NUS Connect:
Jess Bradley, NUS Trans Officer article:
'There is nothing radical or feminist about transphobia'
Monday 25-09-2017
'Almost two weeks ago, at Speaker’s Corner, a punch was thrown. A scuffle ensued, was broken up, and then broke out upon social media'
(extract)
"Take another step back and you’ll see that this year is a crucial one for the trans movement. We are on the verge of some potentially important (if still deeply flawed) changes in the law and in healthcare. Anti-trans activists like Julia Long have been organising hard against these changes, turning up at healthcare consultations across the country to speak against any improvements, as well as harassing trans people on the way into the meetings with pickets outside. The event at Speaker’s Corner was put on to mobilise the anti-trans movement against these potential improvements for trans people. And by riling up the trans community and provoking that trans person to take a swing at someone in self-defence, they were able to get that crucial photograph. Now, the narrative is set: trans people are violent and anti-feminist, and the transphobes are the victims of misogynistic violence. It’s that age-old tactic of bigots everywhere; to make the bully out to be the victim.
Zoom out even further and you’ll see that this battle between TERFs and trans activists is part of a bigger war between the second wave of feminism, of which trans-exclusionary radical feminism is a notable tendency, and third and fourth wave feminism, which are more intersectional and inclusive in their approach. The key break between second wave feminism and those feminisms that came afterwards was its position on trans people and on sex work. So the wider context of the conflict underpinning the events at Speaker’s Corner are one of what the future of feminism looks like.
Looking at the TERF’s framing of this event as being about (male) violence against women, misogynistic violence, you’d be forgiven for not realising this conflict was not between women and misogynists, but one between two branches of feminism. This was compounded by the fact that most of their messaging around who was responsible for the counter-demo focused on the trans activist group London Action for Trans Health, even if it was jointly organised between them, Sisters Uncut, and feminists at Goldsmiths Students' Union. By doing so, the TERFs were able to conveniently ignore that some cis feminists had mobilised in solidarity with their trans sisters and siblings, and paint the conflict as one exclusively between trans people and women (with the implicit assertion that trans women are not, in fact, “real women”)." (continues)
www.nusconnect.org.uk/articles/there-is-nothing-radical-or-feminist-about-transphobia