A UK professor has received a barrage of abuse after suggesting a woman is defined by law as biological, not psychological.
Rosa Freedman, Professor of Law, at The University of Reading, posted a series of tweets detailing the backlash. “I found my office door covered in urine,” Professor Freedman said.
“People are continuously calling my phone from an anonymous number, and when I answer I am laughed at and told that I am a ‘TERF’ who ‘should be raped and killed.'”
“If this is how a University Professor is treated, little wonder that women who work in jobs without protection regarding academic enquiry… feel unable to speak up to protect women’s rights,” Professor Freedman added.
The professor’s detailed account can be read below:
THREAD: The excellent @Womans_Place_UK have put on many meetings in the last year to discuss women’s rights, and tonight I had the great privilege of speaking at one of those meetings. We discussed the law relating to sex & to gender identity. In many ways it was uplifting to be
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
part of that meeting. I am a Professor of Law, tenured, protected in terms of being able to speak in a respectful manner based on specific evidence, and supported to undertake research on topical and timely issues. That has not protected me from the harassment & abuse dished out
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
by the transactivist lobby. This week I picked up my post & received three more hard copy letters (separate to the daily emails I now receive) from staff and students at universities in the UK and beyond who are scared to express their views for fear of stigmatisation. This week
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
I found my office door covered in urine, including some that had seeped under the door, and I spent time cleaning it up because I could not bear the smell or the shame of what had happened. Last week I discovered criminal damage explicitly encouraging me to leave the University
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
because of my views that a woman is defined by law as biological not psychological. I have been attacked and vilified personally and professionally on social media by a senior Professor at another University who keeps threatening me with action (legal and/or re my employer), and
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
have had my reputation spuriously and perniciously smeared by the local LGBT charity who seems to have provided the University with wrongful advice on the trans policy (thankfully it can and ought to be changed) and academics spearheaded by @natachakennedy at Goldsmiths (an
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
institution that is not a leading light on women's rights). Tonight I met other academics who are being harassed in their workplace for setting out views based on specific evidence (i.e. doing their jobs). We all go to work to do our jobs — and we are pretty damn good at doing
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
the research, educating, & administration that comes with the job — yet we are being demonised, harassed, and targeted for expressing opinions based on the expertise for which we were hired and for why we are revered. This evening I was followed by students on campus, and ended
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
up hiding behind trees because I was scared for my physical safety. I have been open about being a survivor of sexual violence, despite which young male-bodied persons have seen fit to abuse me verbally about rape or to follow me in the dark into secluded spaces. It is now 3.30am
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
and someone / some people are continuously calling my phone from an anonymous number, & when I answer I am laughed at and told that I am a ‘TERF’ who ‘should be raped and killed’. If this is how a University Professor is treated, little wonder that women who work in jobs without
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
protection regarding academic enquiry – e;g; factories, shops, schools, restaurants, hospitals, and beyond (where there are fewer / no protections in place in employment contracts and policies) — feel unable to speak up to protect women’s rights. Welcome to 2018, where people
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
have drunk the Kool Aid, or are looking to make a career on the back of the Kool Aid, or are just looking for a reason to bully and berate women who speak up (particularly those with expertise). [Good night]
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018
Postscript: I think universities ought to consider sending communications to students & staff about appropriate behaviour. Peaceful protest is a legitimate part of freedom of expression. Harassment and abuse ought never to be tolerated. Employers have a duty of care to employees
— Rosa Freedman (@GoonerProf) December 5, 2018