Roger Scruton: How Fake Subjects like Women Studies Invaded Academia 

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Subjects like Gender Studies and Women's Studies, along with many of the minority oriented studies are not teaching how to think, but what to think.

Remember that time a professor submitted a paper using writings from Mein Kamp, only with the vocabulary changed to promote feminist ideology, as an experiment to see if it would pass the peer review process? Well of course it did, and if that isn't proof of what's happened to universities I'm not sure what is.

Long ago when I was fresh out of high school, me and two of my friends were looking for a class to fill an empty period that we all had. Not knowing any better, we picked a class that satisfied one of the transfer requirements- Women's studies. I had no idea of feminism as anything beyond the casual "women who want equal rights". But when we joined, it was rather surprising since we were the only three men(boys really as we were still not yet adults) in the class. Pretty soon it was even more strange as the teacher began picking on us and mocking us at every turn. At one point she asked me how many genders there were, and I replied "2", sure that I could not be wrong on such an obvious question. That made her irritated and she went on to talk about how there could be many more. I was shocked at being exposed to the lunacy of this worldview when she began talking about how there were genders in between genders and more in between that as well as unknown genders that we had not "discovered" yet, as if this was all some scientific pursuit. Eventually we got tired of the bullying and began fooling around, upon which she kicked us out of class, saying that all we do is "talk like a bunch of girls". As soon as we walked out, we started laughing at her last statement, wishing that we had replied and called her out for that line which she would have considered sexist if it had come from us.

The biggest problem is that people, regardless of education or college, attach informed and uninformed opinions to their egos. That precludes those people from rational debate or discussion. A separation of opinion and self-image should be what we strive toward in education. Once that is achieved, people will be more receptive to other points of view and/or seek out information to inform an opinion.

It was interesting that Sir Roger mentioned theology as perhaps the earliest example of a university curriculum in which orthodoxy took precedence over a search for truth. In the 90s, through a strange set of circumstances, I studied theology in a lefty Catholic seminary in the US. We rarely studied any theologian who wrote pre-Vatican II, and when we did it was pretty much exclusively to debunk their views. The goal really was to limit our understanding of the theology of an institution with a 2000-year history to a select portion of the views developed in the past 30 years. It was clearly a revolution, and the people I studied under were the front-line revolutionaries. I was, so far as I know, the sole open dissenter among the entire student body. They did actually let me graduate, because they knew I could make arguments and write better than most of the students, but they sure did not like me. They knew that I saw through their game. So, perhaps Sir Roger was correct, that when theology was the dominant subject, although orthodoxy was crucial, there was some tolerance for a search for truth. Although I was dealing with the revolutionary side, it was essentially a mirror image, with everything the same but reversed. They certainly saw the promotion of their new orthodoxy as central to their work, but they did allow questioning of that orthodoxy to an extent. I do wonder whether a women's studies program would allow similar questioning of their core faith. I tend to think they would not, but I do not actually know.

In 2013 my then girlfriend and I lived together and went to college. She majored in Gender Studies before it ever came on my radar. She started constantly talking about patriarchy and oppressive forces. It got sick really quick. It wasn't until a couple years later than I saw this crap starting to spread like wildfire.

I have seen this in my own field of clinical psychology as well (in which I hold a doctorate), particularly in the area of 'multicultural' issues. Reminds me of George Orwell's animal farm in which "all are animals are equal, but some are 'more equal' than others."

I graduated high school nearly 30 years ago. "Women's Studies" was a new thing back then. One of my close friends (a sweet girl that everyone liked) took it. I remember she explained it as "The same as a liberal arts degree, but we focus on the women who made a difference." Since she was a woman, she thought it would be inspiring. She came out a radical and unpleasant feminist 4 years later.

I remember way back when friends of mine started taking these kinds of courses and I watched them become angry and bitter at the world .

Isn't it cheating for a woman to study women? That'd be like me taking, lazy bastard studies!

Thanks, Roger. I am a PhD philosopher too, and I have immense respect for you and your intellectual insight and honesty.

