TERF: Difference between revisions

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== History and evolution towards hate speech ==

Those who use the term to slur feminists often claim that it first started out as a self-descriptor. This is a myth. The term was always applied coercively to radical feminists critical of the concept of transgenderism, and used derisively to paint them as an out-group to distance oneself from. Over the years, it evolved into what could be argued to be an outright slur or even hate speech.

=== Origin ===

The oldest known use of the term is by Viv Smythe aka "tigtog" in a blog post from 2008.<ref name=terf-origin/> ~~She defended~~ the ~~term as late as 2018~~, ~~in an article for The Guardian~~.~~<ref name=guardian-smythe/>~~ Transgender activists frequently try to defend the term on the grounds that Viv Smythe is a woman who herself claims to be a radical feminist~~, and~~ seems to have first used the term in a way that is not derogatory. ~~Of course~~, the benign origins of a term ~~does not mean~~ that it ~~cannot evolve into~~ a slur.

The oldest known use of the term is by Viv Smythe aka "tigtog" in a blog post from 2008.<ref name=terf-origin/> In the article, Smythe draws a distinction between "trans-exclusionary radfem (TERF) activists" and other radical feminists, criticizing the former.

Transgender activists frequently try to defend the term on the grounds that Viv Smythe is a woman who herself claims to be a radical feminist. She also seems to have first used the term in a way that was meant to be objective and not necessarily derogatory. However, she never identified with the term herself, instead using it for other radical feminists whom she painted as an out-group that should be criticized. Besides, a term can have benign origins and yet evolve into a slur.

Curiously, Smythe defended the term as late as 2018 in an article for The Guardian,<ref name=guardian-smythe/> at which point it should have long been apparent that it had become a slur.

=== Early years and first principled critique ===

The evolution of the term from 2008 into the early to mid 2010s is not well documented. Mostly, feminists had to face the term on social media, where it began to be used regularly to debase their ~~position~~. In July 2014, [https://www.feministcurrent.com/ Feminist Current] published two articles referencing the term. The first, written by C. K. Egbert and titled ''Defending the 'TERF': Gender as political'', explains and defends in length the political theory underlining the ideas ~~supported by~~ feminists ~~who are~~ slurred as "terf."<ref name=fc-egbert/> The second, written by [[Sarah Ditum]] and titled ''How 'TERF' works'', shortly analyses a situation in which a woman is pressured to retract a statement opposing violence against women, on the grounds that the statement originally stems from a feminist who is considered a "terf".<ref name=fc-ditum/> Since Feminist Current is highly acclaimed among radical-leaning feminists, its decision to support the women slurred with "terf" could be seen as a turning point.

The evolution of the term from 2008 into the early to mid 2010s is not well documented. Mostly, feminists had to face the term on social media, where it began to be used regularly to debase their positions. In July 2014, [https://www.feministcurrent.com/ Feminist Current] published two articles referencing the term. The first, written by C. K. Egbert and titled ''Defending the 'TERF': Gender as political'', explains and defends in length the political theory underlining the ideas of feminists slurred as "terf."<ref name=fc-egbert/> The second, written by [[Sarah Ditum]] and titled ''How 'TERF' works'', shortly analyses a situation in which a woman is pressured to retract a statement opposing violence against women, on the grounds that the statement originally stems from a feminist who is considered a "terf".<ref name=fc-ditum/> Since Feminist Current is highly acclaimed among radical-leaning feminists, its decision to support the women slurred with "terf" could be seen as a turning point.

In August 2014, Vice published an article titled ''I Am Now Officially a Transphobic Twitter Troll'' (subtitle: ''At least according to the 'Block Bot' I am'') by author Martin Robbins.<ref name=vice-robbins/> In the article, Robbins talks about how the "Block Bot" project on Twitter, which is supposed to help people avoid abusive trolls, has included feminist authors and journalists such as [[Caroline Criado-Perez]] and [[Helen Lewis]] among the people who should be blocked. Ironically, Lewis seems to have made it to the list for complaining about abusive trolls, as the "evidence" for the reason to ban her includes objections to tweets such as "kill TERFS", "burn TERFS", or hateful jokes such as "what's better than 1 dead terf? 2 dead terfs."

