One of the shitty things about being trans
is that you don’t only get hate from angry
anti-feminists who don’t have a rational
or compassionate bone in their bodies, you
also get hate from people who call themselves
feminists. They usually call themselves “radfems”,
short for radical feminists, or “gender
critical” feminists. These are TERFs, and they’re awful.
TERF stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical
Feminist, and it’s exactly what it sounds
like -- a person who subscribes to a branch
of radical feminism that intentionally excludes
trans people. It’s an actively harmful branch
of feminism that contributes to hatred and
violence against trans people simply for being
who they are and existing in the world.
But, why? Why do they vehemently hate trans
people so much? Well, it comes down to what
their feminism is rooted in, and for TERFs,
that’s their bodies. TERFs believe that
your body determines your gender and that
it’s completely unchangeable. So they believe
that if you have a vagina, you’re a woman,
and if you have a penis, you’re a man. From
there, they believe that men are oppressors
are women are oppressed. So anyone with a
penis is an oppressor, and anyone with a vagina
is oppressed. Obviously, this inherently excludes
trans people. Lots of trans men have vaginas,
lots of trans women have penises, and nonbinary
people can have either. So TERFs believe that
trans men are women, trans women are men,
and nonbinary people are whatever gender they
were assigned at birth. This superficial surface-level
analysis of oppression ignores all the kinds
of oppression that trans people face. If you
truly believe that oppression is only the
result of different genitals, then you don’t
see trans people being oppressed when they’re
discriminated against, harassed, and murdered
on the regular. Because TERFs focus so closely on genitals and what they think is The Patriarchy, they tend
to avoid other kinds of intersectional analysis,
like ignoring how race, sexual orientation, and
disability can also lead to people being oppressed.
Their hatred of men is often taken out against
bisexual women who are dating men, and they
often ignore that black women face worse kinds
of oppression than white women. I believe
that for feminism to be good and productive,
it needs to be as intersectional as possible.
It needs to look at all the ways in which
people are oppressed, and how those things
intersect and interact. TERFs ignore all of
that in favor of vagina = oppressed and penis
= oppressor.
Now you might be wondering, what do TERFs
say about intersex people, those whose bodies
don’t fit neatly into traditional categories
of male or female? Well, I’ve seen TERFs
say one of two things: either they shove them
into one of those two categories and pretend
they don’t exist, or they say that they’re
a tiny percentage of people so it’s just
an anomaly or a “birth defect” that should
be ignored. Neither of those reactions really
make any sense though. Intersex means that
when you were born, your body didn’t line
up neatly with our traditional definitions
of male or female, so shoving those people
into one of those categories at random, or
according to whichever you think they’re
closer to, that’s just inaccurate -- and
harmful to intersex people who are then subjected
to surgeries as children (that they can’t
consent to) that alter their bodies forever.
And writing them off as a “birth defect”
doesn’t make any sense either, since being
intersex is about as common as being born
with red hair. But TERFs want to ignore all
that, because it would complicate their binary
view of sex and gender.
Plus, TERFs completely ignore that trans people
are able to transition. They ignore that there
are trans women who openly navigate the world
as women and use women’s bathrooms with
no problem. They ignore that there are trans
men who are regularly perceived as men. They
ignore that people can take hormone replacement
therapy or have surgery -- and when they do
acknowledge it, they often call it “body
mutilation” or “unnatural” or some other
derogatory term. Sure taking hormones as pills
or creams or injections is “unnatural”
in the sense that we didn’t have access
to them 20,000 years ago, but like we also
didn’t have any other modern medicine that
we now consider essential. Casts are “unnatural”
but they help people heal broken limbs, so
we use them, and they’re good. And in fact,
cisgender people take hormones all the time
to correct hormone imbalances. For example,
sometimes cis men have to take testosterone
if their levels are too low, sometimes cis
women take hormones after menopause -- taking
hormones isn’t an inherently bad thing.
In actuality, it’s a thing that helps tons
of people, cis and trans, live their lives
better. And the same goes for surgery. Trans
people often get surgeries that help them
navigate the world better and feel better
about themselves. That’s not “body mutilation”
because it’s a thing many trans people actively want or need, and it helps them. And obviously cis
people having cosmetic surgeries isn’t on
the same level, but cis people do alter their
bodies to make themselves enjoy their appearance
more and navigate the world better. They get
piercings and tattoos and sometimes breast
augmentations or nose jobs -- altering your
own body how you want to make yourself feel
better isn’t “body mutilation”, and
for trans people, it can be a lifesaver.
But because their feminism is so deeply rooted
in their bodies, TERFs tend to think of women
simply as baby-making machines. They say that
trans women will never be “real women”
because they can’t have babies, which ignores
the fact that tons of cis women can’t have
babies. There are cis women who are infertile
for one reason or another. Maybe they have
PCOS, maybe they had their ovaries removed
due to cancer, maybe they’ve gone through
menopause -- I think it’s obvious that not
all cis women can have babies. And obviously,
they’re still women, so making babies isn’t
what makes someone a woman. But TERFs rely
so heavily on this language that it should
be insulting to all cis women. Cis women are
more than walking vaginas, they’re more
than baby-making machines, but TERFs would
have you believe otherwise.
