https://docs.google.com/a/uic.edu/presentation/d/17UO5Zhar-T4G8KdA278-vUEMHJTHPly-NXx-QMPcmF8/edit?usp=sharing
Group 5 members: Michael Amaya, Monique Morris, Bianca Herrera, Lulu Martinez, Harley Galeski, Codi Booth, Jackie Park
History of TERFs: What is a TERF?
Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists, or TERFs, share the idea that women are only defined by their biological characteristics and birth socializing.
Their main argument: trans females have benefitted from male privilege and socialization so they must not be accepted in the same light as a womyn feminist.
A lot of them mostly extend this idea towards excluding them from “womyn only” spaces and others refuse to acknowledge transwomen as a part the women/womyn feminist personal and professional community.
History of TERF: 1st wave feminism
First Wave Feminism: Term used to denote the 19th century and early 20th century movement for women to get the right to vote and have access to birth control . Lasted from the late 1840s until the 1960s.
Major players :Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth,Elizabeth Cady Stanton- 1848 Seneca Falls Convention
Major Issues: Not allowed to vote, had to follow rules without representation, no property rights, men had full control, in custody and divorce battles it favored men, access to education etc.
History of TERF: 1st wave feminism (cont.)
Minorities, Lesbians etc.
Agenda was to not fall below the black man in class and opportunity. Other people’s issues cast aside to help their own personal advancement prosper.
History of TERF: 2nd Wave Feminism
Period between the 1960’s and 1970s where the main issues of the movement were to address sexism and patriarchy, legalize abortion and birth control for all (at one point, birth control was only legal for married women), equal rights in the social and political sphere, and sexual liberation.
At the beginning of the second wave of feminism, still very exclusionary and was focused on the rights of privileged white women. Still not accepting of lesbians until lesbian activists pushed the women’s movement to accept them. Some feminists after the 60s even advocated that women “become” lesbians because all heterosexual sex is rape.
http://www.makers.com/rita-mae-brown
History of TERF and Resistance: 3rd and 4th Wave
Started roughly in the early 1990’s
Is more inclusive of women who aren’t heterosexual and white
Major Players: Rebecca Walker
Queer theory is introduced: “posits that gender and sexuality are fluid categories, and do not easily map onto binary understandings of ‘male’ and ‘female”
Criticism: with a focus on individuals there it is more difficult to achieve “wide-reaching change”
“Contemporary feminism” , starting around 2008
Major focus on intersectionality
Driven by the internet and social media, which have made it easier to challenge sexist and misogynistic behavior/remarks
WoC (women of color), cis, and TERFs became more prevalent terms in social media amongst feminist activism.
TERFs and resistance: Janice Raymond and Sandy Stone
Our Article: The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto,
Written by Sandy Stone as a rebuttal to Janice Raymond’s The Transsexual Empire
Transsexuals can provide a new insight from outside the bi-gender boundary
Criticized the foundation of her arguments by deconstructing the idea of gender as a fixed binary and encourages people to resist the necessity to “pass”
Called passing “aiming to disappear” thus ridding one of the ability to express an authentic experience that only transsexuals have
TERFs and resistance: Janice Raymond and Sandy Stone (cont.)
