Female philosophers | @guardianletters

Jonathan Wolff is probably a tad out of touch (Report, 26 November). There are any number of brilliant youthful and not so younger women philosophers in the United kingdom. The question is: do the males read the articles or blog posts, blogs and books of these girls? Do they listen to the contributions created by them at seminars, and conferences? A lady professor of philosophy would have been capable to feel of 6 or seven ranking professors of philosophy whose operate they admire, who also take place to be girls: Helen Beebee, Nancy Cartwright, Tina Chanter, Jen Hornsby, Catherine Malabou, Onora O’Neill, Jenny Saul. Perspective is a humorous thing. At Manchester Metropolitan we are holding a series of lectures in spring 2014 by philosophers young and old, senior and early occupation, on various factors of the hoary subject Women and Philosophy. The men have been expelling us ever given that Plato.
Professor Joanna Hodge
Manchester Metropolitan University

Female philosophers | @guardianletters

The golden age of female philosophy | @guardianletters

Jonathan Wolff isn’t the very first particular person to be puzzled about why, although 5 very well-known female philosophers emerged from Oxford quickly right after the war, number of new ones are carrying out so right now (How can we finish the male domination of philosophy?, 26 November).

As a survivor from the wartime group, I can only say: sorry, but the cause was without a doubt that there had been fewer males about then. The trouble is not, of course, guys as such – guys have accomplished excellent ample philosophy in the previous. What is wrong is a specific fashion of philosophising that benefits from encouraging a whole lot of clever youthful men to compete in winning arguments. These people then quickly develop up a set of games out of easy oppositions and elaborate them until, in the end, nobody else can see what they are talking about. All this can go on right up until someone from outside the circle finally explodes it by moving the conversation on to a quite distinct subject, following which the games are forgotten. Hobbes did this in the 1640s. Moore and Russell did it in the 1890s. And in fact I think the time is about ripe for someone to do it right now. By contrast, in these wartime lessons – which had been little – males (conscientious objectors and so forth) had been current as well as girls, but they weren’t keen on arguing.

It was clear that we were all more interested in understanding this deeply puzzling world than in putting each other down. That was how Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Mary Warnock and I, in our numerous techniques, all came to consider out alternatives to the brash, unreal fashion of philosophising – based mostly primarily on logical positivism – that was current at the time. And these have been the concepts that we later expressed in our own writings. Ultimately, I can verify that I’m still alive and doing philosophy. Next spring, Acumen will bring out my little book Are You an Illusion?
Mary Midgley
Newcastle on Tyne

The golden age of female philosophy | @guardianletters

Female students face a wave of misogyny in British universities

This week, a video of the men’s hockey staff at the University of Stirling appeared on YouTube, displaying the male students on a packed bus, engaged in a shouted chant. The chant, filmed on a mobile telephone, commences: “I employed to operate in Chicago, in a department retailer …” and gets to be more and more misogynistic, racist and offensive as the journey progresses. Now the video has been viewed tens of thousands of instances on the web, the University says it has launched an investigation.

But this video represents so significantly far more than a single, isolated incident. In just two horribly uncomfortable minutes, it sums up the actuality of what female students are facing up and down the nation – a actuality that is not going away.

It was striking how recognisable several elements of the scenario had been. The bravado and pack culture of the “lads” shouting their song irrespective of the emotions of the a lot of other, plainly unpleasant, men and women on the bus. The young female in the forefront of the shot who sits tight lipped, checking above her shoulder now and then, evoking an all-too-acquainted sense of trapped, fearful tension. The student union officer who has now apologised , and was not concerned in the chanting, but can be noticed walking away at the starting of the video rather than making any attempt to challenge the misogynistic behaviour. The passive bystander.

Then there are the lines from the song itself, every single evoking an aspect of student sexism that might sound shocking to some, but will be wearily acquainted to so many youthful girls.

The thought that sexually assaulting a lady by groping her with no her consent is a huge joke: “A lady came into the keep one day, asking for some materials … felt, she received.”

The gleeful belittling of ladies in sexual encounters: “A lady came into the shop a single day, asking for an orgasm … who gives a fuck what she acquired?”

The nasty combination of sexism and racism: “A lady came into the store one particular day, asking for an oriental-hunting gadget … my Jap’s eye she acquired.”

And, finally, the joyful abandon with which unpleasant realities are turned into a great massive, “banterous” joke at women’s expense: “A lady came into the retailer one day, asking for a lady train … a miscarriage she got.”

This is not a one off. This is not even uncommon. In the last month alone, the Daily Sexism Undertaking has received much more than 100 reports of similar incidents from college students at universities up and down the country. It is becoming the background noise to their training. And several of these reports reflect specifically the very same attitudes that emerge in the Stirling video. The message is loud and clear: sexism and sexual violence is a joke, and woe betide you if you dare to object, you frigid, uptight bitch:

“The other day in class at university, I was sitting as the only girl in a group of twenty-yr-previous guys, and they started generating jokes about how they have been going to rape women following their night out later on on … I was really angry, but felt like they would not listen to me if I said anything about it… or inform me to lighten up.”

“I was strolling from my university accommodation to the club on campus when two guys started walking following to me. They asked if I was going to the club and I stated: ‘Yes I am meeting my close friends there.’ They then asked if I needed some ‘action’ before I acquired there and one particular of them place their arm correct round me so I could not pull away. I explained: ‘No thank you.’ . They explained it was Okay they could nevertheless do one thing to me if they desired since it is not rape if the woman’s wearing socks.”

“Getting on the bus at uni – three male students considered it was acceptable to make loud and quite rude feedback about my body and how I dressed. When I challenged them they said that it was ‘just banter’ and ‘lads obtaining a laugh’. Quite uncomfortable bus ride – rest of the bus just sat in silence with no 1 supporting me. How is this still acceptable?”

“I’m 16 and in my last yr of college. Consistently the guys (and ladies) in my friendship circle make sexist remarks. Most of the time they will not realise they are becoming offensive, most of the time it is just ‘banter’. For example, the other day my male pal said to me if I wear shorts to this Halloween get together he will ‘rape me, oh but it won’t be rape due to the fact I will like it’. I responded telling him you shouldn’t say factors like that and I received named uptight … What is incorrect with the planet so that this is deemed Ok? I am frightened of going to university when I am older. Not due to the fact of examination stress but due to the fact of the horror stories I have heard from close friends and loved ones. The horror stories of girls that have been subjected to assault for ‘banter’. I am frightened. I am actually frightened of getting a female.”

We urgently need to pay attention to these youthful women’s voices. These are just some of the stories we have received in in the past month alone. Even though personal institutions are dealing nicely with events in some situations, we need to have to step back and see the greater picture here. Till we do, and until this wave of violent misogyny is recognised as an urgent nationwide dilemma by University heads, the hundreds of the reports we acquire from younger females will continue to finish in that same, bewildered question – how is this still acceptable?

Female students face a wave of misogyny in British universities