So, how do you spot a TERF? What are some
dog whistles to look out for? Well, the first
thing you should know is that TERFs rarely
identify as TERFs. They don’t like to be
called “trans-exclusionary” because they
disagree with the entire premise that trans
people are valid, so they try to frame it
in a more positive manner. Like I said at
the beginning of this video, they’ll usually
call themselves “radfems” or “gender
critical” feminists. They like to use academic-y
sounding language to make themselves sound
less bigoted. An important distinguishing
factor is that they consider themselves feminists.
Plenty of non-feminists believe in anti-trans
ideas, but TERFism is specifically a branch
of feminism. You’ll often see them railing
against “men” and talking about “women’s
empowerment” -- but what they’re really
talking about is empowering cis women, while
tearing down trans and non-binary people.
There have even been TERFs who have tried
to say that “TERF is a slur” which is
the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.
There’s a difference between a slur against
someone because of their race or gender, and
a descriptive word for someone’s set of
beliefs. TERF is the latter. Trans Exclusionary
Radical Feminist is not a slur. It’s a descriptive
word. TERFs only want to call it a slur because
it rightfully points out that they’re exclusionary
of trans people, and they dislike that that
shines a negative light on them. But the truth
is, being trans-exclusionary is a negative
thing, and we absolutely need to call it what
it is. TERFs would prefer a more “politically
correct” term, but we can’t allow them
to dictate the kind of language we use. Online,
you’ll also see a lot of TERFs refer to
themselves as “real women”, “biological
women”, “womyn with a y”, or “wombman”.
They use phrases like these to set themselves
apart from trans women, and to show their
superiority over trans women. Don’t fall
for any of it. Trans women are real women.
Trans women are biological women. TERFs don’t
get to decide what makes a woman real just
because they hate trans people. You’ll also
probably see a lot of TERFs with “xx”
in their username or bio, this is to remind
you that they have XX chromosomes, even though
they’ve probably never had their chromosomes
tested. And even if they did, having a certain
kind of chromosome doesn’t make you special
or important. There are plenty of amazing
women out there with XY chromosomes or other
variations of chromosomes.
TERFs also like to play this rhetorical game
where as soon as you criticize them, they
claim that you hate women. Obviously, you
can hate TERFs and still not hate women. In
fact, I’d argue that TERFs hate women since
their entire ideology is dedicated to harming
trans women. But like, for example, if you
say that TERFs are extremely harmful anti-trans
bigots, a million people will pop up to call
you a misogynist because TERFs are largely
women. Okay, so what? There are also women
who are Neo-Nazis, but hating female Nazis
doesn’t make you a misogynist, it makes
you anti-Nazi. Hating TERFs is by no means
the same thing as hating women. Plenty of
women aren’t TERFs, and there are countless
cis women who support trans women. Hating
TERFs means supporting trans women. That’s
actively not misogynistic.
Now, I want to talk briefly about TERFism
2.0. This is a new kind of TERFism that I’ve
only seen popping up recently. I’m sure
it’s been around for longer, but it seems
to me like it’s become more prevalent in
the last year or so. TERFism 2.0 is where
TERFs make tiny concessions to draw people
in, but hold their ground on their overall
point. A perfect example of this is that some
modern-day TERFs have stopped saying “trans
women are men” and instead have started
saying “trans women are women, but they’re
male”. Substituting “men” for “male”
has allowed them to be more politically correct
while still sending the same message. “Trans
women are male” has basically the same meaning
to most people as “trans women are men”,
because it’s still othering trans women,
still misgendering them, still making sure
you know that they’re different. It just
hides behind the facade of “Well, I’m
talking about sex, not gender, so it’s okay.”
But the truth is, sex is far more complicated
than that, and the words that we use to define
sex probably don’t mean what you think they
mean. In fact, increasingly, health professionals
agree that trans women are female, and trans
men are male. I’ll link to a brilliant Gender
Analysis post about this in the description,
and you can click on the card up here to watch
my video about how the traditional definitions
of “male” and “female” are outdated.
But the point is, trans women are female,
trans men are male, and non-binary people
are non-binary. Allowing TERFs to gain any
credibility just because they’ve substituted
the word “men” for “male” is not okay.
Don’t be fooled by prettier language or
by rhetorical tricks. TERFs still hate trans
women, and if someone’s vehemently asserting
that trans women are male and therefore they
aren’t “real women” or “real females”,
that person is very likely a TERF -- just
a slightly more politically correct TERF.
If you’d like to see
a couple other perspectives, I’ll link to
some videos in
the description that I really like that talk
about TERFs and being trans-exclusionary.
If you’re trans, I hope you know that even
though the TERFs can be loud sometimes, they
will lose out in the long run. You’re loved
and valid, and everything’s going to be
okay. There’s nothing wrong with being trans,
and you’re doing great.
If you liked this video, you can subscribe
to my channel by clicking over here, or you
can support me on on Patreon by clicking over
here. Thanks so much for watching this video,
and I’ll see you next time.
