TERF: Difference between revisions

1,005 bytes added ,  15 September 2019
→‎Evolution towards hate speech: Add mention of Vice article by Martin Robbins.
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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 [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/07/16/defending-the-terf-gender-as-political/ ''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."  The second, written by Sarah Ditum and titled [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/07/29/how-terf-works/ ''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".  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 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 [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/07/16/defending-the-terf-gender-as-political/ ''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."  The second, written by Sarah Ditum and titled [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2014/07/29/how-terf-works/ ''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".  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 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qUruyYQQ60 Penny White] and titled [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/11/10/why-i-no-longer-hate-terfs/ ''Why I no longer hate 'TERFs'''].  In the article, Penny 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 [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qUruyYQQ60 Penny White] and titled [https://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/11/10/why-i-no-longer-hate-terfs/ ''Why I no longer hate 'TERFs'''].  In the article, Penny 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.
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<references>
<references>
<ref name=vice-robbins>
{{cite web
|url=https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/7bap7y/whats-the-block-blot-martin-robbins-757
|title=I Am Now Officially a Transphobic Twitter Troll
|author=Martin Robbins
|date=August 8, 2014
|website=Vice
}}
</ref>


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<ref name=vrr-citynews>
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{{cite web
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