Duke University is yet another leftist campus bent on promoting intersectional politics and the notions of “oppression” and “victimhood.” The school’s student government and Women’s Center have collaborated to establish a new think tank called “Think Gender,” whose purpose is to “illuminate the interrelationship of sexism, homophobia, gender bias and violence.”
While little information about the think tank is available at the moment, the school’s Student Affairs page writes that it will provide a “space for respectful dialogue about gender equity.” The initiative focuses on “advocating on behalf of survivors of gender based discrimination, and [being] a portal of campus and community resources for Duke’s LGBT community, women, and other intersections of identity (race, class, ability, etc.).” Duke Women’s Center spokeswoman Bibi Gnagno told the College Fix that the think tank will be facilitated and run by mostly students.
Unfortunately, the Left seems to have a predetermined notion of who the victims and “survivors of gender-based discrimination” are, and it surely does not include men, particularly white, heterosexual men, especially in the wake of the #MeToo movement that has become a witch-hunt and has stripped the accused of due process. Never mind that three male lacrosse players at Duke University had their lives ruined because they were falsely accused of rape by a black stripper; white men cannot be victims.
The new think tank is just one of many gender-focused moves taken by the university in recent years. According to the school’s Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies webpage, the campus also hosts an event called “Gender Wednesday” and a Transgender Studies and Humanities series that asks the following: “How do transgender studies shape the structuring assumptions of humanistic inquiry?” and “What are the potential contributions of critical transgender studies — meaning, in general terms, of a humanities approach to trans* existence — outside of the academy, such as to healthcare or advocacy?”
Duke students and staff, like their SJW comrades, have virtually shirked the science that concludes transgenderism is a symptom of a mental disorder, preferring instead to hoist transgender individuals on their shoulders as some of the ultimate victims.
Other gender-based events at Duke fall under the umbrella of “Duke on Gender,” which consists of a “multi-disciplinary space to develop and present current research and further critical conversations within gender and women’s history, gender and queer theory, sexuality studies, transgender studies, and the study of feminism, social movements, and contemporary social issues and a policy in a transnational world.”
You may wonder how all these theories and studies tie together, but the answer is simple. The Daily Wire notes that the Left relies heavily on identity politics and uses intersectionality “as some kind of bonding factor between identity groups promoting social categories such as race, gender, sexual orientation, and class.” These groups are unified by the belief that they have all somehow been disadvantaged by oppression (mostly at the hands of straight white males) and only the Left can protect them. The Left’s intersectional politics not only advance notions of victimization, but in many cases create a victim narrative where victimhood would not normally exist. This phenomenon drives the need for programs and think-tanks such as the one at Duke.
Meanwhile, the Left’s hyper-focus on gender has further divided men and women and skewed the lines between appropriate male/female relationships and inappropriate ones (see the latest #MeToo accusation against comedian Aziz Ansari for evidence of this). As a result, men are becoming afraid to defend themselves or say or do anything that can be perceived as offensive. Many men feel as if they have been all but silenced and forced to accept the notion that they are the villains and therefore not entitled to their own beliefs.
Sadly, division is not an unintended side-effect of intersectional politics, but, in fact, a necessary one. The Daily Wire writes,
The success of [intersectional politics] relies heavily, ironically, on social division…. Without the stark division of humans into social groups solely based on demographic factors such as color and sexuality, identity politics would not exist. Without identity politics, intersectional politics would not be necessary; and without intersectional politics, the Left’s unifying tactic thus far fails.
So regardless of the flowery language used to describe Duke’s new think-tank, it will simply serve as a tool in the SJW fight for division through intersectionality. It won’t be long before the white heterosexual male students on campus are browbeaten into acceptance that they are villains and unworthy of a voice.
Image: Screenshot from Duke University webpage on Think Gender