Our Article: The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttransexual Manifesto,
Pushed for Transsexual as a genre rather than as a “third gender”
Covered a brief history on MtF surgeries
The Transsexual Phenomenon (1966) by Harry Benjamin coined “Being in the Wrong Body” and the book was used by many patients to get affirmation
“Wrong body” (~pre-1980) —> GID (2015) still a requirement
It’s basically a euphemism for the same phallocentric word
An attorney, radical feminist, and well-known TERF
She famously has been against a United Nations policy that would recognize trans identity and help protect trans individuals from discrimination
Has been known to “out” and harass trans women (complaining about them to doctors, attacking them online, contacting their employers and family, etc.). Generally bullying trans women online
She is by all means a hateful speaking person as upon research this photo was the first to come up:
Photo credit: Planet Transgender http://planettransgender.com/sorry-about-your-dick-an-interview-with-cathy-brennan/
TERF and co-founder of Deep Green Resistance, a super militant pro-environment + radical feminist group (200+ members)
Not against the use of violence to achieve group goals
Talked about how female behavior is a “ritualized submission” a result of society forcing them to be “ sexually attractive, nurturing, and deferential”
Says transfemales that demand to be called female have “aggrieved entitlement”
Compares transgender to the concept of transethnicity, says no amount of surgery will change someone’s biological and socialized identity
Current TERFs: Michigan Womyn’s Music Fest
Was a music festival in Hart, Michigan held every August from 1976 to 2015 for women (it was run by and attended by women/womyn)
It’s organizers were radical feminists (Lisa Vogel in particular) who saw that the event should be attended by “womyn born womyn” and assigned female at birth women, yet this isn’t listed anywhere in any literature for the event
Using that framework the organizers were able to defend themselves by saying transgender women “were not outright banned” “ but the womyn-born-womyn framework was for the “benefit of the transsexuals’ safety and the safety of the women attending the festival”
There were a handful of occurrences where trans women were asked to leave the event, like Nancy Burkholder in 1991 “She told that I had I had to leave the festival and that I would not even be allowed to return to my campsite to retrieve my equipment. I realized that Chris and Del were expelling me in spite of all the irrefutable legal and anatomical proof that I was a women. I knew there was nothing more I could say to these women. I resigned myself to the fact that these women were expelling me from the festival.”
Current TERFs: Michigan Womyn’s Music Fest (continued)
Due to a decrease in overall attendance and an inability to book big name bands and performs 2015 was the last year of MWMF
This inability to book performs and keep people interested is due to the bad reputation the festival has because of it’s history with trans exclusionary rules, which has received backlash from several different organizations (Equality Michigan, National LGBTQ Task Force, National Center for Lesbian Rights) and attendees who, unlikely those who started the festival, weren’t transphobic
With people like Lisa Vogel who are unwilling to grow and be more inclusive of transgender women. The festival stagnated and faded away with it’s outdated trans exclusionary ways
Current TERFs: Women’s colleges
Wellesley college allows Transmasculine students to stay; Transfeminine students not accepted
most female-only colleges don’t allow transwomen unless they have gender on documents, but many are changing policies to be more inclusive of transmen.
NYTimes article: Transmasculine centered
Transmen “know what it’s like to be treated as female”, “Wellesley needs to maintain its integrity as a safe space for women”
Arguments are at the heart of TERF logic: Transmen = “born female” = can relate to ciswomen; Transwomen = “born male” = threat to ciswomen via 1. Sexual assault or 2. Infringing on “women’s” (read ciswomen) space
46 women’s colleges as of 2014: 6 have policies surrounding transgender individuals and they vary on their level of inclusivity (from requiring birth certificates to have sex and gender match to allowing anyone who self-identifies as ciswomen, transwomen, intersex, or non-binary)
Current TERFs: Shelters and LGBT petition
65% refused at women’s shelters and 75% at mixed gender
Two of the reasons refused housing:
Employee made reference to genitalia or surgery in order to be accepted to the shelter
Employee made reference to other shelter residents feeling unsafe
Same arguments made by TERFs
Change.org petition to drop the T in LGBT:
The idea that Transfolk (specifically Transwomen) are a threat to LGB people (specifically ciswomen i.e. rape)
The idea that Transpeople (specifically Transwomen) are just trying to infringe upon LGB and women’s spaces
HRC and GLAAD rejected petition (also only 2,815 people signed it; but still unsettling)
Trans activism against TERFs: It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women by Tina Vasquez
TERFs are generally scarce in number, they are outspoken and influential in “legislation and mainstream perceptions of transgender people” (stagnating transgender health care until the 80’s, criticising trans women for using the women’s restroom)
Also in relation to “fourth wave” feminism these TERFs are vocal and aggressive on the internet
There is this transphobic idea that trans women affect the safety or somehow harm cisgender women in certain “women’s spaces”
“It has been said that feminism has failed the transgender community. It’s hard to disagree. Trans women have been weathering a storm of hate and abuse in the name of feminism for decades now and for the most part, cisgender feminists have failed to speak out about it or push against it…Trans women have been saddled with the responsibility of taking on trans-exclusionary feminists for far too long—but it’s not their issue to deal with alone. Cisgender feminists, such as myself, have to make it clear that our feminism loves and supports trans women and that we will fight against transphobia.”
