Some students wrote what they identified as ‘Apache attack helicopters’ in a gender survey about ‘engineering culture’, prompting complaints from academics that ‘fascism’ was on the rise in the US.
The researchers wrote a paper describing their experience working on a survey of LGBT students in STEM fields in the Summer 2023 edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, based out of Northwestern University.
They titled the paper ‘Attack Helicopters and White Supremacy: Interesting Malicious Responses to an Online Questionnaire on Transgender Undergraduate Engineering and Computer Science Student Experiences.’
The researchers wrote that the project’s ‘response’ ‘reflects characteristics of contemporary far-right or fascist political movements in the United States, such as the synthesis of anti-Semitism with anti-black and anti-feminist rhetoric.’
According to a report in College Fix, nearly a quarter of the so-called ‘malicious responses’ to the survey provided some aircraft-related response to the gender question, with some specifically identifying ‘Apache helicopters’.
Researchers became deeply concerned about fascism in the United States when graduate students wrote in gender surveys that they identified as Apache attack helicopters.
A meme known as an ‘attack helicopter’ dates back to at least 2014, and is often used to mock the trans community and people who identify outside the gender binary.
A meme known as an ‘attack helicopter’ dates back to at least 2014, and is often used to mock the trans community and those who identify outside the gender binary.
Other responses researchers received included: a ‘V-22 Osprey’ and an ‘F-16 fighter jet.’
Others appeared to express some dismay at the survey’s mockery.
One respondent wrote that they identified as ‘homophobic bigots, yes we exist’.
Someone else wrote: ‘Cis gender lizard king,’ and someone else wrote: ‘F***ing white men.’
Some wrote more detailed responses such as ‘quasi-demi-pony; Bankai-free state queercopters fagotdrag lesbian and gay upside-down frappuccino cakes, and with hints of ‘on-cookie-cutter sis-furry dragonkin. Don’t judge.’
The researchers – all of whom are affiliated with Oregon State University – report that they sent questionnaires to more than 3,000 email addresses associated with ‘department chairs, program administrators and faculty at accredited engineering graduate institutions’, who were then able to forward the survey to graduate students.
They wound up with 723 responses, of which only 299 were normal. They reported that there were 374 invalid or incomplete responses and that 50 (about 15 percent) came from so-called ‘malicious’ responders.
‘Importantly, themes and repetitions identify shared references and an existing community with a shared political agenda and racist, trans-antagonistic, and online political meme commentary,’ the researchers wrote.
One respondent wrote that their gender was a ‘pansexual attack helicopter’ and listed their race as ‘Kong’.
Other ‘malicious responses’ included students who said their race was ‘Afro/Klingon-Asiatic Galapagosian’ and their gender was ‘Aerosol’.
One creative student listed their race as ‘Native American (Elizabeth Warren),’ apparently poking fun at the questionable history of part of Warren identifying as Native American.
The researchers wrote a paper describing their experience working on a survey of LGBT students in STEM fields in the Summer 2023 edition of the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, based out of Northwestern University.
One creative student listed their race as ‘Native American (Elizabeth Warren),’ apparently poking fun at Warren’s questionable history of identifying as Native American.
The researchers argue that ‘theories of fascism provide a framework for explaining the ways in which hegemonic, oppressive or reactionary ideologies of race, identity and gender engage in the building of community foundations, the exercise of power and the state’.
Several respondents listed transgender as disabled.
One response directly criticized the survey for ‘spoiling the science’.
‘I really can’t be bothered at this point. You are destroying the true scientific discipline here,’ the man wrote. ‘There are two sexes, male and female. If an engineer makes a bolt and a nut but then labels them capriciously, they are not a great engineer.’
Framing their critique of the study as ‘fascist’, the researchers wrote: ‘Theories of fascism provide a framework for explaining the ways in which dominant, oppressive or reactionary ideologies of race, identity and gender build community foundations, exercise power and enter the state.’
They added that the backlash they received was ‘a small component of a larger fascist base in the US that often targets trans people and student activists.’
They argue that for these reasons, modern academics must ‘develop a robust analysis of how racist and fascist discourses are inseparable from transphobic discourses, and turn to malicious responses to research that focuses on marginalized people in engineering as central evidence in this research.’