Comment on Erasure
atomicorange@lemmy.world 1 month agoSo the DEI program wasn’t inclusive enough? Would the situation have been better without the DEI program? Just trying to understand the issue, typically DEI has the effect of increasing visibility but it sounds like you had the opposite experience.
anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
The DEI program (at least the one that interfaced with me) excluded and erased anyone who didn’t fit their prescribed notions of diversity.
I am intersex and trans. I cannot go on HRT because it would kill me. I try to qualify and push back against the HRT worship performed by mainstream trans culture. Trans people try to cancel me for speaking to my life experience and for pointing out that there are negative medical consequences of HRT that needs to be a part of the discussion. HRT should not be pushed as the default or only way to be trans.
I had a bad experience with an advisor in 2018. She invited me to her home, and asked me to bring food. We ate dinner. After, she put on netflix and started rubbing her butt on me. I ate her out, giving her my virginity. I quickly switched advisors. I had a swarm of “feminists” come down on me to cancel me for daring to eat out my female boss. Because I have something like a penis, it must be my fault, workplace hierarchies be damned.
DEI, as it was implemented, was as much about reaching out to marginalized communities as it was about enforcing that everyone in the workplace hold the same beliefs. It was as much about bringing in new faces as it was about silencing even moderately dissenting voices. It was about supporting a diversity of identities, while also silencing a diversity of thought. I believe that the exclusive and inequitable implementation of DEI is a major driver of the common person’s animosity towards it.
My situation would have been better without the DEI program. I would have my PhD by now, and I would probably not be unemployed. I recognize that for others the program was a foot in the door. That does not change the fact that for many like me, it was a boot in the ass.
atomicorange@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Thanks for answering, and I’m sorry about the creep in the replies downplaying your advisor raping you. I believe you, and I know it can be especially difficult for people who are perceived as “masculine” to get support when they come forward about being assaulted. Many self-proclaimed feminists still uphold the patriarchy by embracing gender essentialism bullshit. All I can say is, people are imperfect, biases are tough to unlearn, and living up to our ideals is a constant battle against complacency. I still value those ideals (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and I’m sorry the so-called DEI committee at your university failed to embody them.
anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Thank you.
I also still value those ideals. I wish that we as a society could do a better job of embodying them.
Lumelore@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
As a trans woman, I don’t see HRT being pushed as the only way to be trans. I think the vast majority of us recognize that there are many different paths people take. I have a friend who can’t take HRT because of blood clotting issues they have, and they are still 100% valid. Even if someone’s health doesn’t prevent them from taking HRT and they just don’t want it, they are still valid as well. The people saying that HRT is necessary to be trans are known as transmedicalists and they are cringe.
anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Thank you. I wish that the world had more people with compassion like you.
Moving my reply to the non-deleted duplicate :)
ysjet@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I hope you realize how bad this sounds, and this is WITH your one sided account that’s clearly skimming over things you did.
anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
I do not, and I would LOVE for you to tell me what I did wrong.
ysjet@lemmy.world 1 month ago
I cannot, as you clearly aren’t telling the whole story. All I can tell is that you’re telling a very biased story, and you’re blaming DEI for… squints hiring women? Hiring feminists? It’s hard to tell who exactly you’re blaming for fucking your advisor and not getting abackslap and cigar.
Which is… Well, right up the alley of someone wanting rid of DEI I guess.
Lumelore@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
anindefinitearticle@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Lumelore@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Hey thanks! My reply to you somehow was posted twice, so if you see another in your inbox that’s why. I deleted this one just before you replied but the other is still up.