Guest Speaker at University Goes on “Penis Rant,” Proving Cis People are Out of Control

Rod Liddle is a humorist. At least, that’s what the people at Durham University’s South College in Durham, England believe, even after Liddle—who serves as the associate editor for the British publication The Spectator—went on an insulting rant while addressing students on December 3rd. 

In said speech, Liddle made the remark that “a person with an X and a Y chromosome, that has a long, dangling penis, is scientifically a man, and that is pretty much, scientifically, the end of the story.” Which I’m personally taking to mean that if you don’t have a “long, dangling penis,” you are technically not a man in Rod Liddle’s eyes. 

This is far from Liddle’s first offense: in 2018, he made a joke about identifying as a “young, Black, trans chihuahua” and in 2003, he wrote a tasteless article for the Guardian regarding the subject of child pornography. In his speech to Durham students, Liddle also dismissed any notion that systemic oppression or colonialism are at play when it comes to Black students suffering at the school. And while Durham students staged a walkout in protest, the school’s Principal Tim Luckhurst defended Liddle, calling him a “humorist.” 

A quick search reveals that Liddle’s intolerance doesn’t just extend to Black folks and trans people: a recent column he wrote for the Spectator calls sex workers “filthy” and deliberately attacks Durham University for offering sex work guidance and training to prioritize safety in the industry. In another column, he says that “if you are a woman, then, you are pretty much absolved from any allegation of wrongdoing, no matter what you do, simply for reasons of political ideology.”

Which is actually funny–maybe this dude is a humorist after all? 

Basically, when students found out that Liddle was poised to give a speech, they researched his rate and discovered that the University was paying Liddle anywhere from 3,000 to 5,000 pounds to deliver a tone-deaf speech full of transphobic, racist rhetoric.

Yet Durham University, it seems, is not eager to back down. 

Watch the chaos unfold here: 

Videos taken on the night of the Rod Liddle Incident – a Thread.

These videos were taken in a public place, and are presented without personal comment or adaptation. (1)

— Redd_Duskedd (@RDuskedd) December 4, 2021

(2) pic.twitter.com/8e4FFoXVDJ

— Redd_Duskedd (@RDuskedd) December 4, 2021

(3, part 1) pic.twitter.com/fvht3LpmNZ

— Redd_Duskedd (@RDuskedd) December 4, 2021