*Absolutely Spot On.....* noticed with sadness in my heart to *the failings of our current educational acumen* across the board in all places of the so called *"higher education faculties".* *The dumbing down of America* has a stranglehold on our ability to strive to be the best, and this *needs to come to an end.*

A couple of years ago I met a lecturer in Women's (or was it Gender) studies. Just would NOT shut up ranting about Trump like a form of obsessive behaviour. You didn't argue and quietely nodded as if you argued you feared it would lead to batshit crazy behaviour, you steered the conversation away as it was tedious as hell, then a minute later it was back onto Trump again before you could stop it. Ranting away using the usual idiotic words such simple woke people use but don't understand like "fascist" and so on. Everyone has their own opinion on him as he's a controversial figure, many valid points might be made, but the almost obsessive fanatical way they kept going back to RANT about him and every subject no matter what somehow led back to these rants, it made me wonder if they were mentally fit to teach the alphabet to a rock, never mind be lecturing to impressionable people at a University.

Over 25 years ago I had to take a subsidiary course (what you would call a 'Minor' in the US I think) in something called 'Social Policy' as part of my degree in English literature. In the very first lecture we were given a sheet which was a sort of 'credo in unum deum' about what we were supposed to believe.

The most important task people can undertake who care about undoing the damage done to Western Culture is striving and attempting to become at least 1/10 as educated and learned as this man. Then take your words and your knowledge to the public.

A subject, like a tool, cannot be real or fake. Just useful or useless. Roger is speaking for what many bosses already know.

People who have degree in the make-believe subjects should sue universities who sold them worthless diploma's instead of asking for cancelling student loan debt.

Seriously, just gotta vent for a second, but I've been saying this shit to my friends and family for fuckin YEARRRRRRRS and they'd always chime in with how sexist or an ass hole I was....now Roger Scruton is saying it, and the shit's fuckin "philisohpical".....I fuckin hate this world sometimes lol really, if we ALL could just like get OVER the fact that we start out as ignorant ass holes from birth it really would do a wonder for everyone in terms of happiness haha.

''conformity to an ideology takes precedence over intellectual method." -exactly!!

The first problem with this is within the title. How can something be a "fake subject"? By definition, a subject is something concerning something which is said or done. Anthropology is the study of mankind, and women's studies is just a subset of that. Problem two: 2:20 - 2:22 : "... (women's studies) is a subject centered around an ideology." As is theology, or any subset of philosophy, art, history and liberal studies. Everyone has a credence at best or a bias at worst. This could even be said of science or math, as there are principles, laws and theories that one must adhere to. Three: 3:22 - 3:43 "...there is one particular influence of those theorists who say that truth isn't something which we can rely upon at all because it is a historically given thing which changes with the power structures of domination or the society in which it is uttered." However, to completely deny a very real aspect of recent history, sociology and philosophy as not meriting discussion, debate or research reveals a personal dislike or disdain that interferes with subjective thinking, making you the very thing you accuse your opponent of doing. Four: 4:30 - 4:46 "..by saying that English Studies has been an exercise of male power over the female gender. So I'm going to turn it upside down and make it an exercise of female power over the masculine domination." I believe it was Clay Shirkly who said that when you're accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. The whole point of academia is to discuss and debate. To make a simplistic generalization of an entire field of study as "fake" shows a lack of sincerity and willingness to listen and consider the opposing side. The fact that this a man attacking a field of study relating to women shows very plainly that he feels that his position is being threatened.

"We're going through a time in which truth is being increasingly marginalized."

Most of what passes for profound critical analysis is just academic overstatement of obvious realities, underpinned by the vague promise of "solutions" for them.

Great analysis from a great man. RIP Sir Roger Scruton. Thank you.

Universities are also decimating other subjects such as philosophy by imposing their fixed interpretations of philosophical texts and of philosophy itself. One thing for certain, you will not learn to philosophize in a philosophy course - you will only learn to memorize ancient philosophers and to repeat current politically correct opinions. This was my experience while trying to study philosophy at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada.

