Cambridge Students' Union Women's Campaign: 'How to Spot T**f Ideology'

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We strive for an inclusive campaign; all those who self-define as women and non-binary people, including (if they wish) those with gender identities which include ‘woman’, transfeminine people and those who feel that they experience structural misogyny, are members.

The CUSU Women's Campaign wants you to know how to spot a T**f (their use of a MN banned term).

twitter.com/CUSUWO/status/1111597478321811456
Some good comments here.

www.womens.cusu.cam.ac.uk/

Includes a handy reading list, not forgetting MN: (transfeminism and resisting T**F ideology)

All the texts in this list contain discussions of transmisogyny and transphobia, often in addition to colonialism, misogyny, LGBT+phobia - anything particularly graphic etc. has been separately content noted either next to the link or on the linked page.

QUICK READS
Vice - How To Be A Trans Ally broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/kzjnjm/how-to-be-trans-ally-tips
Make No Assumptions (CUSU LGBT+ 2015 trans campaign) - Transphobia & Transmisogyny www.makenoassumptions.org.uk/transphobia
CUSU LGBT+ - The ‘T’ Within LGBT+ www.lgbt.cusu.cam.ac.uk/resources/trans/the-t-within-lgbt/
Make No Assumptions (CUSU LGBT+ 2015 trans campaign) - Glossary www.makenoassumptions.org.uk/glossary
WomCam Feminist FAQ www.womens.cusu.cam.ac.uk/feminist-faq/
Debunking “Trans Women are not Women” Arguments - Julia Serano medium.com/@juliaserano/debunking-trans-women-are-not-women-arguments-85fd5ab0e19c
[CN mentions of sexual violence and abuse, t-slur] What Transmisogyny Looks Like - Tobi Hill-Meyer bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2009/03/what_transmisogyny_looks_like.php

ARTICLES
No, Transgender Women Like Me Did Not Grow Up With Male Privilege - Allison Gallagher
www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/no-transgender-women-like-me-did-not-grow-up-with-male-privilege-20170314-guxhth.html
Transphobia is a White Supremacist Legacy of Colonialism - Michael Paramo
medium.com/@Michael_Paramo/transphobia-is-a-white-supremacist-legacy-of-colonialism-e50f57240650
The Rise Of Anti-Trans Activism Is Harming Children, Not Helping Them - Emrys Travis www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/the-rise-of-anti-trans-activism-is-harming-children-not-helping-them_uk_5c1900b5e4b02d2cae8d5ecb
Has Mumsnet Become a Hub of Online Transphobia? - Hannah Woodhead
www.huckmag.com/perspectives/opinion-perspectives/mumsnet-transphobia-online/
Why Sex Is Not Binary - Anne Fausto-Sterling
www.nytimes.com/2018/10/25/opinion/sex-biology-binary.html
Nature and Sex Redefined: We Have Never Been Binary - Vanessa Heggie www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2015/feb/19/nature-sex-redefined-we-have-never-been-binary
[CN: t-slur] Towards an Insurrectionary Transfeminism - Anonymous theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-towards-an-insurrectionary-transfeminism.pdf
[CN: reclaimed lesbophobic, homophobic & misogynistic slurs; graphic body imagery; suicide; childbirth] My Words to Victor Frankenstein Above the Village of Chamounix - Susan Stryker
read.dukeupress.edu/glq/article/1/3/237/69091/My-Words-to-Victor-Frankenstein-Above-the-Village
The Gender Ternary: Understanding Transmisogyny – Lisa Milbank
radtransfem.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/genderternary-transmisogyny/

LONG-READS
Maria Lugones - Heterosexualism and the Modern/Colonial Gender System nycstandswithstandingrock.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/lugones-2007.pdf
[CN: r*pe as a metaphor] THE "EMPIRE" STRIKES BACK: A POSTTRANSSEXUAL MANIFESTO - Sandy Stone webs.ucm.es/info/rqtr/biblioteca/Transexualidad/trans%20manifesto.pdf
B. Binaohan - decolonizing transgender 101 publishbiyuti.org/blog/2014/06/decolonizing-transgender-101/
Julia Serano, collected articles and books www.juliaserano.com/writings.html
Stone Butch Blues - Leslie Feinberg www.lesliefeinberg.net/
Trans: A Memoir - Juliet Jacquesv

Revolting.

