Help needed with terfisaslur website

[genderschmender]

Hi mumsnetters,

I'm new to this board but I'm hoping some of you may be able to help me. I run the terfisaslur.com site and after years of neglecting it, I'm finally getting round to updating it so that it continues to be useful.

I've got a full time job and small kids, so it's a huge job to keep on top of. It would be really helpful if people could send me either links or screenshots to things they think should appear.

The general categories are:
violent threats and violent imagery
abuse, harassment and dehumanizing language
erasing female biology
centering trans women in feminism and women's spaces
cotton ceiling
autogynephilia

I have updated the first two categories recently, but the rest are now quite out of date. And I'm sure things have only got worse in that time, not better! So if you know of anything I'm missing that it would be good to include, please would you either email them to me, or send me a DM on twitter?

Email: [email protected]
twitter: @schmendergender

Thanks so much in advance!

Would someone possibly dm me the court ruling which said "terf is a slur"

Justice Knowles in Harry Miller's case [[https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1197457604177530882.html
at some point said]]

I have become familiar with the term TERF. It is a derogatory term used by those who seek to deplatform those who hold different views.

The actual judgment says

I understand that ‘TERF’ is an acronym for ‘trans-exclusionary radical feminist’. It is used to describe feminists who express ideas that other feminists consider transphobic, such as the claim that trans women are not women, opposition to transgender rights and exclusion of trans women from women's spaces and organisations. It can be a pejorative term.

It's predicated on the idea that they could be included in that category Shizuku. It's a slight of hand that suggests women are "excluding" a group from a category they never belonged to in the first place. Doesn't mean they shouldn't have their own category or that they shouldn't be treated fairly and equitably, it's just a different category.

No.

Feminism centres females.

Exclusion is a buzz word that as far as I can tell, developed from "inclusion" relating to being inclusive of people with additional needs and/or disabilities.

Eg in architecture or education.

The concept of exclusion has been dressed up as a strawman.

Sleight of hand

Cross post, No to Shizuku

@Shizuku

It's like calling you a "tory". If I call you a tory, I see it as a bad thing, but it's not inherently a slur because whether or not being a tory is a bad thing, is a matter of opinion. If I call you a tory idiot, then that's a different matter - "idiot" is a slur.

Queer is not inherrently a slur. Queer adjective . Deviating from what is expected or normal; strange. Odd or unconventional, as in behavior; eccentric.

It was used as a slur. Then it was reclaimed. A bit like TERF.

Here's another word for you.
Prejudice.
It comes from the words "To judge before" A bias or a preconceived opinion, idea, or belief about something. When you act based on prejudice, you make up your mind about something and make generalizations about it before fully knowing about it.

Bigot.
Noun. One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.

A person who is obstinately and unreasonably wedded to a particular religious or other creed, opinion, practice, or ritual; a person who is illiberally attached to any opinion, system of belief, or party organization; an intolerant dogmatist.

I will use it in a sentence.

You are a prejudice bigot.

This is not a slur, it is a observation.

I've worked in inclusive education for yonks and the work exclusion never, ever comes up.

There's times where is very appropriate and necessary to include and actually times when it isn't.

@Shizuku

It's like calling you a "tory". If I call you a tory, I see it as a bad thing, but it's not inherently a slur because whether or not being a tory is a bad thing, is a matter of opinion. If I call you a tory idiot, then that's a different matter - "idiot" is a slur.

Well, no. They use the word 'terf' to dehumanise women, to justify posting the sickest threats and violent fantasies about them.

I've actually seen some people who use it say ''terfs aren't human'' so it's okay to punch/rape/kill/run them over/set fire to them.

It is a slur. It may not have started that way, like with many other words that were ''just descriptors'', but it is one now.

Women, females, throughout most of history have been denied their own agency as a group or a class or what ever you want to call it.

Radical just means root. The basic reason, cause, meaning.

Women advocating for women is just that. Including all women as the basis of the issues they deal with are because they're female.

So yes, it's become a slur, as exclusion is a derogatory term in today's society.

Well, either you exclude trans women from the category "woman" or you don't. If you do, you are by definition "trans exclusionary".

I disagree. GC feminists exclude all biological males from the category 'women' and include all biological females, including those identifying as transmen or nonbinaries.

'Trans exclusionary' is therefore an imprecise and inaccurate way to put it. Lots of us aren't actually radical feminists, either.

Plus all the violent memes of blokes with baseball bats with the word terf on them, obviously.

So Shizuku you’re not here to help? Genderschmender didn’t ask for opinions on the title of the website did she? Did I miss that bit? In which case Shiz I don’t think anyone is particularly interested in what you have to say on this. I’d respectfully ask you to redirect your energy elsewhere.

@Shizuku That's not what "slur" means.

An anime username. How astonishing.

@ScoldsBridal

So Shizuku you’re not here to help? Genderschmender didn’t ask for opinions on the title of the website did she? Did I miss that bit? In which case Shiz I don’t think anyone is particularly interested in what you have to say on this. I’d respectfully ask you to redirect your energy elsewhere.