I got a degree in electrical engineering, and there were no politics. Before I entered engineering, college was all politicized.

Someone needs to tell these college kids they don't need $50k in debt and a peice of paper to make me coffee at the local Starbucks...

Everyone should question college curriculums across the board. I graduated with a BA in business. Went into accounting and very quickly realized how little I knew about accounting. The firm I went to work for out of college had a weeks long crash course in accounting. Then as I went along it was surprising and a little strange as the lights began to come on. My point is that four years for an undergraduate degree is nothing but a money pit for colleges, their staff and facilities. Yes fake degrees. You can take a reasonably intelligent high school graduate and train them in accounting in one year max and get better results in a CPA examine. Undergraduate degrees should be more concentrated, more precisely aimed at the field you intend to enter. Bachelor degrees can be easily designed for two year community colleges, even premed.

"Stop teaching fake subjects" says the philosopher 🤭 (I am a Philosophy major)

Brilliant, simple, brave insight ... well done Roger Scruton !

Friedrich Nietzsche (Existential Philosopher) it seems was quite right. Primitive and crude lust for power is the motivator.

Among other things, it doesnt matter the courses taken, as long as the "school" gets it's money.

Once in uni i stumbled across a class of "African folklore applied to dance". That was a public uni. I paid for that. What the fuck.

In my day subjects were the classic subjects: maths, English, and so on. Now universities teach all sorts of stuff. I suppose the argument for this is that the range of courses has to reflect the needs of society in general. If a course in women's studies opens doors and hones skills in some way, then it is useful. BUT education in general now seems to be more focused on making even the brainless "fit in" somehow. In grade school everyone passes through from grade to grade no matter how badly they do. This is an out for teachers, who no longer have to actually teach anything, in spite of higher salaries, shorter hours, and smaller class sizes. Most students graduate from high school and there are a multitude of universities/colleges that offer all sorts of courses. EVERYONE can be a graduate of some sort in some study or other. The only requirement is MONEY!!! Education is no longer for the talented few. It should never have been thus. It is now big business! But is SHOULD be for those able to take advantage of the opportunity and not EVERYONE who has the loot or can BORROW it. How many useless graduates are produced by our institutes of "higher learning". A university degree USED to mean something!

5 years later this has become even more apparent.

Can we add modern Fine Arts to the list of academic fraud too please? I visited the National Gallery of Canada... And I felt totally resentful for paying to see exhibits such as paper cups stapled to the wall and a snow shovel leaning against a wall. It is embarrassing.

“Guided by the pursuit of truth” - that’s the basic principle. Driving ideology regardless of the facts or circumstance is really a frightening concept.

"An aphorism is like a bouillon cube" -- this is just a sample of Scruton's wisdom. Whether you take him seriously or not, is up to you. 😂

He is so very correct

There is no such thing as a "fake subject" in academia, only a "fake expert". Any subject of even the remotest intellectual curiosity is a valid subject for research. If universities can waste resources researching fictious things, like the writings of some author, then practically anything is a valid subject. What is meant here is that YOU are not interested in the subject, so YOU subjectively and arbitrarily decide that it is a "Fake" subject. This attitude shows intellectual dishonesty. It also looks quite misogynistic, to imply women are a less valid subject than men. It may surprise you to know that many engineers regard science as a fake subject. While many scientists regard history, literature, any aspect of the arts and humanities as 'fake' subjects. It is just a matter of self-centred, subjective, narrow minded prejudice. When I was a Biochemistry student at university all students who graduated with honours in a science subject were automatically acredited ARCS ("Associate of the Royal College of Science"). It may or may not surprise you to know that at the time there was a move by Physicists and Chemists to try to deprive all life science graduates (Biologists) of this on the basis that "Biology isn't a real science". All this tells you is how supposedly educated people can be even more petty, ignorant and small minded than the average uneducated person.

Damn, kinda glad my parents forced engineering down my throat. We'll be done in a couple years and I hopefully won't have to look at a bleak life afterwards.

