JKR’s Claims Part 3: TERF — Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist
Recently JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter, tweeted some transphobic statements and dogwhistles on Twitter that I have addressed here. After a few days silence she wrote a lengthy post trying to justify her position on her website. This is part 3 of my series addressing the claims in her piece. You can see the full thing here.
The term TERF was coined by cis (cis means not trans) Radical Feminist Viv Smythe as a way of distinguishing trans antagonistic Radical Feminists from all the rest. As a term it definitely has gained a life of its own and is often used to describe people who aren’t even feminists, it is often just used as a synonym for transphobe (which is why I personally use “Gender Critical” or “GC” as a descriptor as that is how they describe themselves, and it doesn’t create the illusion that theirs is a feminist position).
There are two relevant quotes to address here:
‘They’ll call us transphobic!’ ‘They’ll say I hate trans people!’ What next, they’ll say you’ve got fleas?
Being called a TERF, or transphobic, isn’t an insult. It’s not a bullying tactic. It’s not the same as saying someone has fleas. It’s a description of someone whose views come from a place of irrational prejudice of trans people. Just how when we are discussing gay rights, women’s rights or the rights of people of colour, pointing out homophobia, misogyny or racism is the first step towards a rational discussion, calling out irrational prejudice of trans people is the first step here. There is no denying that all of these accusations are sometimes overused or mistargetted, but that isn’t an excuse to instantly shrug them off every single time they are pointed out. How can we discuss an issue that is undeniably, demonstrably surrounded by irrational prejudice if we aren’t even allowed to call that out for what it is? We have all seen racists say “they call everything racist these days” and sexists saying “they call everything sexist these days” etc, as an attempt to avoid engaging with the accusations, and this is no different. In my experience, every single accusation of transphobia that I make, no matter how egregious or blatant, will be met with “you call everything transphobia these days”.
You cannot address oppression if you cannot name your oppressor.
Ironically, radical feminists aren’t even trans-exclusionary — they include trans men in their feminism, because they were born women.
I am amazed that anyone tries this weak linguistic trick. The “trans exclusionary” part doesn’t mean you think that all trans people aren’t women, it clearly means that you think trans women aren’t women. That you exclude them and their real life experiences of misogynistic sexism from your radical feminist analysis. That you want to exclude them from having the legal rights they have today. No trans men out there are thinking “well that’s ok then if you include me as a woman”. But not only that, it’s also not true in practice. GC people like to pretend that trans men are “just confused women” (worth noting the sexist dichotomy of this compared to how trans women are all “predatory men”), but when faced with what trans men really are, they want to exclude them too.
Full post | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10