A short thread on how scholars should behave when they think they disagree with something. May be of interest to @LSEGenderTweet. 1) Let's assume me & my mates think there is something wrong with a body of thought - say for instance Gender Critical Feminism. 2) First we might>>
read & think about some of the work that constitutes that body of thought; 3) We would probably discuss it, first informally, perhaps in a seminar, even in a symposium; 4) We'd discover that, because they are not The Borg, different GC scholars believe and maintain somewhat >>
different things. Perhaps they agree about certain basic facts but have quite different attitudes towards those facts & draw somewhat different conclusions about what, if anything should be done in response to them. That's life, because, you know, human variety. 5) We might >>
focus our attention on 1 or more canonical texts. Why? Because it is good to make criticisms concrete and be able to cite things that people have actually written as opposed to things we imagine they have written. 6) I'll take a leaf out of my own book. I can't claim any >>
expertise on GC thought but I have read @Docstockk Material Girls so let's take that as an example. You can substitute any other text that you think is reasonable & representative. 7) @Docstockk sets her own position out very clearly about a number of issues and explains why >>
she takes views that differ from Butler, Laqueur, Fausto-Sterling & a whole bunch of other people. She may be right, she may be wrong in her interpretation of what these people say. She may be right, she may be wrong about the facts. She may be right or wrong in her logic. >>
8) My job as a scholar is to articulate, with careful reference to what she actually says, why I think she is right or wrong. I can do it in a blog. I can do it in an article for a periodical. I can write a learned paper. I can give a lecture, seminar or keynote speech. >>
But if I am going to castigate her I have to give reasons & evidence that relates to what she has actually written. Because, you know, that's how scholarship works. That's what makes our opinions worth serious consideration. Because we aren't acting like the one trick pub bore,>>
the village scold or the Stasi. But, of course, everyone knows this, at least in the abstract. They just need a little more practice.
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