen Joyce and Partha Dasgupta will be discussing very important questions relating to sex and gender which are invariably matters of great public interest.
“Anyone who would like to learn about Helen Joyce’s views and her reasoning, and to discuss them with her, should feel free to come along. Everyone is welcome.”
“It is not a College event. We support free speech and would encourage those within the College community and wider society to challenge views they find reprehensible through debate and to celebrate our diversity.”