Another Feminist Current article defending those targeted with the slur was published in November 2015, written by [[Penny White]] and titled ''Why I no longer hate ‘TERFs’''.<ref name=fc-white/> In the article, White explains how she herself used to be convinced that so-called "TERFs" are worthy of contempt, but changed her mind after starting to look closer into the issue. This experience seems to resonate with many women and some socially liberal men to this day, who start out being supportive of the transgender movement, only to start becoming skeptical after negative experiences and observations, ultimately leading them to be also labeled "terf" and shunned by ~~transgender~~ activists ~~and their allies~~. After that, Feminist Current started publishing articles critical of the transgender movement with some frequency, much to the enragement of ~~transgender~~ activists.

Another Feminist Current article defending those targeted with the slur was published in November 2015, written by [[Penny White]] and titled ''Why I no longer hate ‘TERFs’''.<ref name=fc-white/> In the article, White explains how she herself used to be convinced that so-called "TERFs" are worthy of contempt, but changed her mind after starting to look closer into the issue. This experience seems to resonate with many women and some socially liberal men to this day, who start out being supportive of the transgender movement, only to start becoming skeptical after negative experiences and observations, ultimately leading them to be also labeled "terf" and shunned by trans activists. After that, Feminist Current started publishing articles critical of the transgender movement with some frequency, much to the enragement of trans activists.

=== The mainstreaming of hatred ===

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== Real-life assault, vandalism, and harassment ==

This section lists known incidents of ~~real-life (offline)~~ assault, vandalism, verbal abuse and other harassment against feminist organizations or women, by trans activists who are radicalized by the notion that so-called "TERFs" are after their human rights. (The only case in which the motivation is not entirely clear is the triple homicide of a lesbian couple and their son, committed by formerly prominent trans activist Dana Rivers.)

This section lists known incidents of assault, vandalism, verbal abuse and other harassment against feminist organizations or women, by trans activists who are radicalized by the notion that so-called "TERFs" are after their human rights. (The only case in which the motivation is not entirely clear is the triple homicide of a lesbian couple and their son, committed by formerly prominent trans activist Dana Rivers.)

Later parts of this section draw heavily from the feminist news outlet [https://reduxx.info/ Reduxx.info], which was founded in January 2022 and started providing high-quality reporting on issues pertaining to conflicts with the transgender movement, especially where the mainstream media fails to deliver. Consider [https://reduxx.info/support/ donating to Reduxx] to support their efforts.

=== Vandalism of Vancouver Women's Library ===

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Women who were unhappy with these developments began painting slogans in favor of single-sex women's spaces inside the restroom's cubicles, such as: "If you want a unisex washroom, take it from the men, don't violate women's spaces." In apparent response to this, trans activists in turn began painting increasingly violent threats inside the cubicles. One such threat reads "rape and death to TERFs" and is cynically painted right aside one of the emergency buttons that were installed due to the prevalence of rape on the campus. Mexico already suffers from one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world.

=== Woman suffers permanent injury from assault by trans activist ===

On September 24, 2022, an Australian feminist suffered a severe assault by a trans activist, presumably as retaliation over her critical views against the transgender movement. In other words, for being a "TERF" in the eyes of the attacker. She is left with a permanent disability in her shoulder, losing the ability to lift her arm above her head.<ref name=reduxx-melbourne-attack/>

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, provided a detailed account of the incident and evidence of her injuries to the feminist news outlet Reduxx. She is quoted as follows, retelling the events leading up to the assault:

“I was walking away, talking to a friend when I noticed one male walking beside the group but in the opposite direction to the rest of us. As he passed me he shoulder-barged me hard, and I stopped to address him.

“He just looked like a metal head with lipstick on, and I had never seen him before in my life.

“I said something very close to, ‘Is there a problem here? Do you and I need to have a conversation?’ He started denying and gaslighting. He claimed it was an accident and one of his friends backed him up. It was clearly no accident so I replied, ‘No, he just shoulder-barged me as hard as he could.’

