I’m conflicted by this.
On one hand, I truly believe that gender studies departments are a cultural cancer creating moral panics that are eroding politics, discourse, and even truth itself. The only reason they have been allowed to go as far as they have is because they bring in a lot of money from people who otherwise would not qualify to attend university. They provide participation degrees for the participation generation and are, for all intents and purposes, activist factories. While universities do need to be profit-seeking, it should not and cannot be their primary purpose, especially when it is inevitably at the expense of academic integrity.
On the other hand, I do not like governments determining what people can and cannot study. People can study whether the moon is made of cheese for all I care, so long as I am not subsiding it through my taxes. I would also be concerned about other contentious but not necessarily cancerous subjects being caught in the crossfire.
In its current form, gender studies offers nothing of value to society because it is not based on the scientific method and is not subject to real peer review. I think there is something to be learned from studying the evolution of gender roles through the cycle of wartime and peacetime and how they change with respect to technological advancements, e.g. birth control, safe abortion procedures, automation, and increased workplace safety (note: gender roles, not gender itself - that belongs in a biology department). Unfortunately, that is not what gender studies is in its current form, which is akin to a pseudo-religion. Moreover, it is a pseudo-religion that receives state funding in most countries. I hope most of us here can see the problem with that.
All of that said, I don’t know if banning it outright is the best approach given the political tension it will create. I think the best solution would be to incentivise subjects that demonstrably and positively contribute to GDP (e.g. STEM and health) or culture (e.g. fine arts and music) and let gender studies die a natural death. This is the other side of the coin to starving the beast but I don’t have a problem with it given the danger the gender studies beast represents to Western enlightenment values.
I have focused on gender studies because it’s the topic of the article but much of what I have said also applies to the other “studies” subjects.
.
