Academic Societies

[andrewbcalculating]

I saw a notice for the Homerton Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Transsexual society and it got me thinking about academic societies including the Afro Caribbean society that my friend Abraham was a member of when I was at City University.

Do you think it would be considered racist if there were academic White/ Caucasian societies or sexist if there were academic heterosexual societies?

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[Nigel]

Not in themselves. I think it would depend what their activities were.

If I remember correctly, the various ethnic societies at Aberystwyth were open to other ethnicities and they would put on social events (singly and jointly) to promote their cultures and countries.

[blueshift]

I was called a monster at Uni for trying to set up a Men's Society!

[Grand Moff Muffin]

By whom? Men or women?

Was there a women's society?

I suppose societies are good if they act as meeting places for minorities with common interests who would otherwise find it hard to identify one another and link up. That wouldn't really wash with majority races/orientations, who should have their own kind in plentiful supply without the need to put up posters, so you might wonder what alternative (more questionable) motive they might have for existing.

Martin

[mewshkin]

Well, I think some groups have more power in society than others, and the simple pretense that everyone is equal (and therefore have to behave in exactly the same way, including the setting up of societies to expower that group) simply covers the desire of the dominant group to continue dominating.

[blueshift]

There was a women's society. It had 3 members (friends of mine too, not just being mean!) and they had a room to themselves in the student union!

Ah happy days!

[The Doctor]

I could never be arsed with Uni socities. Interfered with time down the pub/union.

-Ralph

[dyrl]

I think people should be free to organize themselves and meet with people on the basis of whatever criteria they deem fit.

So - if you organized a heterosexual white men's society, it WOULD be racist and sexist - but so what?

People have a right to discriminate - and in fact discriminating is inescapable.

When you chose a girlfriend - are you evil because (for example) you prefer blonds to brunnettes?

More so - are you homophobic because you prefer women to men?

When you, as a Transformers fan, are more prone to befriend someone who is a Transformers fan than - say - someone who is a rabid Gobots fan - are you discriminating? You bet. But so what?

Freedom of association is a basic right - it means you can associate with whoever you want for whatever reasons you want.

Of course - in reality, I doubt that the majority of people make race or ethnicity a primary factor in why they associate with someone else. You don't just fall in love with hair color, and you don't befriend skin color. There are a variety of factors that go into why you associate with some people.

It can be argued (in fact I would agree with the sentiment) that associating with people who are vastly different from you is HEALTHY because it opens your mind and gives you diverse perspectives.

In fact - that's one of the main reasons people should go to university - to learn more about the world and others; to challenge their prejudices.

But again - this has to be a free choice, and different people have different degrees of tolerance. The only basic requirement of everyone is that we respect one another as equals and treat eachother fairly on the basis of our common humanity. But - this doesn't mean that you can force people who are different to love eachother or be bossom buddies - nor that you necessarily should make this a goal.

As for Mewshkin's theory - I think there's a lot of truth to it. But again - it's a theory about people, and not math, so it's hard to say.

However, on the whole, I think it would be more preferable to go party at a gay club than sit around with politically active members of the Gay/Lesbian/bisexual society, because at least at the gay club you could get drunk and dance to some great music, while the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual society would oppress your brain with theories about oppression.

I personally never participated in any such societies because I found them a tad limiting insofar as I preferred to gather with people on the basis of academic interests instead of racial characteristics or skin color (aka I prefered hanging out with the economics society people or something like that than hanging out with the Black Students society).

I also always found it somewhat ironic that societies such as Gay/Lesbian etc or Black Students etc were always going on about being against racism, when the very name of their society suggested that race was of primary importance to them and therefore- they were usually the most racist people in the University (by racist, I understand: "Judging others through their race and seeing race as the most important factor when considering others").

Pete

[Mark_Stevenson]

Apr 3, 2009 6:51:58 GMT dyrl said:

However, on the whole, I think it would be more preferable to go party at a gay club than sit around with politically active members of the Gay/Lesbian/bisexual society, because at least at the gay club you could get drunk and dance to some great music, while the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual society would oppress your brain with theories about oppression.

I went to an LGBT meeting once when I was at Uni. It was, and I won't mince words here, utterly horrible. A more whiny, boring, self-obsessed bunch of queer stereotypes I have never met.

Hope that doesn't offend any straight people

Pete's right - if you want to meet people and have fun, go out. People who want to define themselves by such narrow parameters as who they prefer to sleep with tend to either a) have an agenda or b) be very dull.

To this day, I still have no idea what 'gay interest' means, but I'm fairly certain it doesn't interest me.

However, saying that, I'm also a liberal bloke, so I'm all for people doing what the hell they like. When people go to University, they can often be completely out of their element and a bit lost (I've seen students from Kenya roaming the mean streets of Wolverhampton, rain-soaked, looking utterly shell-shocked) so anything that helps you make friends is all good.

Mx