Perhaps Shizuku would like to set up their own thread about whether terf is a slur. I think this thread has been derailed enough now really.

I just want to point out again to readers, that yet again, posters on this thread are focused on males. To state the regular posters on FWR that are focused on supporting, strengthening and retaining the rights for women and girls to counter the millennia of sexist discrimination are excluding other females is ludicrous. All females need those rights, opportunities and protections regardless of how they identify. They have benefitted from them since birth and will continue to do so even if they don’t think they have, do or will. So, trans exclusionary is a false claim and to use the term te*f is a slur.

Of course, males are excluded from these protections for females . They always were and always should be.

(And again because it seems to have become necessary to do so, females are those with bodies that have been formed to produce large gametes, regardless of whether they have done, are or will do so. That we need to clarify this on every thread, on every couple of pages is where we are in 2021).

If it's not a slur then I'm sure shiz can contribute all sorts of posts to the website showing it in a positive light.

And yes, of course it's used against people who exclude all men. When those people are neither trans exclusionary, radical, nor feminists.

You have to wonder about someone who, when presented with a website that has literally thousands of violent threats and disgusting comments in the context of the word t*rf, says it's not a slur!

I hope the OP comes back, there are too numerous to count examples of what she's asked for.

I exclude men from the category woman.
'Men' is not a slur.

If you think it derogatory to refer to a man as a man, I'd question what derogatory associations you hold in connection with a word that inoffensively means 'adult human male'.

If anyone who thinks 'man' is a slur wants to enlighten me as to all of the negative connotations they always associate with adult human males, I'm interested to hear what they are.

When I use the word men, simply to reference all adult human males, the word itself has precisely zero negative connotations. It's merely a reference to the biological sex of half the human race, no more, no less.

I'd be interested to hear what other, non-biological connotations posters intend to convey when they consider 'man' to be a grossly offensive word, even when spoken entirely accurately about any adult human male.

Hi @Barracker that would be great if you would post on twitter!

I totally get why people might be a bit wary. Some of you will know who I am but I try to run terfisaslur as anonymously as possible, to protect both myself, and the site, from TRA attacks. I've got several thousand followers on my own twitter, but I don't want to tweet from there, because I would rather not publicly announce that I own the site.

I used to have a twitter account for it called @terfisaslur where all I did was share screenshots of TRA tweets. Ironically enough, that account was permanently suspended for violating twitter's rules against abuse and harassment, even though (or perhaps because) all it did was draw attention to TRA abuse and harassment.

So I just set up @schmendergender today so people can send me DMs or just @ me on there to send me links. I haven't got round to following anyone yet, but I will. Totally understand if people are reluctant to email, but the [email protected] is safe, it's only accessible to me, and it's been up and running for five years or so now.

Thanks so much in advance for any help! I'm mainly looking for stuff to update the pages on cotton ceiling, autogynephilia, erasing female biology, and women's spaces.

@Datun obviously there are thousands of examples, you're right. And tbf, by this stage I don't need people to send me screenshots of some twitter random with 17 followers telling women to suck their dick. I've got hundreds of those already.

I suppose I'm just aware that there will be some key media articles, blogposts etc that I've forgotten about over the past few years the site hasn't been updated, that it would be useful to add. Eg to the pages about women's spaces, or cotton ceiling. Those pages get far fewer views than the front page, which is where the threats of violence are located. But they do still get enough views that I would like to keep them updated. Eg the cotton ceiling page gets about 100 views a day, which is enough that I think people appreciate it being there. But to be compelling, the evidence needs to be more up to date, otherwise it might look like the issue has gone away.

Obviously ideally I would do the research myself, but it's just such a huge job!

genderschmender

I collected some Cotton Ceiling examples from 2018 onwards on this thread:

"Cotton Ceiling" evidence thread http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3294339-cotton-ceiling-evidence-thread

@Ereshkigalangcleg ah that's brilliant, thank you so much!

@Outbutnotoutout

Would someone possibly dm me the court ruling which said "terf is a slur"

I am going through investigation at work as I posted some GC stuff, deemed transphobic.

One of the internal people has called me a TERF and I want to counter act.

This could be useful. By a Prof of linguistics at Oxford. debuk.wordpress.com/tag/terf/ There is also an undergrad dissertation online about use of terf as 'e-bile' online. Can point you to it if you like. Student who wrote it fronted a radio 4 program about use of the word terf recently too.

If there are other links to relevant threads on here that anyone knows of, that would be great too! Apologies if this is annoying - I'm sure there are better ways of doing this, and I've no expectation of help. It's just a bigger job than I can manage alone, and I either let it die, or I try to recruit some help with updating it. And that's made harder by the fact I don't want to out myself as being behind it! Anyone who has the spare time and doesn't mind sending me a few links/screenshots, either here, on twitter or email, it would be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, just ignore, because I do realise how annoying it is to have someone randomly rock up and demand you do their research for them.

Thank you so much for your hard work @genderschmender

Your website was one of the earliest collecting the sexist attacks against women who are protecting their rights to be called "women," "female," and speak about their bodies and their single-sex spaces and rights.

Long may you prosper!