A lecturer at a prominent music academy says she has been forced out of her job after she suggested drag acts could be viewed as sexist.
Cathy Boardman, a lecturer in cultural studies, had asked her class to reflect on ‘womanface’ – a critical term for female impersonation – and whether or not it was demeaning.
But bosses at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music (BIMM), which has outposts around the country and links with Sussex University, told her this was a ‘deeply sensitive’ subject and that transgender students had been left upset.
Ms Boardman was then dismissed from her post. The lecturer, who is now taking legal action for unfair dismissal, said she had already been warned by the college principal that a small group of students were ‘out to get her’.
‘I could lose everything,’ she told The Mail on Sunday. ‘I’ve been in insecure work for my whole life – but this salaried job gave me hope that I could get a mortgage and provide a better future for my boys.’
Ms Boardman is claiming that she is the victim of discrimination on the basis of her sex and her ‘gender-critical’ belief that birth sex is immutable.
