Terf signals/colours

And not knowing the "feminism" part of feminism excludes men is very..... Strange... but each to their own.

That's very mansplainy, telling me what I want when I've said specifically that I don't just want single-sex exemptions, @frenchnoodle

I've been in this fight for getting on for 20 years. Since the 90s, probably, when I saw someone close to me transition and become a misogynistic bastard. I'm one of the lesbian canaries down the mine who started trying to warn everyone what was going on in the early days and was ignored until very recently.

I want more than the legal single sex exemptions. Just one example: I see an awful lot of lesbian girls and young autistic women being targeted by homophobic teachers and clinicians and social workers who encourage young lesbians and gay lads to transition because, basically, the teachers/ doctors/ social workers are homophobic. They don't think they're homophobic (they think they're cool and enlightened and liberal) but effectively they're involved in the sterilisation of an increasingly large proportion of young gay and lesbian people. That's just one example where parroting 'single-sex exemptions' doesn't apply.

My DH bought me a feminist symbol necklace for Mother’s Day last year. I saw a Ruby Wax interview and she was wearing a similar one but mine has a little fist in the centre of it. ✊

just looked on Etsy and it’s available on there.

A judge has said it's a slur. It was created by TRAs as a slur.

But I'm not going to argue about it.

Ask them to take their smug, self righteous expressions and point them at somewhere else.

Well precisely. And single sex means we exclude trans identifying men from women’s spaces.

I don’t want to berate - I think we are both on the same side here! But I think the idea that GC women who embrace the term terf are all about eliminating trans people from society as a whole is false. They want to exclude trans-identifying men from women’s spaces. That’s all. So they feel that calling them terfs is…true. Therefore not an insult.

A little Manchester bee in the suffragette colours. Plausible deniability at work due to Emmeline Pankhurst statue is a stones throw from our offices but I've seen other women spot it and give me a nod. It depresses me that we still feel we have to be hidden so often.

No one has asked yet 🤣

I think I would probably just say “he’s my rights hoarding dinosaur” and let them go look it up. Since Peggie v Fife I have been trying to venture into more precise conversations with people who I think might be receptive, but I will fully admit I don’t have the courage yet to talk to people who I know will disagree.

It was never my scarf, I just saw the video and thought it would be the perfect accessory for declaring my terfiness.

Younger female friends? Are they aware of what the Suffragettes did for them? Oh I weep.

(Also, I’m very jealous - antique suffrage jewellery sounds amazing!)

What you want is single sex exemptions upheld. This is already law but Stonewall has stopped companies enforcing it.

I really wish we had a shocked emoji. A lot of posts on here merit one, but that’s blown my mind. WTAF?!

I would say most are gender critical, but not terfs.
As most people are not trans exclusionary are we. We just want sex exemptions upheld.

I definitely want transwomen excluded from women's sport, women's prisons, women's hospital wards, lesbian-only events and women-only events. So the word terf (Trans-Exclusionary-Radical-Feminist) originally thrown at me as a slur is fine with me and I'm proud to be one. GI is a men's rights movement and as a lesbian feminist I oppose it. Not sure quite how radical I am, but as the genderists seem to regard any woman with moderately feminist views as radical, I'll go with it.

I agree with you, but IME most people on the other side of the argument seem to have no real idea what the core debate is and will label you a TERF regardless. In which case I’d rather be clear which side of the fence I’m on even if that means embracing an inaccurate acronym.

In these times when the safeguarding of basic rights apparently makes you a hateful witch, I want people know I’ll be standing on the fucking bonfire with all the other hateful witches, even if my views are considerably more moderate than some of them.

Do you mean they confiscated your scarf and you weren't allowed to pick it up at the end of your visit to parliament? (and then an MSP nicked it for themselves?)

Or have I misunderstood?

I have some antique suffrage jewellery. I’ve been asked by some younger friends not to wear it.

I would say that the “exclusion” part of terf is with regard to the rest of “terf,” not to society as a whole.

Terf is “trans exclusionary radical feminist” - the exclusion of “trans” is from the category “radical feminist.”

As you say, I think most people on here are fine for trans-identifying men to get on with their lives. It’s when they want to insert themselves into the category “womanhood” that we wish to exclude them.

I know a lot of women have taken that slur and turned it around and ran with it but for me it’s a slur and an inaccurate one at that.

So I tend not to use it but don’t get offended when “terfs” declaim it like some friends I know.

Beware some signs are misleading- I thought I had a possible ally wearing dinosaur jewellery and they/them (ha!) turned out to be the most indoctrinated Mx I’ve had the pleasure to meet. So don’t let your guard down…

edit: reclaim

Yeah i don’t use it

I'm all for people using it for themselves if they want to 😀 but it is a slur

The one I liked the most was confiscated at Scottish parliament for being a flag. It looked like it was made of silk and clearly was a scarf. There was a video on twitter of one of the MSPs retrieving it from security.

Dinosaur pins are also cute but a bit subtle imo. It all depends on the situation you are in.

I've got a gates of Holloway Prison portcullis pin badge wich is rather lovely and a few enamelled pin badges (deeds not words is one) which I got from Etsy. Can only see the portcullis on ebay currently. A more subtle signal for sure.

I would say most are gender critical, but not terfs.

As most people are not trans exclusionary are we. We just want sex exemptions upheld.