“I heard a few murmurs of ‘He?’ Like people were offended at my choice of pronoun. I stood facing him for another [few seconds] waiting to see if he was going to kick off, but he seemed to have nothing to say so I turned and walked away.”

</blockquote>

While turned away, the woman was forcefully attacked from behind by the male person, taking a heavy blow to her arm as she hit the ground:

“I was wearing a heavy studded leather jacket so I went down hard and fast. I put my left arm out to break the fall with anything other than my head and the impact reverberated all up my arm, shattering my shoulder and breaking my arm at the joint.”

</blockquote>

The woman was later able to identify the attacker, Sarah Cadzow, through an indirect relation to the members of her punk rock band. The assailant had presumably stalked her through social media and became hateful after seeing her views critical of the transgender movement. On January 25, 2023, Cadzow was charged with assault and scheduled for a court hearing in April.

“It’s getting very scary to be a woman speaking up about women’s rights these days. This kind of violence is going way, way too far and it has to stop before something even worse happens.”

</blockquote>

=== Murderer recently released from prison threatens "TERFs" ===

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Another social media account openly claiming to be him used the display name "HuntingTERFs", and another one used the name "KillingTime1235" while trying to impersonate Reduxx editor Anna Slatz.

=== Trans activist charged with assault after spitting at women ===

On December 14, 2022, trans activists at Edinburgh University prevented the screening of a documentary titled "Adult Human Female," which explains the issues feminists have with the transgender movement.<ref name=reduxx-edinburgh-ahf/>

One of the activists, 35 year-old Robyn Woof, went viral on social media after being caught on camera. He's seen loudly berating the women who came to watch the documentary, physically preventing them from entering the room where the screening was going to take place. One picture appears to show him spitting at the women.

On February 9, 2023, the feminist group Wings Over Scotland shared a statement from Scotland Police, informing them that a "35 year-old woman" had been charged with assault in relation to the incident.

=== Trans activist arrested after attacking feminist protester ===

On January 15, 2023, feminist activist Florence Waller attended a Let Women Speak event organized by [[Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull]] (aka Posie Parker). While leaving the event, she was attacked by a trans activist, who reportedly pushed her to the ground and stole her hand-made banner showcasing slogans in support of women's free speech and single-sex spaces.<ref name=reduxx-waller/>

Waller was not injured, and pursued the attacker, cornering him as a police officer arrived. She later pressed charges against the attacker, and her banner was retrieved by another woman.

“I went to the event to highlight the importance of same-sex care for vulnerable elderly women as I am myself a carer, and I have no doubt that this individual has absolutely no concern about anything … I wonder if he had even seen the very simple message on my banner as it was rolled up under my arm.” -- Waller reporting to Reduxx

</blockquote>

== Analysis of the term ==

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|date=July 4, 2022

|website=Schwulissimo

}}

</ref>

{{cite web

|url=https://reduxx.info/exclusive-australian-woman-left-disabled-following-attack-by-trans-activist/

|title=EXCLUSIVE: Australian Woman Left Disabled Following Attack By Trans Activist

|date=February 20, 2023

|author=Anna Slatz

|website=Reduxx

}}

</ref>

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|date=November 11, 2022

|author=Genevieve Gluck

|website=Reduxx

}}

</ref>

{{cite web

|url=https://reduxx.info/uk-trans-activist-charged-with-assault-after-spitting-on-woman-at-edinburgh-university/

|title=UK: Trans Activist Charged With Assault After Spitting On Woman At Edinburgh University

|date=February 10, 2023

|author=Shay Woulahan

|website=Reduxx

}}

</ref>

{{cite web

|url=https://reduxx.info/uk-trans-activist-arrested-after-assaulting-woman-at-a-free-speech-event/

