TERF: Difference between revisions

A closely associated term is ''SWERF'', which is supposed to stand for ''Sex-Worker-Exclusionary Radical Feminist'' and is used for those who see the sex industry (prostitution, pornography, etc.) as highly exploitative and sexist.  Like ''TERF'', the term is almost always applied as a slur, and to misrepresent the political position of the person it's used against.  Ironically, some of those who have to face the term most commonly are women who worked in prostitution and became anti-prostitution activists as a result of their own experiences as so-called sex workers.

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 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.

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.

In June 2017, transgender activist [[Wikipedia:Mya Byrne|Mya Byrne]] came to the San Francisco Pride Parade with a t-shirt reading "I PUNCH TERFS", decorated with a large fake blood-stain.  Byrne uploaded a selfie of him wearing the t-shirt at the parade, captioned "This is what gay liberation looks like #pride #yesallterfs" which sparked many negative reactions.<ref name=fc-tra-violence/>  The t-shirt would later be displayed at an "art exhibit" at the San Francisco Public Library, set up by the trans activist group ''The Degenderettes''.  After complaints, the library removed the t-shirt from the exhibition, though similar items showcasing a violent mentality remained, such as baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire and painted in the colors of the transgender pride flag.<ref name=fc-tra-violence/>

In April 2019, professional video gamer [[Wikipedia:SonicFox|Dominique McLean]] aka "SonicFox" uploaded a video on Twitter, captioned "what I do to terfs," in which a male video game character strikes a female character's neck so hard that her skin comes off, while the camera shows her agony-filled face.  McLean can be heard yelling "terf!" into his microphone with each blow dealt to the female character, reminiscent of a lynching.<ref name=sonicfox/>  The tweet garnered hundreds of thousands of views, and many thousands of retweets and likes.

After McLean's tweet was reported for hate speech, Twitter initially decided that it [[:File:Sonicfox2.png|did not break their rules]].  Only after continued protest and many more reports did Twitter react, by removing the tweet and issuing SonicFox a mere 24-hour ban.

In late 2019, a social media trend dubbed "POV you're a TERF in my mentions" started, in which trans activists would pose with a weapon (baseball bat, sword, machete, or the like), sometimes preparing to strike or showing them mid-strike, taken as a [[Wikipedia:Point-of-view shot|point-of-view (POV) shot]] and captioned with the phrase "POV you're a TERF in my mentions" or variations thereof.<ref name=pov-terf/>  The pictures are supposed to represent the point-of-view (POV) of a "TERF" being assaulted by the depicted person.  In other words, women called "TERF" who look at the pictures are supposed to imagine themselves being violently assaulted.

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

In February 2017, the newly opened Vancouver Women's Library was met with a small group of vandals, including a very obviously male person who claimed to be a female sex worker.  They ripped off a poster, poured wine on a book, and harassed those trying to partake in the opening celebration.  Their stated reason was that the library included books which they deemed to support so-called "TERF" and "SWERF" ideology.<ref name=vwl/>

