Skip to content

Selina Todd vs. transgender people

Selina Todd is a British historian, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist. Todd co-edited the 2023 anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader with Alice Sullivan.

Background

Selina Todd was born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1975. After schooling at a state comprehensive, Todd earned a bachelor’s degree from Warwick University. Todd then attended University of Sussex, earning a master’s degree and a doctorate.

Anti-trans activism

Todd’s website stated:

The notion that people can ‘feel’ like a woman or like a man is highly socially conservative, implying as it does that being a woman rests on dressing or behaving in a ‘feminine’ way. Being a woman rests both on certain biological facts and on the experience of living in the world as a woman, from birth, an experience that is shaped by particular kinds of oppressions. A movement that claims to be advocating a liberating kind of ‘fluidity’  is in fact reinforcing and promoting highly conservative gendered stereotypes. The claim that some people ‘naturally’ feel feminine is ahistorical, since it overlooks that what is understood as ‘feminine’ or ‘masculine’ has changed over time.

Todd and Alice Sullivan edited the 2023 anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader. Todd also contributed a chapter titled “Sex and Gender in Second-Wave Feminism.”

References

Ames, Jonathan; Ellery, Ben (6 November 2021). University gender course offered by Advance HE is unlawful, barrister says. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/university-gender-course-offered-by-advance-he-is-unlawful-barrister-says-v67fxhrs0

Woods, Judith (6 March 2020). Selina Todd, the academic the trans lobby is desperate to silence. The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/selina-todd-academic-trans-lobby-desperate-silence/

Pasternack, Ellen (7 March 2020). Oxford professor disinvited from conference. Cherwell https://cherwell.org/2020/03/07/oxford-professor-disinvited-from-conference/

Staff report (4 March 2020). Oxford University professor condemns exclusion from event. BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-51737206

Thorpe, Vanessa (1 March 2020). Echoes of 1970 as row breaks out at celebration of feminist conference. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/29/row-erupts-womens-liberation-anniversary-conference

Staff report (25 January 2020). Oxford professor given protection following threats from trans activists. BBC News https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-51248684

Turner, Camilla; Somerville, Ewan (January 23, 2020). Oxford University professor given security guards for lectures after threats from transgender activists. The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/23/oxford-university-professor-given-security-guards-lectures-threats/

Somerville, Ewan; Griffiths, Sian (16 June 2019). Stonewall is using its power to stifle trans debate, say top academics. The Sunday Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/stonewall-is-using-its-power-to-stifle-trans-debate-say-top-academics-dtswlcl0n

Selected anti-trans writing by Todd

Sullivan, Alice; Todd, Selina [Eds.] (2023). Sex and Gender A Contemporary Reader. Routledge ISBN 9781032261195

Todd, Selina (3 November 2021). FEARS FOR ACADEMIA. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/times-letters-battle-for-the-soul-of-bbc-impartiality-t3l5q5260

Todd, Selina (29 February 2020). WOMEN’S LIBERATION AT 50 – THE TALK THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN. BY SELINA TODD FiLiA https://filia.org.uk/news/2020/2/29/womens-liberation-at-50-the-talk-that-should-have-been-by-selina-todd

Todd, Selina (1st November 2019). Power and history: Selina Todd at A Woman’s Place is at the lectern. Woman’s Place UK https://womansplaceuk.org/2019/11/01/power-and-history-selina-todd-at-a-womans-place-is-at-the-lectern/

Todd, Selina et al (June 16, 2019). Letters to the Editor: Boris deserves to lead the party he’s wrecked. The Sunday Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-deserves-to-lead-the-party-he-s-wrecked-v7k7wbf8w

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

University of Oxford History (history.ox.ac.uk)

Selina Todd (selinatodd.com) [archive 2013–2023]

X/Twitter (https://x.com/)

Woman’s Place UK (womansplaceuk.org)