The Wrong Way

There are some right ways and some wrong ways to teach trans culture, and this was differently the wrong way.

University Officials Are Looking Into A Professor Who Gave Students A Quiz Called "Female Or Shemale"
Students say the professor also told them, "You don’t want to get too drunk or you’ll go home with the wrong one."
BuzzFeed
By Salvador Hernandez
October 21, 2017

Officials at State University of New York College at Geneseo are looking into one of the school's sociology professors after he allegedly asked students to pick out trans women from a series of pictures in a slide titled "Female or Shemale."

A picture of the presentation, shown to students during an introductory sociology class this week, was shared on social media Friday morning and has since been circulating among students at the university.

Subsequent criticism over the presentation prompted the university's president, Denise A. Battles, to respond, and promise that the school would look into the issue.

"A professor is reported to have presented materials and made comments about which some students have expressed concern," Battles said in a statement Friday evening. "We are taking the matter very seriously and are gathering the facts to determine if and what action is warranted."

Let’s hope that the university does the right thing and disciplines the professor.
"He just said, 'We want you to write whether it's female or she-male,'" Sternberg said. "He never said what the point of the quiz was during the class, but when I addressed him afterward he said it was partly for humor and partly to discuss sexual dimorphism."

So what did he do when the students called him out it?

Stemberg said that she has not yet received a response to the email she sent Sorbello — but that she did receive a class-wide email notifying students that phones, laptops, and photo-taking will now be banned from his class. Sternberg said students were previously allowed to take pictures of the class slides to use as study materials.

We don’t know what point he was trying to make, was he trying to show that trans people are no different from other people? Was he trying to make fun of trans people? Which it seems he was.

If he said “female or trans” and then went on to explain how we are not different from everyone, I know a trans person who did that, they had nine women shown and three were trans. She then talked about the achievements of the trans women, one was Lynn Conway, Amanda Simpson, and the last one I forget who it was. I thought it was done nicely and got the message that she was trying to teach about inclusion.

Also a local LGBT organization used to have a panel “Guess the Gays” where the audience could ask questions but not anything related to sexual orientation. Once again the purpose was to show the audience that we are just like everyone else.

If that was what the professor was trying to show he blew it big time by using derogatory words to describe us, he needs some diversity training, but if he meant to belittle us then he needs to be shown the door. However, judging by the sub-title about getting drunk he needs to be fired.