I do hope some lovely clever Cambridge women start their own club.

For women.

How they get away with it is that most students at Cambridge pay no attention at all to the Student Union. They are all focused on their individual colleges and individual college student unions. Not the university-wise one.

*wide

Anne Fausto-Sterling! Of all people!

AnyOldPrion yes, completely agree. Where does this leave women and girls in other countries? Bad enough here if you have to fight for your sex-based rights when other women seek to deny them to the rest of us, but what about those who continue to suffer from some of the worst structural oppression on the basis of their sex? Who are kidnapped, forced into marriage, trafficked, raped and enslaved in wars, aborted for being female or neglected as children, starved and then denied access to education, jobs and healthcare, who die in menstruation huts, are child brides or subject to FGM, forced abortions or pregnancy. The list is depressingly long and by no means exhaustive. Do we sacrifice their rights to this ideology as well?

I find it really interesting that they present a post-modernist theory as a “fact” which proves that “TERFS” are wrong. Gender criticical feminism is supposedly false because gender critical feminists believe that, objectively, there are two sexes. And this, we are told, is wrong because “the idea that two sexes exist is a colonial construct.” Ok but... that’s not a fact, though. The notion that sex isn’t real because white people invented it is a theory that has to be argued for. They can’t just plop their theory down and assume it’s true - they have to provide reasons why it’s true. Of course, they never do.

I also find it funny how they say that there’s no need to panic about “TERF theory” because it’s super contradictory and easy to take apart. And yet they give no advice about how to actually beat or undermine the dreaded “TERF theory”.

Yesterday when I first saw this leaflet I thought 'how can anyone be so spectacularly stupid', but now reading it a bit more I actually think they are being quite clever. They have basically managed to reverse reality. Of course, we can see it for the bullshit that it is, but we aren't their target audience.

The fact they refer to it as 'T*F ideology' for a start. There is no T*F ideology, and they must know that we refer to their beliefs as an 'ideology', so they claim that it is us with an 'ideology'.

Later they say "t**fs often dub themselves 'biological women' or 'adult human females'" - the context of this sentence is that they are suggesting that these ideas of biological women and adult human females are something only used by gender critical feminists - that these are new and controversial ideas that were invented by us, and not in fact terms that have been in common usage for yonks.

See also the section on women's spaces. "T**f ideology is actively exacerbating this, aiming to make spaces "sex-segregated"'. Again this putting things in quote marks to make it seem like these are controversial ideas. And this of course completely ignores the fact that these spaces are already sex-segregated under current UK equality law, that it is not us that are seeking to change the status quo, but them!

it’s true that CUSU has no traction with most students and these tits will be pretty marginal but at the risk of sounding pompous, a university with Cambridge’s reputation in the sciences has no business admitting even one of these little fuckwits.

It's just plain racist.

'Black womanhood and white womanhood are not the same'.

I haven't the foggiest idea what 'womanhood' is, but can assure CUSU that relative skin pigmentation does not affect sexual reproduction, which long predates the arrival of Homo sapiens, never mind any concept of race.

It's just othering 'noble savage' bollocks. Apparently non-white cultures are great at tracking animals and identifying plants but completely unable to spot which humans might produce other humans. It's a complete shocker every time.

It's just plain racist

Yes it is.

it’s true that CUSU has no traction with most students and these tits will be pretty marginal but at the risk of sounding pompous, a university with Cambridge’s reputation in the sciences has no business admitting even one of these little fuckwits

Could not agree more.

It all always comes down to language games.

Sex doesn't mean gametes if we define it to mean something else entirely.
Woman doesn't mean adult human female if we define it to mean something else entirely.

The question isn't which definition is correct it's as in Lewis Carroll the question is who is to be master ?

The question is: Why, exactly, should these fuckwits with their loopy definitions be master?

"I came from an environment where going to Cambridge was seen as such an embarrassing move, so my expectation of Cambridge was that I was going to make fun of everything while suffering through my three years being part of the ‘establishment. ...I’ve met people who make me feel confident instead of cynical – and I value myself much more in this environment than a year ago when I felt guilty for choosing Cambridge."

