Terf signals/colours

[hurdigurdi]

Do you wear anything like a badge, scarf etc or carry anything (such as a key ring or visible sticker on something) that signals your terfiness?

I was thinking of making something in suffragette colours to wear or use but just looking for ideas.

I doubt many people here consider themselves terfs, especially as it's a slur.

I am a proud terf and have been thinking along similar lines. I like the scarves I have seen people wearing but can’t find them anywhere.

I have a small ribbon broach in suffragette colours signifying women's rights.

@alotgoingonrightnowwhat types of scarves have you seen?

I genuinely like the suffragette colours together anyway and am thinking it’s such a great way to signal to others who are aware but without being in your face.

Um, I think you might have found yourself in the wrong room.

I’d venture a guess that most of the people on this part of the site are proud terfs. Also: proud rights hoarding dinosaurs, proud women of a certain age, proud vipers, proud conspicuously law abiding women, and any of the other things that get thrown at us.

In other words, we are (mostly) women who are prepared to stand up for the rights of women and children against the erosion of GI. Where’s the slur in that?

I have a tiny “rights hoarding dinosaur” (a dinosaur holding a paper with the word “rights” on it) badge on my handbag. I love it.

@TwoLoonsAndASproutI had to look up rights hoarding dinosaur, haven’t heard that before!

Does it ever prompt questions from people about what it means when they see your badge and if so, what do you say?

Terf for me, is not a slur. It depends who is using it and what the intention is.

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'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.

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.

Yeah i don’t use it

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

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

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

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 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.

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

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

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!)

How sad. Are young people offended by the suffragettes too?

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

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.

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.

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.