What is a TERF?

[Gingerkittykat]

According to the independent

*What is a TERF?
The word TERF is an internet buzzword that became used by newspapers, TV shows and mainstream discussion to describe trans-exclusionary radical feminists.

It is a word leaden with meaning, and is a synonym for transphobia. The acronym refers to people who preach hate and exclusion against transgender women in the name of feminism.

They often use disruptive, aggressive protest tactics, including storming a meeting and intimidating transgender activists, and even deliberately misgendering them.

Feminism is about inclusivity and empowering women – all women – which is why TERF ideology is so at odds with most forms of feminism.*

www.indy100.com/article/joanna-cherry-snp-twitter-trans-rights-campaigners-pride-lgbt-edinburgh-8972341

Storming a meeting meant 2 women went in there and non violently asked some difficult questions!

littlbrowndog

Round of applause, bang on.

I love when “journalists” do extensive research like review tweets and ask their trans activist friends for definitions of “terf”. Top notch journalism that.

I am a radical feminist (ie I believe that in order for women to be liberated we must remove the root of our oppression, the patriarchy). Radical = root. If does not mean extreme. It also does not mean I hate men, I am heterosexual, married, and love many men in my life.

I don’t hate trans people either. I just don’t believe men who think they are women are women. I don’t believe men should be centered in feminism. Whether they wear dresses or call themselves Sally or she/her/xie/zer or whatever else. I also am tired of the TRAs reinforcing gender stereotypes, removing sex segregated spaces, and gas lighting the public and government into thinking women are hateful for not wanting to centre men and their penises in their change rooms, sports, lesbian relationships, politics, and whatever else, and telling rape victims they need to center their rapist’s gender feelings and so on.

I am also really tired of us being called the violent ones when women are being repeatedly physically attacked and threatened with violence for their “terf” views by violent men in dresses.

Makes me wonder if any of the newspapers are capable of printing any accurate news. I've totally given up reading them, don't believe the BBC and rely on social media. Which means I have no reliable source of news at all, really. I kind of know that events have happened, but not what actually happened in any detail. I don't even trust them to get the facts right, let alone trust any opinion pieces.

I also feel like this, at the same time, I feel like I need to try and support media that is at least trying, because I think part of the problem is that with the internet, few people are paying for real journalism.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/3620872-what-s-the-worst-mansplaining-you-ve-ever-been-witness-to

just leaving this here

terf ideology aka radical feminism is actual feminism. The rest is man-pleasing, man-appeasement, man-promotion

Yes terf is a word used to identify which women are legitimate targets for male violence. See also btch, slt, ng, whre.

Thanks cowardly, asshole libfems for inventing the term:

hoydenabouttown.com/2008/08/17/carnivalia-transgenderism-and-the-gender-binary/

Terves not terfs!

How dare they misplural you!

Proud to say I was one of the first women to be called a TERF along with a couple of others because a of a radfem group blog we had. TERF was born. Was about 8 years ago now

When we worked out the acronym we thought oh well it puts radical feminism on the map cause at the time radical feminists really were a tiny amount of women who had supposed out there views.
We were like hmm "trans excluding radical feminists"... where on earth are all the other radical feminists, the trans inclusive ones?

Then we saw they meant to distort language itself, but it hasn't really worked because people are still not very keen to call themselves trans inclusive radical feminists.

In India under East India Company rule before 1857, the plan was to train up a class of Anglicised, British-educated locals who would run the place on behalf of head office.

These brown Englishmen quickly became known as the Westernised Oriental Gentlemen, soon abbreviated to initials.

The person that wrote the shitty Indy piece has followed it up with one about JK Rowling:

www.indy100.com/article/jk-rowling-twitter-transphobe-magdalen-berns-terf-lgbt-8974041

Equality law is not always inclusive.

It defines situations where particular groups are allowed special services and protections, e.g. on the basis of age.

Until recently the only people who objected to women having specific services protections were MRAs, which really tells you all you need to know.

It is a word leaden with meaning, and is a synonym for transphobia. The acronym refers to people who preach hate and exclusion against transgender women in the name of feminism.