Look at these new comments, howling in rage as they realized they were tricked into being useless. It's okay. The world always needs more janitors.

When it first got going in the 70s, women's studies was gender studies, but the male perspective was quickly driven out. I once was going to volunteer an English course in the WS curriculum and I asked someone teaching in it what to read for basic statements of underlying philosophy and theory. I was told, "Well, it's really a set of practices." This told me all I needed to know--a bogus "subject" needing actively to ignore all traditional philosophical and literary disciplines because those would interfere with indoctrinating students (heavens, they might ask embarrassing methodological and logical questions!). Very sad.

Should be renamed to "the study of why you are right!" 😂

My friend signed up for a womans study back in the 90s. She quit after 2 classes. She told me that it made her fearful for her brothers.

Five years later this video is even more spot on. Wow.

one example that I have seen a lot: everyone talks about representation of women in top management. NOBODY EVER talks about to what degree women WANT to be in top management, with empirical evidence to back it up. so if we force society to have 50% women in top management via quotas, in whose name are we doing it? certainly not in the name of women because we never bothered to ask them where they actually WANT to work. women want to work 80%, 60%, want to have time for family, want flexibility to do things outside of work, don't want to travel too much, want to have children before their biological clock runs out of time, don't want to make high risk decisions. they (relative to men) want everything that is the EXACT OPPOSITE of top management. when people talk about quotas for women in top management, are they talking about women from narnia? from alpha centauri? atlantis? from inside hollow earth maybe? are they basing real life policies on rationality and valid statistics regarding human psychology? or are they basing those policies on pseudo-religious delusions that dictate that women and men have identical brains and identical socialization?

We have entered the new holocaust however most can't see the gun at their back.

I got a degree in bacon studies. Which of course is the study of bacon-the flavor, the texture, why it curls, the fat…. Oh it was a glorious class.

Women's studies graduates are very successful in securing a job position in the janitorial profession

A friend of mine went into women studies. Me: So what will you be able to do? Her: I will know more about women in society today. Me: Ok, neat, but what will you be able to do? Her: I will know about the history of women. Me: Great, but what will you be able to DO? Her: What do you mean? Me: Journalists report on events. Engineers build and design things. Actors and actresses act. Businessmen and businesswomen can start and grow businesses. Plumbers can fix plumbing, welders can work with metal. Accountants can do taxes. Her: Uhuh ... Me: So what will women studies teach you how to do? Her: You are sexist!!! Spoiler alert: she got a degree in women studies and works minimum wage warehouse jobs.

The real sad thing is a lot of companies, and public institutions use whether you have a degree or not as a stand in for an IQ test for hiring or admission, since they're not allowed to use IQ. For example the armed forces don't really care what degree you have if you want to apply to become an officer, just that you have one, but there's a world of difference in the expected intelligence between someone for example with a degree in Electrical engineering or Chemistry Vs someone with a degree in womens studies, or sociology (a degree in drinking down the students union bar). So these non-degree degrees are bound to have helped people get jobs they have no business getting.

Usually at before universities people learn a subject that useful to getting a job.

Feminism is madness!

He is so right. After years of trying to push women into the more useful (to society) STEM subjects they have finally got 47% women to 53% men starting courses. However, women find such subjects hard because there is an objectively provable answer to the questions. You cannot blag your way with bs. Result is the female dropout rate is about 3 times the male rate. The female exam failure rate is way higher too. This is why in jobs STEM careers are male dominated (78% men to 22% women). Women dominate the humanities. Men and women are wired differently but inventing subjects is not the solution.

"If the scholarship is nonsense what is there? Only the conclusions - and those conclusions turn out to be the usual liberal axioms from which you actually begin". BRILLIANT!!! Women studies 100% is a mental circle jerk!

I studied gender and sexuality under cultural anthropology at the University of Athabasca and they were both great courses. I would recommend them and most of the text books and assigned readings to anyone wishing to learn about gender/sexuality from an anthropological perspective. Idk what my experience would have been in woman’s studies but I can vouch for these subjects under anthropology, at least at this one particular university.

