Top Girls School Ditches ‘binary’ Head Girl Role

The woke brigade really are getting their knickers in a twist.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/st-pauls-girls-school-binary-head-girl-b941501.html

Cue the usual few on here who will suggest this is quite sensible and "progressive", completely missing the irony of dividing the genders with the school name and only accepting girls, but feel that "girls" isn't a good word.

 

Interested to read that staff were told there are >150 gender identities. Of course there are ….

 

My old head just can't get around things like this.

 

Man emotional on a Monday morning searches for fight on internet and calls on ‘the Woke Brigade’ and ‘the usual few’ to step outside.

 

It is confusing that the school hasn't also agreed to change its name from 'St Paul's Girls'.

 

I would reply, but I'm uncomfortable doing so when @zztop has failed to advise us of the preferred pronouns to be used.

I am also pleased to see that sexism has been eliminated from the Spanish language, as spoken by Latinx compañerxs and amigxs. I'm just a bit unsure how to pronounce it.

 

The whole thing confuses me, particularly as there is a gender called panromantic, which is also a sunroof option I selected on my car

 

It’s funny that it’s an issue, apparently so fundamental, that we don’t understand very well. Hence wild claims as high as 150+ or as low as 2.

Certainly, there quite a number of different genetic expressions beyond XX and XY, such as XYY XXX or XO (no extra x or y) and even individuals who are apparently female from birth, but XY. There is then the effect of different levels of hormones or genetic hormone resistance that causes other expressions. The World Health Organisation suggests maybe 30m+ individuals worldwide maybe ‘non-binary). So maybe some at this school or maybe none.

It’s a very interesting area and there are lots of studies, for example of boys raised as girls because of early damage to their sexual organs. Confusingly some express later as boys and some continue to express as girls.

Token efforts like this school’s don’t appear to help (and if they wanted to get away from Head Girl for pupils aged 17+ they could simply say Head Young Woman) but simple, gender is not.

 

I got to 143 but >150 is just ridiculous.

 

Thread has so far failed to identify ‘woke brigade’ whose ‘knickers (or underpants) are in a twist’.

 

Ask the despertó brigada?

 

Ultimately it's up to the school, it's governors, teachers, pupils and parents.

If the majority want change then it's their choice. If they are prevented from doing what they want by some msn fueled morale outrage or some external "woke" pressure then that is the same cancel culture, whichever direction the pressure is coming from.

Personally, I think it all seems a bit silly based on the newspaper story but, as we know, newspapers don't always give us an unbiased or complete picture.

 

You're mixing up gender with biological sex. If gender politics all hinges on gender being the societal expression of how one feels, then chromosomes have nothing to do with it.

And the founder of 'gender theory' Dr John Money was a monster who I think you're referring to with 'boys raised as girls.' He absolutely destroyed two boys' lives, treating them as experimental subjects for his gender theories.

 

This is a politics thread by stealth isn't it?

 

I don’t think that’s mixing it up, it’s the key debate, whether gender is purely biological or constructed. It’s obviously both, but to different degrees in different individuals.

Anyone making the case that there are just males and females (Friday Night Dinner anyone) is making a genetic case, but it’s one that is fraught with pitfalls. I’m not sure the converse is true.

I agree that a lot of research in the area has been quite abusive, as is the general treatment of intersex individuals. Caster Semenya an example.

Hopefully in years to come we’ll have all transcended this debate.

 

This has happened because 7 pupils identify as non binary. The issue I have with this is not gender based, but that the minority view overrides the majority. How does "being inclusive" include the 771 other pupils?

 

No stealth evident here. At least no one can claim politics ruined it, as it was **** from the off.

 

Because it’s a title all 778 can have?

 

But do all 778 want it?

 

Only the nerdy kids, future MPs and BAFTA winners.

 

Who cares?

 

Evidently you do. Girls at a school made a decision and you and your daft culture war warriors seem to care a great deal.

Which when you think about it, is a bit weird.

 

As far as I know, a few girls asked to wanted to change the name, and the school bowed to the pressure, without seeking the opinions from the other girls (Am I allowed to use that word "girls"?), or their parents, or the staff.

But correct me if I'm wrong.

 

‘As far as you know’? So you don’t even know.

Like I say, weird. Weird for a man of your age to care so much about their decisions.

 

As far as I know, after reading what the School said and the media reports.

They didn't consult with anyone else other than the few that wanted the name changed. They bowed to woke pressure.

So what has my age got to do with it anyway? Inclusion means I'm as entitled to an opinion as much as you. Keep your ageism to yourself, I find it offensive.

 

The idea of a head (insert random categorisation which may or may not be based on gender here) is out of date imho.
It's either the teacher's favourite or the popular pupil that is further rewarded for some arbitrary reason, with at the very least a fancy title and in some cases privelidges. The name isn't the issue, the concept is.

Have student councillors volunteer be voted in and sit on committee if required, but It's a position which should not elevate the importance of the person above others.

 

…unless they have some really strong potential blackmail material on the Head Teacher….

 

Your age has a lot to do with, explaining your patronising view that the girls’ decision can only be explained as them bowing to pressure from others and not a freely made choice.

Now you and fellow dreary boomers hold the girls up to Worldwide criticism and ridicule as the story is magnified for your culture war.

Usually the decisions of groups of girls in schools are not the subject of such weird and obsessive scrutiny by adults. It would be better if it stayed that way.

You also clearly don’t know how the decision was made. You are inferring that there was no consultation. Frankly, this is you doing that thing you do. Making it up.

 

Do you not think that in the many widely reported defences put forward by the school, they would have at least mentioned that there was consultation, had they actually done any? Don't be naive.

And I repeat, I find your ageism offensive.

But I find your strong defence of the elite hierarchy in an elite £40,000 pa private school quite refreshing.

 

I am sure that if the majority of the stakeholders at the school are against the decision then it will be reversed.

What I find ironic is that those that are outraged because they believe it must be external influences that forced the change are themselves trying to force a change back, despite being external influences themselves!

It is up to the school, the head, it's governors, teachers, pupils and parents.

For anyone else, whether you are "woke" or on some "anti woke" campaign, it's simply none of your business what they do.

 

They said it was a decision made by the pupils. For most adults that's enough. Not, it seems, for old weirdos like you who need to fantasise what may have happened and employ that internet classic they would have when you clearly do not know.

Truly bizarre you culture war warriors.

 

I think it is interesting how a staggeringly small story is employed like this. A school changes the name of its head pupil. How on Earth is that national news?

And yet all the Tory press ran with this, talk radio stations put it centre stage and culture war keyboard warriors and bots promote it all over social media.

It's bullying of the girls to create the impression that there is an internal enemy for Tories voters to fight. Nasty stuff.

 

Tbh, I think this kind of manufactured outrage is used by both sides of the arguement.

The fact that it is a private school should mean that anyone who believes in free market economics will let the market decide rather than try and impose their own moral beliefs on the school.

If parents are sufficiently unhappy with the decision then they can vote with their wallets.