http://thefederalist.com/2018/10/18/hungary-cuts-taxpayer-funding-inane-gender-studies-departments/
“Gender studies challenge existing structures that are perceived as natural and enduring, and in doing so, they directly challenge the ideological commitments of the radical right,” thundered an obscure British teaching fellow named Megan Armstrong in an op-ed for openDemocracy.
Armstrong argues that Hungary’s lurch toward the right is essentially an attack on open inquiry at universities, as shown by the latest hardline move of “banning” gender studies classes from Hungarian universities. This, she argues, is an effort to “curtail academic freedom.”
Why? Because “gender studies, for all its rich interdisciplinarity, is critical. Students who undertake a gender studies course are trained to think critically, and to engage critically with the world around them.” You get the idea.
Gender studies is an interdisciplinary field that combines feminism, Marxism, race, and gender. It became vogue around the late 1980s and posits that sex isn’t biological, and gender, like everything else in life, is completely performative. In the words of social theorist Simone de Beauvoir, “one is not born a woman, but one becomes one.”
The field is heavily influenced by post-structural ideology and suggests that there’s no objective, scientific, or biological truth. Over time, with the rise of interdisciplinary journals that are often ideological echo chambers, this ideology has spread into other fields and subjects, with an overall sinister motive. Gender studies academics essentially act as Soviet commissars, and try to dictate debate in academia and policy, which has resulted in severe intra-academic conflict on transgenderism, workplace gender gaps, how sex differences function in the military, and policies on gender in general.
Is Hungary’s Bold Move Worth Emulating?