Well, lucky old Cambridge for you choosing them despite how embarrassing it was for you.

www.facebook.com/studentsofselwyn/posts/claire-sosienski-smith-0809161-tell-us-about-yourselfim-claire-i-went-to-sixth-f/1774639449477360/

Admissions tutor wants shooting

In my second year at Scumbag Poly, (who were very lucky to have me, btw,) I was required to read up on Karl Popper so as I knew what a fucking fact was.

Admissions tutor wants shooting

Bit harsh...this sort of shit almost certainly doesn't come up at all during the admissions process, I mean why the heck would it?

JessicaWakefield could you post links to further reading on these subjects? I suspect I'm not the only person who'd welcome the chance to learn more.
You can read stories of older gay Samoan men who speak of the trauma about being forced to live as girls. I’m Polynesian so I can say with absolute certainty our cultures are just as homophobic and sexist as any other- women can still not speak on all Marae ( depending on iwi ). I read recently an article with Matt Toomua

ErrolTheDragon

I was under the impression that oxbridge interviews included checking for critical thinking skills. I have either misunderstood or been misled.

If ‘Claire’ is one of the elite from our age, this country is even more fucked than I thought it was.

The university needs to denounce this and fast, this is not a good look for them.

But it was surely obvious at the time of admission that these people were stupid.
Stupidity, I find, is hard to disguise. You’d have to be quite clever to do it. You see the problem.

MsTiggy

I’m Polynesian, so these are things I’ve known all my life, and in terms of sexism in Māori culture, that I’ve lived. There’s lots you can read about that, Dame Whina Cooper would speak on Marae anyway, and there are documentaries on YouTube about her. NZ’s previous female PM, Helen Clark was not allowed to speak at the Waitangi Day commemorations because women can’t on most Marae. You probably were more interested in the fa afafine though... There are lots of things online, I saw a documentary about Fa afafine some time ago now. I think an older gay Samoan man has written a book you could look for. I’ve spoken with a friend whose uncle was forced to be Fa afafine.

Matt Toomua talks here about how his father was switched with a female cousin due to traditional gender roles: www.playersvoice.com.au/matt-toomua-my-name-isnt-my-name/

There are a few different opinions re Fa afafine here: www.sbs.com.au/news/thefeed/story/faafafine-boys-raised-be-girls

Don’t forget that homosexuality is illegal in Samoa too, still.

Sorry, that should read homosexual acts for men in Samoa are illegal. So being trans is a way of getting around that.

The whole 'its a colonial fiction' idea has some scholarship behind it. It seems to be based on two things:

• that the sex binary was 'invented' (or something approaching that) in Europe some time between 1660 and 1800
• that this concept of sex was exported through colonisation and imposed on people in other continents

These two combined are being taken as fact by some academics. I saw someone (a geography academic maybe?) tweet 'its an established historical fact that...' which is silly.

I am familiar with the first idea. I've talked with people on here about this before. It's based on a fundamental change in medical understandings of the differences between male and female bodies. It's why Sally Hines tweeted 'the female skeleton didn't exist before the enlightenment' recently (which was obvs silly and i hope 'didn't exist' was daft short hand). But it's contested, and not agreed on. Even if it was agreed on, that wouldn't mean people before then didn't know what male and female meant in practical everyday life obvs!

The second idea I'm not very familiar with. I'm sure Europeans attempted to impose their idea of social roles for men and women through colonisation, but this completely conflates sex and gender. The article on the reading list about this was from Hypatia which is feminist philosophy. I don't think any of the references were to anyone who has done any actual historical research - I think its all theorists. It's what happens when scholarship doesn't touch back in with reality.

But also - even if you accepted this, why does that make binary sex in Britain in 2019 a colonial fiction? We're the originator. Are they saying it was created by the process of colonisation? They've lost the plot???

Yes they have lost the plot.

Māori were colonised but they definitely knew which sex to sell to British and Irish soldiers, in exchange for muskets. Women were sold as sex slaves, typical payment was exclusive use of a Māori woman for 3 weeks in exchange for 1 musket. The idea we, and others, didn’t know the difference, acknowledge that difference or that we didn’t impose oppressive roles on females just like European cultures, is total fiction. Māori culture is still very sexist today and any outside attempts to get us to change is met with accusations of racism.

- that the sex binary was 'invented' (or something approaching that) in Europe some time between 1660 and 1800

Pretty sure the Greeks knew about the sex binary... have these people never looked at their statues and pots?