TERF: Difference between revisions

{{PageSeo | description = TERF is a slur used by transgender activists to debase anyone who criticizes their movement on the basis of feminist concerns.

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[[File:Terf-slur-02.png|thumb|300px|A typical tweet containing "terf"]]

The word ''TERF'' (or ''terf''; pl ''terfs'' or ''terves'') is a slur that is used predominantly by transgender activists and their allies against people who criticize the transgender movement on the basis of feminist concerns.  Since the slur is used for people with feminist concerns, the main target tend to be women.  As such, it's usually understood to be an anti-feminist, sexist and misogynist slur.

The word was invented as an acronym for ''Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist'', where the "trans-exclusionary" part referred to those holding roughly the position that transwomen should not be included under a feminist definition of womanhood, and the "radical feminist" part was meant neutrally, i.e. for people who would indeed describe themselves as [[Radical feminism|radical feminists]] in the true sense.  Over time, the acronym pretty much became a [[Wikipedia:Four-letter word|four-letter word]].  Nowadays the capitalization is frequently omitted, and the already ambiguous original meaning ignored entirely.  Still, users of the term tend to claim that it's a neutral description.  The "trans-exclusionary" part may now refer to anyone who thinks transwomen should not have unfettered access to all female-only spaces (e.g. changing rooms), should not partake in women's sports where they have [[Transwomen in women's sports|unfair advantages]], should not be considered a natural part of the lesbian dating pool, etc.  Although most members of the public would see these as rather sensible positions, considering a "transwoman" may have intact male anatomy, transgender activists nevertheless see all of these types of "exclusion" as unacceptable.

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/>

[[File:Sonicfox.png|thumb|right|300px|Dominique McLean's tweet glorifying violence against women.]]

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.

 

McLean's tweet is made even worse by the fact that the hatred is not just directed at an imagined "terf" character, but at the voice actress behind the character, [[Wikipedia:Ronda Rousey|Ronda Rousey]]. Rousey, who is an MMA (mixed martial arts) fighter, is deemed a "TERF" for having stated, with blunt wording, that it's unfair for male MMA fighter [[Transwomen in women's sports#Fallon_Fox|Fallon Fox]] to compete against women.<ref name=rousey-fox/><ref name=rousey-marysue/><ref name=rousey-reddit/>  A year after Rousey's remarks, female MMA fighter Tamikka Brents had suffered a concussion and an orbital bone fracture during a fight with Fallon Fox,<ref name=fallon-fox/> but this does not seem to have changed the opinion of trans activists.

 

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.

 

In May 2020, a blog post was published on Medium.com equating so-called TERFs with Nazis in a credible-sounding tone and explaining how various methods such as infiltration, censorship, property damage, and physical violence should be used against them.<ref name=medium-izaguirre/> The account posting the article was suspended from Medium.com on the same day and the content re-uploaded on WordPress soon after.<ref name=wp-izaguirre/>

 

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, 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.  In 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 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/>

 

 

 

 

 

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.

[[File:Theterfs-logo.png|thumb|right|300px|Actual logo of TheTERFs.com: Evil black scribbles]]

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