A synonym cannot become an acronym. And vice versa.

What shitty hell is this?

Oh wait. Obviously words matter. And boy!, do those MRAs know it.

Plus an acronym is not a word.

CANCEL THE CHEQUE!

*@Erythronium
*
Thanks cowardly, asshole libfems for inventing the term:

Libfems might have jumped on it but it was definitely trans activists who invented the term. Transwomen, basically.

Reminder that "misgendering" is the crime of a) correctly and truthfully identifying someone's sex and b) not participating in someone's fantasy of being the opposite sex.

No it wasn't. Look at that link I posted. It was invented at Hoyden about Town by a libfem in 2008 and it's taken off since then. Not eight years ago, eleven years ago.

The independent has gone down the pan anyway, it used to be a good newspaper but is now a load of clickbait and the odd serious article.

The author's other articles include how Sajid Javid compares himself to Homer Simpson and a story about people stopping traffic to let ducks cross the road.

I used to think TERFs were terrible too, until I did some reading and digging of my own.

@Erythronium Ah okay, I stand corrected. I was pretty heavily involved in the radfem blogosphere and the first time we'd heard of TERF was when we actually got called it.

It never made sense at the time because it suggests large swathes of trans inclusive radical feminists, when obviously there are not

I still get embarrassed calling myself a radical feminist on mumsnet, it just sounds like "political extremist"

Yes it was lib fem framing trying to invent these mythical rad fems who believed men were women. Of course they don't exist and have never existed, but lib fems do like to appoint themselves as authorities. Funnily enough, "trans inclusive rad fems" would be TIRFs, so we'd all have the same-sounding word applying to us anyway. I've never seen a feminist describe herself as a TIRF. They should be here by now if they're a real phenomenon.

Lol, any woman who finds herself in radical feminist territory knows that there's no going back. I've said before but this TERF insult is creating us an army, as women who wonder what the hell a terf is stumble upon radical feminist thought and realize they've found a political home

TERF is an acronym, not an insult.

If it offends you, perhaps some self reflection is in order?

From Sarah Ditum's article: What is a Terf? How an internet buzzword became a mainstream slur:

Even those who criticise the use of the word “terf” now often accept that it had a good-faith intent at one time, and has been a victim of mission creep. But from its very first appearance, it has functioned to blame feminism for male violence against trans people. In 2008, a blogger called Tigtog introduced it to mark the distinction between her trans-inclusive feminism and feminism that was specifically focused on the rights of people who are assigned female at birth. Of some comments by radical feminists, Tigtog wrote:

“The contempt just drips from every pixel (eta: of those comments), and why exactly? Isn’t that sort of contempt and disgust exactly what led to Allen Andrade beating Angie Zapata to death when he found out (through an act of sexual assault) that she wasn’t a born-woman?”

Allen Andrade, in case you hadn’t guessed, is a man. An extremely homophobic man, as his trial for the murder of Angie Zapata heard. There was no suggestion that he was influenced by, or even aware of, radical feminism in any form. Yet Tigtog, at the moment she coins the word “terf”, seems to imply that the women who criticise male violence (radical feminists) are ultimately responsible for the violence that men commit.

RJ Firth. considering that certain people call for T**fs to be punched, killed, burnt etc., perhaps you might reflect on that? Fair is fair.

"even deliberately misgendering them"

She writes this as though it's the most awful sacreligeous thing anyone can imagine but I guarantee 90% of the population have zero idea what this even means.

TERF is an acronym, not an insult.

If it’s an acronym it isn’t applied with any level of accuracy or logic.

‘Radical feminism’ is a particular feminist philosophy, but many people are called ‘TERF’ without being radical feminists.

Exclusion on the basis of sex is specifically allowed by the EA 2010 in some circumstances and women are fighting to protect this existing legal right.

The term ‘TERF’ operates on the assumption that all trans people fit a specific criteria, that they are born male, and that ‘feminist’ is an insult.

It’s definitely meant as an insult, but it’s also a breathtakingly sexist and irrational insult. Which makes sense I suppose.