On the Nature of Things

Miss_faucie_fishtits wrote: ↑29 Dec 2024 23:27

‘In the Middle Ages there was no rational doubt that humans were created only male and female,’ one scholar responded

Boston University is offering a graduate-level “Medieval Trans Studies” course for the upcoming spring semester that explores how “medieval texts speak to the historical, theoretical, and political concerns that animate contemporary trans studies.”

The course has drawn criticism from scholars who argue that it reflects modern ideological biases rather than historical accuracy.

It considers “the deep histories of transgender embodiment” through an examination of texts stemming from the Middle Ages, according to the course description.

Students will read about “alchemical hermaphrodites, genderfluid angels, Ethiopian eunuchs, trans saints, sex workers, and genderqueer monks,” according to the university.

Adam Kissel, a fellow with the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, told The College Fix via email, “It is a mistake for the course to misinterpret Medieval texts by indulging modern obsessions.”

He said it is permissible for universities to study how Medieval writers understood their fantasies regarding gender. However, BU’s course is “a distraction from better emphases.”

“In the Middle Ages there was no rational doubt that humans were created only male and female. The people knew that freaks of nature were abnormal,” Kissel said.

“Medieval studies resisted the woke turn in the humanities but eventually succumbed to it. The academic humanities need to be rebuilt from the ground up” as they “are largely self-indulgent activism,” he said.

MORE: I am formerly trans. Why won’t my college let me share my story?

Offering similar criticism, University of Chicago history Professor Rachel Fulton Brown told The College Fix she is not surprised that Boston University would implement a course of this nature. Brown explained the course’s title is likely “intended to get people’s attention.”

“[Sexuality is] degraded to the point…that we don’t take its intense power as seriously,” Brown said.

She said it would be “a great course” if it approached the topic of gender in Medieval times through the lens of Christian mysticism. Medieval monks were intimately devoted to God, understanding themselves as Christ’s brides, she told The Fix.

The course demonstrates how humanity has lost its sense of “being made in the image and likeness of God – and what that means,” she said.

“I think this course is a good symptom of the crisis that we’re in… Are we going to recognize ourselves as creatures of God or are we going to pretend that we are our own makers?” Brown said.

BU Professor Micah Goodrich will teach the course starting next academic semester. The school’s staff directory states that Goodrich’s scholarly interests include “the possibilities and presumed limits of the body’s transformative potential and capacity to self-create,” focusing on “trans studies” and “queer theory.”

Goodrich also has a personal blog in which he writes about “medieval literature, transgender studies, and the history of the body.” The blog states that Goodrich’s new course will show what “a medieval trans studies offer to contemporary trans studies and vice versa.”

The Fix reached out to Goodrich and the school’s media relations and English departments via email for comments on the upcoming course in the last two weeks but received no replies.

The university is also offering several other related courses including “Thinking Queerly,” “Sociology of Gender,” and “Queering Health.”

MORE: Boston University students must take writing class with ‘social justice emphasis’

IMAGE: CampusMania/Youtube

Miss_faucie_fishtits wrote: ↑31 Dec 2024 19:34 I think David's point is yeah, we need to do the things but we don't have the time frame to do it on our schedule. Because we're so personal we don't see the larger issue beyond an immigrant getting a tech job instead of a native born citizen......

How much our global hegemony depends upon being the penultimate global power and global reserve currency is invisible to us, and we're going past our best use by date........

NapLajoieOnSteroids wrote:The big picture is that he's advocating for more of the status quo which created the problem to begin with because it is in the best interest to his personal or his peers' bottom line.

Miss_faucie_fishtits wrote: ↑03 Jan 2025 21:38 ".....‘In the Middle Ages there was no rational doubt that humans were created only male and female,’ one scholar responded....."

That's because when reference was made to human back then, it was always in a social context. Human didn't exist outside of church or tribe. When we talk about human nowadays, it's all about me, myself and I. Community becomes a costume for identity, we being NPC's and LARPers at the same time........

NapLajoieOnSteroids wrote:The big picture is that he's advocating for more of the status quo which created the problem to begin with because it is in the best interest to his personal or his peers' bottom line.