5:12 "Enables people to claim authority for nonsense" - pretty much all uni subjects these days!

But we already have Women studies. Its called Biology.

The irony of someone getting up on his pedestal decrying the banning of certain subjects in totalitarian regimes in one breath, then suggesting a subject should not be taught in the next

You mean Lesbian Dance Theory disqualifies me from being an engineer checking on bridges and other infrastructure?

It’s interesting that this man conveniently forgets that colonial countries literally didn’t teach colonialism until relatively recently. He speaks about truth as if we haven’t discovered that truth is taught differently according to which country you’re learning about it.

Although it's not like "real" humanities subjects such as sociology, literature or whatever subject you name is at any better shape. At this point I think pointing the finger at grievence studies feels almost like a diversion. The whole of humanities and most of the social sciences are totally infiltrated.

I haven't heard it stated better than that.

My daughter had business class. 4th year. Professor said all small business should be outlawed. Only government/corporate business should exist. Same woman professor deduct letter grade for using "man-made and mankind". Btw daughter despite this sjw professor. Finished hon. Philosophy and received the Deans medal as top graduate.

Yuri Bezmenov an ex KJB that exiled to Canada explained it all 40 years ago, it's on YT.

Thank Goodness I’m a high school dropout

It may not be handled correctly, but I think that Women's Studies should be a legitimate study quite simply because mainstream studies ignore women! Their history, lives, sociology, literature, and accomplishments are essentially passed over or marginalized in what is currently being taught.

The problem are less the fake subjects and more the activists who occupy positions at universities. And they not only exist in Gender studies and their ilk, but in many older fields as well. Especially in the Humanities this is rampant, but you also get more and more of these people in the Sciences, especially in fields that are of political interest, such as climate science, for example.

This has agreed well

I find it interesting how certain think tanks position themselves with their names, making themselves sound like they are offering a balanced well considered take on the world. When in fact they are representing interests, who are attempting to control discourse, and human knowledge. In the UK there is a sinister influence that is allowed to have a seat at the table from groups like the IEA and the Tax Payers Alliance, who refuse to disclose their funders and who are permitted to present themselves like something they clearly are not. I also find it interesting how in today’s polarised world, each side seems to utterly discard any value of which their chosen bogey men have to offer. Utterly discarding what postmodernism has to offer as a way of analysing social and cultural phenomena is moronic. I have studied Foucault, in certain contexts his input can offer some extremely valuable insights. What seems to happen is a type of culture war pigeon holing, where if you say what I have just said, people on the right suddenly become activated into battle mode and say things like “oh, gotcha, Foucault said truths can be relative and socially constructed, you said there is value in his work, therefore you are the enemy”. It’s a weird caricaturing, and perpetuates fragmentation, and ignorance. I am not sure anyone in the modern world with any sense is saying all truth is relative, truth doesn’t exist etc, seems like this particular straw man is a consistent feature of right wing arguments. No, I am not a sinister hard lefty, the enemy, for having the capacity for free thought.

Pablo Freire addresses such things when he talks about social literacy being more important than real literacy.

It’s a way for universities to make money. They find the hot new topic and take advantage of it. It’s a business decision not an academic one. And in the US the government bails you out when you can’t pay back the loan.

Just business... If you want to lose money, someone will take it!

College is not about teaching, it's about profits.

Sounds like the normal Education we had. We were lucky.! Imagine going to Unuversity today! .

College changed back in the 90's. Once a center of higher learning, states turned them to profit centers. By offering easy to the masses and a pass through to a cheapened 4 year degree, neither the student or society was well served. Students are not in the position at 19 or 20 to know they are being cheated. Minority students suffer at a greater rate. The post office or VA has only so many openings for holders of these BS degrees.

Clarity. That's what I got from this. Cheers. Thank you.

"WE DEMAND USELESS DEGREE COURSES!" "Here ya go." "WE DEMAND JOBS!" ~crickets~

It's hard to have any respect for a subject that must not be examined and debated openly.

