- Interview. Pablo de Lora: "Hegemonic feminism is a tsunami: going against it sinks you under the wave"
"I am overwhelmed and overwhelmed by what has happened. They called me macho and transphobic without letting me speak. If we begin to make this a habitual practice, universities will become liturgies of complacency, sectarian institutions that will lose their essential function." Who speaks is Pablo de Lora , professor of Philosophy of Law at the Autonomous University of Barcelona , who suffered a boycott last Wednesday at an academic seminar on gender held at Pompeu Fabra University .
When the teacher was about to start talking, several activists interrupted in the room and handed out leaflets that read: "Pablo de Lora, outside the machismo of the university" and "Pablo de Lora: transphobic and macho", with the #MeToo feminist label and the #Translivesmatter logo in defense of transgender rights.
These people then invited the attendees to the seminar to leave the room and talk to them "if they really wanted to know what the transgender experience was," says De Lora. "I had no problem in giving their opinion during question time, but it was not acceptable to reschedule the seminar based on their interests. It is as if some Spanish students break into a talk about the self-determination of Catalonia and force them to reschedule its content because they don't like what is said, "says this teacher.
"Or as if someone from Vox is coming to boycott a feminist presentation. I did not conceive any of that. Here they had risen to the stage, the atmosphere was very hostile and showed no attitude of leaving. I spoke with the organizers and expressed that in those circumstances it was going to be very difficult for me to talk and I had no choice but to leave. "
Sources from Pompeu Fabra University explain that the rector, Jaume Casals , has opened an information file to clarify the facts and "determine possible responsibilities." De Lora says that the person in charge of the campus has called him and expressed his "solidarity" and his "love", as have several assistants and the organizers of the seminar, members of the prestigious Barcelona Institute of Analytic Philosophy .
In addition, a hundred and a half university professors have signed a manifesto at the initiative of the Forum of Teachers - a group to which De Lora belongs, created to denounce the fake news of independence - where support is given "to the attack on freedom of expression accompanied by ideological boycott and imposition of dogmatic thinking. " What has hurt him most has been the attitude of some colleagues: "I saw in some teachers a warmth that scared me."
De Lora is the author of the essay Sexual is political (and legal) (Alliance), where, among other things, he criticizes "hegemonic feminism." "Going against it sinks you under the wave," he denounced in an interview in EL MUNDO with the journalist Emilia Landaluce . That interview, where he criticized La Manada's sentence and raised his doubts about the claim that gender identity is "a thing that one simply proclaims," hurt sensibilities.
"In the interview he made offensive comments about victims of sexual violence, the trans community and feminism. Inviting him is not the way to favor coexistence in the university. It is problematic and harmful for minorities to invite this person, and I understand and appreciate the protest, "said a teacher on Twitter who spoke as a speaker at the seminar.
De Lora defends that "the only thing" he tried to explain is "the legal and institutional problem" that the claim argues that "gender identity is pure will." That is, it is enough for a person to proclaim that she feels female to be so for all administrative purposes.
"It is a subject with conflicting interests that have to be weighted and understood. There are women who do not feel comfortable sharing the bathroom with trans people, and there are also problems in the field of sports competition. Of all this I was going to try talk, but they didn't let me. It bothered them that a person who is not trans spoke about these matters and they considered a provocation that titled my paper What is it like to be a trans? Four paradoxes of gender identity, "he says. This title makes a nod to interventions by philosophers Thomas Nagel and Philippe van Parijs .
De Lora's reflection comes to mind because in today's feminism there are conflicting positions regarding the trans movement. On the one hand, the current to which the boycott activists belong defends transgender rights and queer theory . On the other, there are the classic feminists, among which is Professor Amelia Valcárcel or Lidia Falcón , who express their reservations towards "queernormatividad".
The former call the second terfs (exclusive trans feminist radicals, in their acronym in English). In social networks, De Lora has been called "term" (exclusive trans radical chauvinist) and "lord."
"This had never happened to me before and I believe that there has been a qualitative leap," reflects this intellectual. "Freedom of expression and academic freedom have been violated," he says. "On the one hand, it is tremendous that someone boycotts an act involving a person whose political or moral position does not like it. On the other hand, if there are certain professors or opinions that cannot be expressed in the academic field, it is the death of university. This affects me today, but tomorrow it can happen to anyone. "
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