Academia, Bizarre

University of Manchester Bans Clapping and Cheering As Marginalizing For Some Students

imagesThe student union of the University of Manchester voted to ban clapping, whooping and cheering because some students might find these common forms of expression to be unwelcoming or alienating for some students.  As a result, students are expected to use “Jazz hands” to show approval to maintain a welcoming environment.

The students are expected to use the British Sign Language (BSL) equivalent of a clap – a wave of both hands.  The change was proposed Student Union access officer Sara Khan.

Khan said that clapping “encourages an atmosphere that is not as respectful as it could be.” Thus, it is now banned in favor of jazz hands to make for a more inclusive environment.  Specifically, the environment is deemed more welcoming for “students with disabilities such as anxiety or sensory issues.”

The question is how far a university should go in accommodating such students by adopting major changes in common conduct for the student body as a whole.  The measure reaffirms the view of an increasingly micromanaged society in England where speech is criminalized and bad habits banned by a patriarchal governing body.

The question is whether Nicole Kidman can still do her creepy clap:

 

 

20 thoughts on “University of Manchester Bans Clapping and Cheering As Marginalizing For Some Students”

  1. This is a great article on how stupid academics have become. This is only an excerpt, and you should go read the whole article. It also explains how vicious twats like Christine Fair are able to survive at prestigious universities all while advocating castrating the corpses of dead white men:
    —-
    Editor’s note: For the past year scholars James Lindsay, Helen Pluckrose, and Peter Boghossian have sent fake papers to various academic journals which they describe as specialising in activism or “grievance studies.” Their stated mission has been to expose how easy it is to get “absurdities and morally fashionable political ideas published as legitimate academic research.”

    To date, their project has been successful: seven papers have passed through peer review and have been published, including a 3000 word excerpt of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, rewritten in the language of Intersectionality theory and published in the Gender Studies journal Affilia.

    Twenty years ago, Alan Sokal called postmodernism “fashionable nonsense.” Today, postmodernism isn’t a fashion—it’s our culture. A large proportion of the students at elite universities are now inducted into this cult of hate, ignorance, and pseudo-philosophy. Postmodernism is the unquestioned dogma of the literary intellectual class and the art establishment. It has taken over most of the humanities and some of the social sciences, and is even making inroads in STEM fields. It threatens to melt all of our intellectual traditions into the same oozing mush of political slogans and empty verbiage.

    Postmodernists pretend to be experts in what they call “theory.” They claim that, although their scholarship may seem incomprehensible, this is because they are like mathematicians or physicists: they express profound truths in a way that cannot be understood without training. Lindsay, Boghossian, and Pluckrose expose this for the lie that it is. “Theory” is not real. Postmodernists have no expertise and no profound understanding.

    Critics of Sokal point out that his paper was never subjected to peer review, and they say it was unfair to expect the editors of Social Text to spot errors concerning math and science. This time there are no excuses. LBP’s papers were fully peer reviewed by leading journals. The postmodernist experts showed that they had no ability to distinguish scholarship grounded in “theory” from deliberate nonsense and faulty reasoning mixed in with hate directed at the disfavored race (white) and sex (“cis” male).

    https://quillette.com/2018/10/01/the-grievance-studies-scandal-five-academics-respond/
    —–

    This was just an excerpt, and there is a lot more at the link, and it looks like a fascinating site.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. Squeeky – great article. As someone who has gone to conference and delivered papers, I can tell you most are c**p. 😉 Publish or perish, baby!!! And that is the same for Chrissy.

  6. Specifically, the environment is deemed more welcoming for “students with disabilities such as anxiety or sensory issues.

    And those with a sensory issue such as blindness are saying, Hello!? WTF!?

  8. This is why Brexit is a good thing for Europe. Call the men in the White Suits! Shoot the Redcoats. The right to arm bears. Brit itShay.

  9. “Specifically, the environment is deemed more welcoming for “students with disabilities such as anxiety or sensory issues.”
    ****************
    Says who? Health expert Sarah Khan? It’s just more attack on Westen customs by the migrant horde.

    1. mespo – wasn’t jazz hands the accepted means of approval at some major protest some years back. I remember there were a lot of women sexually abused during the protest.

      1. See Sweet Adelines International. The performances of their local chapters incorporate ‘choreo’, mostly arm and hand movements. There sheet music always has has stage directions of which ‘Jazz Hands’ is the most common.

  11. Thus, it is now banned in favor of jazz hands to make for a more inclusive environment.

    They’re truckling to the lavender mafia.

  12. Stupid is as stupid does. Although you don’t expect it from a university. BTW, Kidman is pretty enough I do not care how she claps, who is looking at her hands anyway?

  13. This decision makes things much more inclusive – as of course all of us have hands!

    2. Not all of us have have hands, but if you do here a couple clapping suggestions.

Comments are closed.