In recent years feminists and queer activists have distanced themselves and argued against TERFS. Leading to more support for trans/gender variant issues and concerns
Trans activism against TERFs: “Why the Feminist Movement Must be Trans inclusive”
Transphobic feminists are a minority; but team up with right-wing conservatives to affect policy
Results in violent and health disparate outcomes for Transpeople (specifically Transwomen)
*Lack of access to shelters
*Excluded from feminist women’s spaces
*Excluded from many women’s colleges
*Need to remove TERFs from the discourse of feminism (hate speech)
*Build communities that celebrate difference not sameness
“We have to recognize trans women as women (and include them in women’s spaces!),recognize trans men as men, and recognize genderqueer and non-binary identifying people as being outside of or in between those categories, defined by their own experiences and expression on the gender spectrum.”
Trans activism that considers TERFs: (source 3)
ways in which knowledge and action are connected.
‘Risk groups’ has no place for transsexual women or transsexual men
asks for some critical reflection on this disjuncture as a way to begin to imagine different models for the production of theory.
Violence against transsexual and transvestite bodies, then, is central to But ler’s feminist theory, as well as to contemporary political activism.
November 21st –Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR)
that—somehow!—forgets entirely to account for the specificity of women’s bodies and women’s lives in explaining the question of violence.
Trans activism against TERFs: “Feminism, a fourth wave?”
Feminism: A Fourth Wave? By Ealasaid Munro looks at the waves of feminism up to the current (and debated) fourth wave, this perspective looks at current intersectional activism
Internet activism is huge in this “fourth wave”, an activism that might not create change (in a political sense), but it starts mainstream conversations
There are pros and cons though, like “privilege checking” which is “reminding someone that they cannot and should not speak for others”, but can be used “means of deflection rather than with any hope of understanding”
The internet and social media have brought on new terms to help educate and tackle big issues.”WoC, cis and TERF are invaluable given the 140-character limit imposed by Twitter, and lend themselves to the practice of hashtagging, an online practice that allows information to be quickly retrieved and linked.” When someone like Cathy Brennan does something transphobic, social media is a way for people to rally together and go against any TERF like behavior
Link to the piece: https://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/feminism-fourth-wave
TERF ideals are largely based on transphobia and are spread into conversations of LGB boundaries, safe spaces, shelter/school admission.
A sort of compromise Sandy Stone has suggested is to steer clear of each group’s spaces.
“It’s your place to stay out of spaces where transgender male-to-female people go. It’s not our job to avoid you.”
Ealasaid, Munro. “Feminism: A Fourth Wave?” - Munro. N.p., 23 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Goldberg, Michelle. “What Is a Woman? - The New Yorker.” The New Yorker. The New Yorker, 4 Aug. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Laura Kacere. “Why the Feminist Movement Must Be Trans-Inclusive.” Everyday Feminism. N.p., 24 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Namaste, Viviane. “Undoing Theory: The “Transgender Question” and the Epistemic Violence of Anglo-American Feminist Theory.” Wiley Online Library. Hypatia, 16 July 2009. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Vasquez, Tina. “It’s Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women | Bitch Media.” Bitch Media. N.p., 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2016.
Ennis, Dawn. “Michfest Womyn and Trans Women Ask ‘Why?’ | Advocate.com."Michfest Womyn and Trans Women Ask 'Why?’ | Advocate.com. 23 Apr. 2015. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
Williams, Cristan. "Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.” The Trans Advocate. The Trans Advocate, 09 Apr. 2013. Web. 06 Mar. 2016.
