Straight white male university professor ‘pretended to be a Black woman’ to run disgraceful anti-trans troll account
Craig Chapman – a white male assistant professor of chemistry at the University of New Hampshire, is alleged to be behind the account (UNH)
Craig Chapman, a University of New Hampsire (UNH) professor and straight white man, allegedly posed as a Black woman to run the anti-trans Twitter account, The Science Femme.
The troll account The Science Femme, also known by its handle @piney_the, was known in academic circles for its prolific slew of tweets raging about “woke culture”, often targeting transgender rights and routinely harassing women in science.
The account had assumed the identity of an anonymous Black female academic. It attracted attention in June when it claimed to have been “successful in killing my dept’s woke statement on recent social unrest” following the murder of George Floyd and the subsequent wave of Black Lives Matter protests, complaining of “a toxic ideology that cannot be given an inch”.
Accusations of racism towards the user were often met by retorts pointing to their status as a “immigrant woman of colour who grew up in poverty, sleeping on a dirt floor”.
Craig Chapman – a white male assistant professor of chemistry at the University of New Hampshire, is alleged to be behind the account
Craig Chapman posted the same photos as The Science Femme.
However, eagle-eyed Twitter users found evidence that suggests the account is actually run by Craig Chapman — a white male assistant professor of chemistry at the University of New Hampshire.
Internet sleuths had highlighted identical photos posted to both @piney_the and Chapman’s personal Twitter account.
In other messages, both users deployed the same non-standard abbreviations and language and detailed identical family setups.
https://twitter.com/drama_science/status/1310688514116378625
UNH professor placed on leave over anti-trans Twitter fiasco.
After the apparent unmasking, both Twitter accounts were deleted, and The Daily Beast reports that Chapman is now under investigation by the university for his conduct.
A spokesperson for the University of New Hampshire told the outlet: “UNH was recently made aware of allegations on social media about a member of its faculty.
“We are deeply troubled by what we’ve learned so far and immediately launched an investigation. The employee at the center of allegations on social media is on leave and not in the classroom.
“In order to protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation the university is unable to comment further.”
Chapman is not the first academic to have been tied to an anti-trans Twitter account.
In 2018 it was alleged that Oxford University professor Michael Biggs had run an anonymous anti-trans Twitter account, on which he insisted “transphobia is a word created by fascists, and used by cowards, to manipulate morons” and claimed evidence of high suicide rates among trans youth had been fabricated.
PinkNews has contacted Craig Chapman for comment.
