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.

Ask them to take their smug, self righteous expressions and point them at somewhere else.

A judge has said it's a slur. It was created by TRAs as a slur.

But I'm not going to argue about it.

Agree with this 100%. I’ve no interest in excluding anyone from society, just my and other women and girls’ spaces, that’s all. We never asked to be dragged into this debate, we haven’t changed.

Anyhow, I’m also a textile endeavouring radical feminist and I embrace that whole heartedly.

My DH bought me a feminist symbol necklace for Mother’s Day last year. I saw a Ruby Wax interview and she was wearing a similar one but mine has a little fist in the centre of it. ✊

just looked on Etsy and it’s available on there.

That's very mansplainy, telling me what I want when I've said specifically that I don't just want single-sex exemptions, @frenchnoodle

I've been in this fight for getting on for 20 years. Since the 90s, probably, when I saw someone close to me transition and become a misogynistic bastard. I'm one of the lesbian canaries down the mine who started trying to warn everyone what was going on in the early days and was ignored until very recently.

I want more than the legal single sex exemptions. Just one example: I see an awful lot of lesbian girls and young autistic women being targeted by homophobic teachers and clinicians and social workers who encourage young lesbians and gay lads to transition because, basically, the teachers/ doctors/ social workers are homophobic. They don't think they're homophobic (they think they're cool and enlightened and liberal) but effectively they're involved in the sterilisation of an increasingly large proportion of young gay and lesbian people. That's just one example where parroting 'single-sex exemptions' doesn't apply.

And not knowing the "feminism" part of feminism excludes men is very..... Strange... but each to their own.

Yes!

Ah. First you disrupt the subject of the thread, then you tell me what I want, despite the fact I've said I don't. And when I put my case you tell me that I don't know what feminism means and try to redirect the conversation. Such familiar tactics.

Why? What am I missing?

@frenchnoodle, I’ve had a think and I feel like I was being a bit exclusionary myself, for which I apologise. It is absolutely your right to find the term terf a slur and to not want it to be used for you. Similarly, there are women, me included, for whom terf is not an insult, and who will therefore not mind being called it, or indeed will actively call themselves it. And that is our right too.

You are right. It is a heated topic and we all largely want the same thing. The world is big enough after all.

Textile endeavouring radical feminist!! Love this!!

(Fellow textiler here!)

It's a tricky one, OP - TERF is often intended as a slur, which is why it it has a sort-of 'official status' as slur, but there's a long history of groups taking the slurs that wider society throws at them, and embracing them as in-joke names to be used within the community.

I don't mind being called a dyke; in fact, within my social circle most of us use the word dyke. But it was also the chosen word - preceded by 'dirty' - of the groups of boys and men who have threatened me with violence in the past.

So outside of my immediate circle, the word 'dyke', especially when spoken with hatred and venom, is usually a slur.

I use the terms lesbian, or gay, when speaking to.. er....people who are not dykes

When somebody says 'Those TERFs are all just a bunch of dykes' you can bet your bottom dollar that the speaker is neither a TERF nor a dyke!

I don't mind being called a TERF, and would happily describe myself as such.
But I know that the person who displayed a sign saying DECAPITATE TERFS
was definitely using it as a slur.

Context and intent is all, OP!

Excellent points!!

I posted before I saw TwoLoonsAndASprout and frenchnoodle had their friendly exchange.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: one of the things I ❤about discussions on here is that it's not unusual for two posters to say 'I see what you mean now' or 'Sorry I got a bit snippy' or 'we're on the same side but have slightly different takes on it'.

I'm not on social media myself, but I'm reliably informed that that kind of intereaction is not the norm on SM🙄

I hope you told them to bugger off.

Yay 100%!

The term TERF was intended to be an insult, by male supremacists and people who think humans can change sex. In other words, people who can shove their opinions (and their demands of women) where the sun don’t shine.

I smell the laundry of the term "terf" which will allow the claim in court that it isn't a slur.

Reclaiming a word and being proud to be on the right side of history doesn't stop us from recognising the original intent.

"Terf" was created as a derogatory term. It is a slur.

I have one of these on my handbag. It feels a bit secret squirrel although I don’t want it to be a secret.
I have had other (mature) women notice it and give me a smile or say I like your bag.

I currently have a little silver dinosaur hanging around my neck.

https://www.lucyandjane.co.uk/collections/dinosaur-necklaces it came in a couple of days beautifully packaged.

I would like to point out that a lot of women worked very hard on "terfisaslur.com" getting it recognised in court with the Alison Bailey and later Maya Forester cases.
Getting it recognised by a judge took a lot of women a lot of time and energy.

I just get a bit snippy when I see that hard work from the early days ignored

But of course this is probably not the thread to remind people of that fact.

https://sciencejewelry1824.shop/products/uterus-1?variant=31869860544575&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhYS_BhD2ARIsAJTMMQaPBsr8CQrIHzPrLDiO2FSv-HeS36pQbybPedOVLJVGPIThXC5bu6saArqGEALw_wcB

I would like one of these

We all know terf was originally intended as a slur. As @MarieDeGournay explained, lesbians have reclaimed the slur 'dyke' by adopting it, just as gay men reclaimed the word 'queer' before the genderists co-opted the word for their own use. Language is constantly evolving. Terfs have likewise claimed the intended slur and celebrated it. Plenty of evidence on terfisaslur.com to support the fact that it originated as an insult. The fact that women have done something that oppressed people have a history of doing (the N word is another example) doesn't negate or eliminate the fact that we all understand the original intention of the slur.

May Forstater's case came first, by the way, in 2021. Allison Bailey's was in 2022.

That is absolutely an excellent point. (And @frenchnoodle, your point about the court cases too.) A bit like when brands don’t want you to use their brand name as a generic term for a product (eg hoover) because they then lose the exclusive rights to that word. So, women saying that terf isnt a slur makes it harder for us to argue that it’s being used as one when it clearly is. Muddying the waters, as it were.

Not sure what the solution is wrt that. 🧐

Terf is “trans exclusionary radical feminist” - the exclusion of “trans” is from the category “radical feminist.”

This is interesting.
I have never considered myself a Terf as I absolutely do include trans men (aka females) in my feminism whether they want to be included or not.
But I agree that anyone who subscribes to a ideology that throws women under the bus cannot be a feminist and therefore, yes, I do say they are excluded from being a radical feminist... Hmmm.