|title=UK: Trans Activist Arrested after Assaulting Woman at a Free Speech Event

|date=January 16, 2023

|author=Shay Woulahan

|website=Reduxx

}}

@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 == History and evolution towards hate speech ==
+Those who use the term to slur feminists often claim that it first started out as a self-descriptor.  This is a myth.  The term was always applied coercively to radical feminists critical of the concept of transgenderism, and used derisively to paint them as an out-group to distance oneself from.  Over the years, it evolved into what could be argued to be an outright slur or even hate speech.
 === Origin ===
-The oldest known use of the term is by Viv Smythe aka "tigtog" in a blog post from 2008.<ref name=terf-origin/>  She defended the term as late as 2018, in an article for The Guardian.<ref name=guardian-smythe/>  Transgender activists frequently try to defend the term on the grounds that Viv Smythe is a woman who herself claims to be a radical feminist, and seems to have first used the term in a way that is not derogatory.  Of course, the benign origins of a term does not mean that it cannot evolve into a slur.
+The oldest known use of the term is by Viv Smythe aka "tigtog" in a blog post from 2008.<ref name=terf-origin/>  In the article, Smythe draws a distinction between "trans-exclusionary radfem (TERF) activists" and other radical feminists, criticizing the former.
+Transgender activists frequently try to defend the term on the grounds that Viv Smythe is a woman who herself claims to be a radical feminist.  She also seems to have first used the term in a way that was meant to be objective and not necessarily derogatory.  However, she never identified with the term herself, instead using it for other radical feminists whom she painted as an out-group that should be criticized.  Besides, a term can have benign origins and yet evolve into a slur.
+Curiously, Smythe defended the term as late as 2018 in an article for The Guardian,<ref name=guardian-smythe/> at which point it should have long been apparent that it had become a slur.
 === Early years and first principled critique ===
-The evolution of the term from 2008 into the early to mid 2010s is not well documented.  Mostly, feminists had to face the term on social media, where it began to be used regularly to debase their position.  In July 2014, [https://www.feministcurrent.com/ Feminist Current] published two articles referencing the term.  The first, written by C. K. Egbert and titled ''Defending the 'TERF': Gender as political'', explains and defends in length the political theory underlining the ideas supported by feminists who are slurred as "terf."<ref name=fc-egbert/>  The second, written by [[Sarah Ditum]] and titled ''How 'TERF' works'', shortly analyses a situation in which a woman is pressured to retract a statement opposing violence against women, on the grounds that the statement originally stems from a feminist who is considered a "terf".<ref name=fc-ditum/>  Since Feminist Current is highly acclaimed among radical-leaning feminists, its decision to support the women slurred with "terf" could be seen as a turning point.
+The evolution of the term from 2008 into the early to mid 2010s is not well documented.  Mostly, feminists had to face the term on social media, where it began to be used regularly to debase their positions.  In July 2014, [https://www.feministcurrent.com/ Feminist Current] published two articles referencing the term.  The first, written by C. K. Egbert and titled ''Defending the 'TERF': Gender as political'', explains and defends in length the political theory underlining the ideas of feminists slurred as "terf."<ref name=fc-egbert/>  The second, written by [[Sarah Ditum]] and titled ''How 'TERF' works'', shortly analyses a situation in which a woman is pressured to retract a statement opposing violence against women, on the grounds that the statement originally stems from a feminist who is considered a "terf".<ref name=fc-ditum/>  Since Feminist Current is highly acclaimed among radical-leaning feminists, its decision to support the women slurred with "terf" could be seen as a turning point.
 In August 2014, Vice published an article titled ''I Am Now Officially a Transphobic Twitter Troll'' (subtitle: ''At least according to the 'Block Bot' I am'') by author Martin Robbins.<ref name=vice-robbins/>  In the article, Robbins talks about how the "Block Bot" project on Twitter, which is supposed to help people avoid abusive trolls, has included feminist authors and journalists such as [[Caroline Criado-Perez]] and [[Helen Lewis]] among the people who should be blocked.  Ironically, Lewis seems to have made it to the list for complaining about abusive trolls, as the "evidence" for the reason to ban her includes objections to tweets such as "kill TERFS", "burn TERFS", or hateful jokes such as "what's better than 1 dead terf? 2 dead terfs."