The status quo is that we value maintaining our global hegemony as the economic, technical and military power of the world nonpareil. If the cost of that status is unacceptable to us, we may need to relent to a multipolar world or allowing a Chinese axis to take the lead. We need to get real with ourselves, in order to keep our values we may need to give up the prize. No more free lunch, no more free beers.......

Miss_faucie_fishtits wrote: ↑29 Dec 2024 23:27

noddy wrote: ↑05 Mar 2025 23:34 You are paying attention.

havent seen any right wing talking points about the evil tech giants in a while - they were coming thick and fast before the election.

I wonder why that is.

what happens when you gut the public service, how do those tasks get done ?

What tasks are those? Completely turning a blind eye to the needs of the "rabble"?
Maui fire breaks out and a bureaucrat decides saving water is the ultimate "Greater Good" So thousands of home burn down. The survivors are given $700 each. But there is good news!! After 18 months the first building permits for rebuilding homes lost in the fire have been approved !! For a while the Hawaiian government thought that it would be necessary to condemn all the property and sell it off to developers. Imagine they worked out a way where the people that actually owned the property that their families had lived on for generations could continue to live there !! Those hard working government officials have made a miracle !!

Hurricane hits North Carolina and the Bureaucrats of the Federal Emergency Management Agency decide the "Greater Good" is to spend $59 Million dollars(plus billions more) to pay $700 a night for illegal Immigrants' hotel rooms in NYC, while giving $750 to those that lost their homes in the Hurricane. Plus those that were getting help paying for Hotel rooms are suddenly kicked out of the hotels because FEMA ran out of money. The survivors then have to literally live in tents in the middle of winter. Just an unfortunate side effect of Diversity Inclusion and Equity for the "Greater Good" But what could be done their hands were tied?

Then the fires in LA. Where the government lied about making firebreaks in the local brush and forests. Where the main reservoir of water was drained and left empty for 10 months because it had a leak and that could not be allowed as some water would seep into the ground. And getting it fix with a patch was a monumental task akin to a Moon Shot. SO as not to cause panic it was kept secret from the local fire depts that the main source of water to fight wild fires was empty. Imagine the riots and anger at local governments public meeting should the public know about it? The Mayor would have been there for the fires except she had an urgent assignment by the Biden Admin to go to Africa to represent the Biden Admin at a local festival. So it just could not be helped that the mayor was there while 10,000 homes burned. Apparently the Chief of the fire dept tricked her into going because she was angry that the Mayor cut the fire budget by millions so there was not money to pay overtime to the 1,000 firefighters that were sent home right before the fires started. Just like it cannot be helped that people whose homes burned will be arrested if they do not wait 18 months to go back to their properties or start to rebuild them. It is after all government doing its best for the "Greater Good"

why is it Elon and Bezos in the thick of it all, how could you even put tech giants in charge of getting rid of getting rid of globalist tech giant conspiracy deep state.

why does that previous sentance read like gibberish no matter how many times I try and reword it!

noddy wrote: ↑07 Mar 2025 09:20 the american fire discourse is so painful, I need to avoid listening to it - reminds me of that phenomena during the world cup in which every drunk bastard knows advanced soccer strategies.

having fully read the thread now, I can muse the following.

"the australian solution" was so game-able it was a joke - industry standard wage is wildly variable, and as pointed out above , it wasnt about lack of local expertise, it was about importing people who work harder for less.

the average non upper class Indian grows up in a much more dog eat dog world, you can realy exploit their survival fears in ways you cant exploit a local middle class westerner.

the global world isnt going anywhere

- immigration will continue from shit spots to good spots, until the good spots are equally shit.
- wages will tend towards global average, with that being much lower than the average westerner would expect.

none of our politics is mature enough to handle that conversation, so its a one trip of retardation towards shit, from both sides of the fence.

Trump's america will be much like Putin's russia - be part of the in crowd in the large cities, or live wild and free in the empty spaces.

im sure nobody in Russia complains when an oligarch imports a bunch of cheap workers from asia, its just how it is.