**Maggie** @Maenad · 27 juil. 2017, 20:12

**Maggie** @Maenad · 27 juil. 2017, 20:12

Maggie @Maenad

27 juil. 2017, 20:12

academic "allyship" Afficher plus

Conference I'm going to gives out "ally" ribbons. They're free to take.

Queer scientists have raised issues with this in the past, especially with stories of people wearing the ribbons doing things like repeatedly misgendering a speaker they were introducing.

This year they sent us an e-mail saying that they were resolved to still hand out the ribbons, but just in case, they would also hand out a flyer WITH the ribbons with instructions of how to be respectful of queer people.

... SMH (literally)

**Maggie** @Maenad · 27 juil. 2017, 20:15

**Maggie** @Maenad · 27 juil. 2017, 20:15

27 juil. 2017, 20:15

Maggie @Maenad

academic "allyship" Afficher plus

the first year I saw them I thought they MUST have been leftover from a mixer I'd missed. NOPE.

There's a lot of problems with asking people to self-identify as allies (especially when the # of ribbons is FAR LESS than the # of attendees). Mostly, there's no guarantee those people are "safe" and it draws attention to how sparse they are - is everyone else willfully unsafe? It also basically identifies them as most likely not queer. All of this has been better said by other people, but I fundamentally agree.

**Maggie** @Maenad · 2017-07-27T20:18:08Z

Maggie @Maenad

academic "allyship" Afficher plus

Only giving self-identified allies a refresher course on how to be respectful of queer people is insulting. For most of the well-intentioned among them it's probably insulting in the sense that it tells them things they already know, but for the rest of us... it's insulting in that you're not telling the people who could probably most use said refresher. If such an info packet is necessary at all it should probably be included in the program.

27 juil. 2017, 20:18 · 1 · 6

**Maggie** @Maenad · 27 juil. 2017, 20:23

**Maggie** @Maenad · 27 juil. 2017, 20:23

27 juil. 2017, 20:23

Maggie @Maenad

academic "allyship" Afficher plus

Personally, I have an easier time identifying as an ally than I do as queer and that's a problem I should probably work to overcome (given I am, in fact, attracted to all the ladies). I think being an ally is great, but the best way to do that is really to shut up and listen to queer people, not invent ways to give yourself a gold star for being an ally. Your reward for being a good ally isn't the pat on the back by your straight/cis colleagues, it's a better relationship with your queer ones.