-Another Feminist Current article defending those targeted with the slur was published in November 2015, written by [[Penny White]] and titled ''Why I no longer hate ‘TERFs’''.<ref name=fc-white/>  In the article, White explains how she herself used to be convinced that so-called "TERFs" are worthy of contempt, but changed her mind after starting to look closer into the issue.  This experience seems to resonate with many women and some socially liberal men to this day, who start out being supportive of the transgender movement, only to start becoming skeptical after negative experiences and observations, ultimately leading them to be also labeled "terf" and shunned by transgender activists and their allies.  After that, Feminist Current started publishing articles critical of the transgender movement with some frequency, much to the enragement of transgender activists.
+Another Feminist Current article defending those targeted with the slur was published in November 2015, written by [[Penny White]] and titled ''Why I no longer hate ‘TERFs’''.<ref name=fc-white/>  In the article, White explains how she herself used to be convinced that so-called "TERFs" are worthy of contempt, but changed her mind after starting to look closer into the issue.  This experience seems to resonate with many women and some socially liberal men to this day, who start out being supportive of the transgender movement, only to start becoming skeptical after negative experiences and observations, ultimately leading them to be also labeled "terf" and shunned by trans activists.  After that, Feminist Current started publishing articles critical of the transgender movement with some frequency, much to the enragement of trans activists.
 === The mainstreaming of hatred ===
@@ Line 76: / Line 82: @@
 == Real-life assault, vandalism, and harassment ==
-This section lists known incidents of real-life (offline) assault, vandalism, verbal abuse and other harassment against feminist organizations or women, by trans activists who are radicalized by the notion that so-called "TERFs" are after their human rights.  (The only case in which the motivation is not entirely clear is the triple homicide of a lesbian couple and their son, committed by formerly prominent trans activist Dana Rivers.)
+This section lists known incidents of assault, vandalism, verbal abuse and other harassment against feminist organizations or women, by trans activists who are radicalized by the notion that so-called "TERFs" are after their human rights.  (The only case in which the motivation is not entirely clear is the triple homicide of a lesbian couple and their son, committed by formerly prominent trans activist Dana Rivers.)
+Later parts of this section draw heavily from the feminist news outlet [https://reduxx.info/ Reduxx.info], which was founded in January 2022 and started providing high-quality reporting on issues pertaining to conflicts with the transgender movement, especially where the mainstream media fails to deliver.  Consider [https://reduxx.info/support/ donating to Reduxx] to support their efforts.
 === Vandalism of Vancouver Women's Library ===
@@ Line 220: / Line 228: @@
 Women who were unhappy with these developments began painting slogans in favor of single-sex women's spaces inside the restroom's cubicles, such as: "If you want a unisex washroom, take it from the men, don't violate women's spaces."  In apparent response to this, trans activists in turn began painting increasingly violent threats inside the cubicles.  One such threat reads "rape and death to TERFs" and is cynically painted right aside one of the emergency buttons that were installed due to the prevalence of rape on the campus.  Mexico already suffers from one of the highest rates of violence against women in the world.
+=== Woman suffers permanent injury from assault by trans activist ===
+On September 24, 2022, an Australian feminist suffered a severe assault by a trans activist, presumably as retaliation over her critical views against the transgender movement.  In other words, for being a "TERF" in the eyes of the attacker.  She is left with a permanent disability in her shoulder, losing the ability to lift her arm above her head.<ref name=reduxx-melbourne-attack/>
+The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, provided a detailed account of the incident and evidence of her injuries to the feminist news outlet Reduxx.  She is quoted as follows, retelling the events leading up to the assault:
+<blockquote>
+“I was walking away, talking to a friend when I noticed one male walking beside the group but in the opposite direction to the rest of us.  As he passed me he shoulder-barged me hard, and I stopped to address him.
+“He just looked like a metal head with lipstick on, and I had never seen him before in my life.