Getting a Gender Studies degree to "smash the patriarchy"? It's called going to trade school: become a welder, logger, auto mechanic, masonry worker, finish carpenter, crane operator, coal miner, oil rig technician... Oh, wait, that's peasant patriarchy. Can't break one of those liberated nails with manual labor

Here is what is really funny, graduating college with a degree in Womens Studies and having $68,000.00 in student loan debt. There ain't no Safe Space from student loan debt.

Women's studies: "It's a subject constructed around an ideology". Yes! I've never heard it so succinctly explained. It's so obvious to me now that he said it.

The story about oxford taking 100 years to decide if they need an english department really is a sticking point for me. "African American studies", "Women's studies" and so on aren't specific disciplines in which one should be able to earn a degree. They're like subsets of history, anthropology, and sociology and should remain as such.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

This man just spent 5 minutes describing canada. And did a really good job!

I laugh at the thought of how many employers just throw away resumes that have "woman studies" under education.

As an American, I truly appreciate this intelligent Brit pointing out the truth about what our country has become - "You can't talk about it freely in America on the whole." I work at a state university and people just do not realize the indoctrination happening to their children and to the tune of $80,000 in debt.

In first year university, I too a mandatory "ethics in science" class for my program, that class was taught by an award winning women's studies professor. This was back before I had any idea what these kind of classes were about, so I just saw it as a GPA boosting class, since there was no studying required, all I had to do was ask myself "what answer does this 'award winning' feminist want to hear us say" and you basically just got 100%. I just saw this as an annoying, but very useful class since I could get the same amount of credits out of it as my Neuroscience, Chemistry and Physics classes but with zero effort.

It was a genius scheme by unemployed sociology phds in the 80s and 90s. They created new fields and pitched it to colleges and got grants

I briefly worked for a company where a woman was at a director level and she proudly liked to talk about her Women’s Studies degree like it meant something. She also repeatedly made intellectually dishonest statements about the state of equality and diversity in the Work place I was gone within two weeks

A common factor here is that most of these new subjects are basically "oppression studies"; that is, representing an interest group that feels like it has been historically wronged, and wants to talk about it at great length.

I took an elective of Roman and Greek mythology in 1984 that was taught by a professor from Women’s Studies and the entire class was about finding oppression of women in classics like the Iliad and the Odyssey. I’m proud of the fact that the professor commented that parts my final exam paper were BS. Lol

I took an optional seminar while studying for my master's degree. It was called "Feminist Textuality". At the end of the semester, I asked the diehard believers what they had learned from those sessions. No one could give me a clear answer; some of them even admitted it was a waste of time... A small glimmer of hope? Dr. Scruton needs to be heard and disseminated...

I got my History degree in 2014 and my Masters 2016, I think I was among the last generation of students at real ''free thinking'' universities. My plan was to do a PHD and then become a professor in the UK, clearly that is impossible for a straight white male such as myself who refuses to conform or submit to any political orthodoxy. I moved to East Asia for work in 2018, and now I have moved on from that dream, just as western academia has moved on from education, truth and reason. I doubt I will ever even live in West again, let alone teach there 😂.

5 years later, here we are dealing with people who not only feel victimized but also enjoys the narrative in which they created.

“... can’t talk about it in America...”. He’s absolutely correct. So much for our country being a free speech country.

When I was in university I found my introduction to post-modernism to be fascinating; there were a couple of these old-guard professors who had nothing but bile to utter about, and I couldn't understand why for the life of me. nearly 10 years later: I fucking get it now!

Firs year in college, i met a freind fron high school. She said she is going to learn womens studies. I said great! You are going to be a gynocologist! She said no, im going to study the role of women in society. My brain went numb for a moment. I said you are going to get your BA in role of women in sociey? She said hell no! Im going to get my masters in it! My brain went numb again. She has her phd now.

I started doing a Ph. D. in an Australian university. I wanted to research three religious Poets, but the head of the English department, Marxist and a Feminist, and her cronies gave me such a hard time, i quit their joke of a dictatorial campus!