A Harvard professor of evolutionary biology named Carole Hooven is being torched by her colleagues and called “transphobic” for rejecting the phrase “pregnant people” and insisting that there are only two genders.
Hooven has taught at the university for over 20 years. She has been the recipient of multiple teaching awards and is highly respected in her field. But all of that is being ignored because she is not in lockstep with the woke political correctness of her department’s diversity head.
She told Fox News this week that she feels “frustrated” at the current politically hyped atmosphere that permeates academia. She believes the genderless terminology is misguided. Professors at Harvard are reportedly discouraged from using words such as “male” and “female.” They are also allegedly urged not to use the term “pregnant woman” according to Hooven since the terms are deemed offensive to the transgender and LGBTQ community.
“I’ve been feeling pretty frustrated over the last five years or so. It’s been gradual,” Hooven acknowledged. “This kind of ideology has been infiltrating science. It’s infiltrating my classroom, to some extent.”
(Video Credit: Fox News)
She just published a book entitled, “T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone That Dominates and Divides Us,” which has received a great deal of praise.
Hooven’s classroom lessons revolve around the science of hormones and behavior, sex, and sexual differences.
She stated in relation to her teaching that “Part of that science is teaching the facts.”
“And the facts are that there are in fact two sexes – there are male and female – and those sexes are designated by the kind of gametes we produce. Do we make eggs, big sex cells, or little sex cells, sperm? And that’s how we know whether someone is male or female. And the ideology seems to be that biology really isn’t as important as how somebody feels about themselves, or feels their sex to be,” the professor noted.
Hooven’s comments follow a piece by a reporter named Katie Herzog who earlier in the week wrote about a student in med school at the University of California who spoke up about gender in the classroom. According to a student named Lauren, teachers are too scared to acknowledge that there are, in fact, only two genders because they run the risk of being labeled “transphobic.”
Lauren claimed, “I think there’s a small percentage of instructors who are true believers [in woke ideology], but most of them are probably just scared of their students.” She also noted that over the last few months students have been circulating a number of petitions that are intended to “name and shame” instructors for “wrong speak.”
Herzog also interviewed Hooven for the same piece.
The professor stated, “You know, we can treat people with respect and respect their gender identities and use their preferred pronouns. So understanding the facts about biology doesn’t prevent us from treating people with respect.”
Hooven acknowledged that the woke terminology was “incredibly confusing for science educators and for students trying to learn about the world and learn the tools of science and critical thinking.”
She also said that it was wrong for professors and the media to “start backing away from using certain terms that they are afraid people will find offensive. And that fear is based in reality. People do find these terms offensive; they do complain on social media; they do shame people and even threaten to get people fired.”
“So it’s no wonder that a lot of people are caving and yielding to the social pressure,” she added. “But we are doing students and the public a great disservice, and dividing the populace.”
Director of Diversity Laura Simone Lewis tweeted on Friday, “As the Director of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force for my dept @HarvardHEB, I am appalled and frustrated by the transphobic and harmful remarks made by a member of my dept in this interview with Fox and Friends.”
“Let’s be clear: if you respect diverse gender identities & aim to use correct pronouns, then you would know that people with diverse genders/sexes can be pregnant incl Trans men, intersex people & gender nonconforming people. That isn’t too hard for medical students to understand.” she noted. “Inclusive language like “pregnant people” demonstrates respect for EVERYONE who has the ability to get pregnant, not just cis women. It is vital to teach med students gender inclusive language, as they will certainly interact with people that identify outside the gender binary.”
“I respect Carole as a colleague & scientist. But this dangerous language perpetuates a system of discrimination against non-cis people within the med system. It directly opposes our Task Force work that aims to create a safe space for scholars of ALL gender identities and sexes.,” Lewis declared.
Inclusive language like “pregnant people” demonstrates respect for EVERYONE who has the ability to get pregnant, not just cis women. It is vital to teach med students gender inclusive language, as they will certainly interact with people that identify outside the gender binary
— Laura Simone Lewis (@LauraSimoneLew) July 30, 2021
Current HEB scholars & those considering joining us: please know there are many of us in the dept who honor & celebrate everyone across/outside the gender spectrum. We clearly have so much more work to do, but we are trying hard to make our dept a better/safer place for all🏳️⚧️💜
— Laura Simone Lewis (@LauraSimoneLew) July 30, 2021
Many on social media agreed with Professor Hooven:
There is too much emphasis on trying to manage the words of colleagues in a world where such policing devolves easily into bullying. The focus should be on helping people become resilient and to interpret each other with just a little charity. Is Carole Hooven really the problem?
— Josh Schwartz (@Metal_Crow) July 30, 2021
Nobody in any category should be taught that their value relies on other people uttering the right words or phrases. We need to do more work building people up, because the world is never going to be free of slights and slings. Listen with charity, and people may surprise you.
— Josh Schwartz (@Metal_Crow) July 30, 2021
You can’t publicly slag someone off as harmful and transphobic, declare yourself “appalled” by their holding different views to yours & then three tweets later say that you ‘respect’ them. That just sounds ridiculous.
— Jo – Time for Tea (@joslyoung) July 30, 2021
Sounds like the usual doublespeak we’re being conditioned to accept as reasonable.
— vulvasaurus (@seemyrawr) July 31, 2021
I REALLY hope you are not a doctor. Knowing someone’s sex is absolutely imperative, regardless of their bloody pronouns!
— Valkyrie (@Recklessgoddess) July 30, 2021
Dangerous language is that which tries to:
– deny science
– create an alternate reality that denies science
– creates a new language as a way to see who’s bought into the shared denial of science as a way to discriminate people
— Closeted News Junkie (@NewsCloset) July 31, 2021
I am a person of science. When every Y chromosome, in every strand of DNA, in every nucleus of every cell of a person can be changed to a X chromosome, and vice-versa, then I will concede that a man can metamorphose into a woman (and vice versa). Until then, no dice.
— Ghost of Rothbard (@SilverSeraphim) July 31, 2021
Policing the way people speak is surely doing the opposite effect and dividing everyone rather than bringing them together. Also if I spoke out about a colleague on twitter, I would be sacked.
— James (@smithjam100) July 31, 2021
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