+“I said something very close to, ‘Is there a problem here?  Do you and I need to have a conversation?’  He started denying and gaslighting.  He claimed it was an accident and one of his friends backed him up.  It was clearly no accident so I replied, ‘No, he just shoulder-barged me as hard as he could.’
+“I heard a few murmurs of ‘He?’ Like people were offended at my choice of pronoun.  I stood facing him for another [few seconds] waiting to see if he was going to kick off, but he seemed to have nothing to say so I turned and walked away.”
+</blockquote>
+While turned away, the woman was forcefully attacked from behind by the male person, taking a heavy blow to her arm as she hit the ground:
+<blockquote>
+“I was wearing a heavy studded leather jacket so I went down hard and fast.  I put my left arm out to break the fall with anything other than my head and the impact reverberated all up my arm, shattering my shoulder and breaking my arm at the joint.”
+</blockquote>
+The woman was later able to identify the attacker, Sarah Cadzow, through an indirect relation to the members of her punk rock band.  The assailant had presumably stalked her through social media and became hateful after seeing her views critical of the transgender movement.  On January 25, 2023, Cadzow was charged with assault and scheduled for a court hearing in April.
+<blockquote>
+“It’s getting very scary to be a woman speaking up about women’s rights these days.  This kind of violence is going way, way too far and it has to stop before something even worse happens.”
+</blockquote>
 === Murderer recently released from prison threatens "TERFs" ===
@@ Line 236: / Line 272: @@
 Another social media account openly claiming to be him used the display name "HuntingTERFs", and another one used the name "KillingTime1235" while trying to impersonate Reduxx editor Anna Slatz.
+=== Trans activist charged with assault after spitting at women ===
+On December 14, 2022, trans activists at Edinburgh University prevented the screening of a documentary titled "Adult Human Female," which explains the issues feminists have with the transgender movement.<ref name=reduxx-edinburgh-ahf/>
+One of the activists, 35 year-old Robyn Woof, went viral on social media after being caught on camera.  He's seen loudly berating the women who came to watch the documentary, physically preventing them from entering the room where the screening was going to take place.  One picture appears to show him spitting at the women.
+On February 9, 2023, the feminist group Wings Over Scotland shared a statement from Scotland Police, informing them that a "35 year-old woman" had been charged with assault in relation to the incident.
+=== Trans activist arrested after attacking feminist protester ===
+On January 15, 2023, feminist activist Florence Waller attended a Let Women Speak event organized by [[Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull]] (aka Posie Parker).  While leaving the event, she was attacked by a trans activist, who reportedly pushed her to the ground and stole her hand-made banner showcasing slogans in support of women's free speech and single-sex spaces.<ref name=reduxx-waller/>
+Waller was not injured, and pursued the attacker, cornering him as a police officer arrived.  She later pressed charges against the attacker, and her banner was retrieved by another woman.
+<blockquote>
+“I went to the event to highlight the importance of same-sex care for vulnerable elderly women as I am myself a carer, and I have no doubt that this individual has absolutely no concern about anything … I wonder if he had even seen the very simple message on my banner as it was rolled up under my arm.” -- Waller reporting to Reduxx
+</blockquote>
+{{clear}}
 == Analysis of the term ==
@@ Line 766: / Line 822: @@
 |date=July 4, 2022
 |website=Schwulissimo
+}}
+</ref>
+<ref name=reduxx-melbourne-attack>
+{{cite web
+|url=https://reduxx.info/exclusive-australian-woman-left-disabled-following-attack-by-trans-activist/
+|title=EXCLUSIVE: Australian Woman Left Disabled Following Attack By Trans Activist
+|date=February 20, 2023
+|author=Anna Slatz
+|website=Reduxx
 }}
 </ref>
@@ Line 785: / Line 851: @@
 |date=November 11, 2022
 |author=Genevieve Gluck
+|website=Reduxx
+}}
+</ref>
+<ref name=reduxx-edinburgh-ahf>
+{{cite web
+|url=https://reduxx.info/uk-trans-activist-charged-with-assault-after-spitting-on-woman-at-edinburgh-university/
+|title=UK: Trans Activist Charged With Assault After Spitting On Woman At Edinburgh University
+|date=February 10, 2023
+|author=Shay Woulahan
+|website=Reduxx
+}}
+</ref>
+<ref name=reduxx-waller>
+{{cite web
+|url=https://reduxx.info/uk-trans-activist-arrested-after-assaulting-woman-at-a-free-speech-event/
+|title=UK: Trans Activist Arrested after Assaulting Woman at a Free Speech Event
+|date=January 16, 2023
+|author=Shay Woulahan
 |website=Reduxx
 }}