In September 2017, Maria MacLachlan was physically [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_d3ozhSE-U assaulted] by a transgender activist.  A group of feminists wanted to hold a meeting to discuss proposed changes to the [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/09/14/never-mind-reforming-gender-recognition-act-theres-no-need-gender-recognition-certificates/ Gender Recognition Act] (GRA) in the [https://newxlearning.org/ New Cross Learning] community Library in London.  The library had to cancel the event after harassment by transgender activists.  The organizers of the meeting decided to meet at Speakers' Corner, before going to the newly chosen meeting place, which was not announced to protect it from harassment.  At Speakers' Corner, they were met with a group of transgender activists shouting slogans, notably "when TERFs attack, we fight back."  Maria MacLachlan, who was filming the protesters with her digital camera, was attacked by someone running out of the trans activist group, who then tried to grab her camera.  As the unsuccessful attacker ran back behind his friends, MacLachlan tried to get closer to the group to get his face on camera.  Several of the activists started assaulting her in that moment.  One of the attackers, later revealed to be Tara Wolf, was ultimately charged with assault by beating.  Prior to the event, he had posted that he wants to "f*ck up some terfs" on social media.  The event could be considered a cornerstone in the escalating hatred transgender activists show against feminists, as no such clearly documented assault in relation to the slur "TERF" existed before, and the event gained widespread attention in the news, being covered by The Guardian,<ref name=guardian/> The New Statesman,<ref name=statesman1/><ref name=statesman2/> The Telegraph,<ref name=telegraph/> The Times,<ref name=times1/><ref name=times2/> The Evening Standard,<ref name=standard/> and The Daily Mail.<ref name=dailymail/>  Of course, it was also covered by Feminist Current.<ref name=fc1/><ref name=fc2/>  In the aftermath of the event, many transgender activists online defended or even celebrated the assault, leading Meghan Murphy to publish the piece [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2017/09/21/terf-isnt-slur-hate-speech/ '' 'TERF' isn't just a slur, it's hate speech''].  Some publications in support of transgender activists have tried to claim that the assailant was really acting in self-defense, and tried to prove this claim by uploading carefully edited cuts of the recording showing the assault,<ref name=planettrans/> or by framing the assault as "standing up to bullies" who "provoke" transgender activists (by having opinions they don't like, we have to presume).<ref name=queerness/>

In December 2018, human rights lawyer Prof. [[Rosa Freedman]] found her office door covered in urine after attending debates surrounding proposed changes to the UK's Gender Recognition Act.  She also reported being called a "Nazi" (she is Jewish) who "should be raped" (she is a survivor of sexual violence) and receiving abusive anonymous phone calls.<ref name=freedman/>

In 2018, transgender activist Dana Rivers was on trial for triple murder.<ref name=rivers/>  The victims were a lesbian couple and their adoptive son.  Rivers stabbed and shot the victims, before trying to set their house on fire, in November 2016.  It remains unclear whether Rivers was motivated by the hatred against feminists and lesbians promulgated by transgender activists.  Rivers was, however, a member of the group [[Wikipedia:Camp Trans|Camp Trans]], which was created to protest the women-only rule of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (aka MichFest).<ref name=camptrans/>  Autostraddle described Rivers as a "very well-known transgender activist."<ref name=autostraddle/>

In June 2019, [[Julie Bindel]] was physically attacked by a trans-identifying male person after holding a keynote speech about male violence against women at the Edinburgh University, together with Prof. Rosa Freedman.<ref name=edinburgh/>  "He was shouting and ranting and raving, 'you're a f***** c***, you're a f****** bitch, a f****** Terf" and the rest of it.  We were trying to walk to the cab to take us to the airport, and then he just lunged at me and almost punched me in the face, but a security guard pulled him away."  The male person, who calls himself "[[Cathy Brennan]]" (after famous lesbian and radical feminist lawyer, whom he despises) had previously stood out on social media for [[:File:Joe-brennan-twitter.jpg|encouraging physical violence]] against feminists at Gay Pride events.

In August 16, 2019, the Facebook account of [[Vancouver Rape Relief and Women's Shelter]] reported that a dead rat had been nailed to their door frame.<ref name=vrr-fb/>  On August 26, their Twitter account followed up by reporting their door and windows were vandalized with phrases such as "FUCK TERFS" and "KILL TERFS" as well as "TRANS POWER".<ref name=vrr-twitter/>  The repeated harassment and vandalism garnered attention in local and national news.<ref name=vrr-vancouverisawesome/><ref name=vrr-nationalreview/><ref name=vrr-citynews/>

== Analysis of the term ==

The original acronym could be split in two halves: "trans-exclusionary" and "radical feminist."  Though many people targeted with the word do not see themselves as radical feminists, their ideals most often tend to align with [[radical feminism]] anyway, making that part somewhat accurate.  The "trans-exclusionary" part however is rather ambiguous, and its meaning seems to change at the whim of the person using the term.

== Gallery ==

<gallery caption="Some examples of tweets using 'terf'" widths=250px heights=125px>

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