The terrifying confluence of anti-trans thinkers, American evangelicals, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists and global purveyors of dark money poses a much bigger threat than you might realize.
One need not weep for the original-flavour TERFs, whose intentions towards trans women, in particular, were always genocidal; Raymond, explicitly, said that her goal was for trans people to no longer exist. Yet, in 1979, that hatred was much less potent than it is today. TERFism was one pocket of a relatively powerless movement which did not have the reach nor backing of the broader right wing. Yet, as a pre-existing hate group “on the left,” TERFs were incredibly easy for fascists to infiltrate and absorb.
A 2020 article from Radix Journal, a far-right publication founded by the neo-Nazi Richard Spencer, lays out a strategy for doing just that. In the article, entitled “The TERF to Dissident Right Pipeline,” author Kat S. notes that TERFs’ insistence on “biological sex” as an immutable binary—all “men” depraved and violent, all “women” fragile victims—may make it easier to convince them of other biological hierarchies. Their insistence on seeing trans women as “violent men,” in particular, can be weaponized against men of colour and turned into overt white supremacy. “It doesn’t take any thinking woman long to see exactly which men are committing violent crime and the majority of partner violence, and race realism is a natural next step.”
Ultimately, the article reasons, it should be easy to convince TERFs that supporting the rights of “biological women” means rejecting “the mid-to-late 20th century Jewish-led feminist theory,” particularly the “corporate slavery” of work outside the home, in favour of accepting their biologically ordained role as wives and mothers. “A pro family, pro natalist movement requires some degree of female participation,” Kat S. writes, “and reframing the patriarchy paradigm is essential.” Ultimately, TERFs must be led to see patriarchy as “a system where men’s urges and strengths are allowed to flourish and channeled into healthy outlets, and women are protected and respected for their material reality and the gifts our unique biology affords.”
It’s a grim irony that, by insisting on a “feminism” without any trans women in it, TERFs have wound up constructing the tool by which fascists aim to destroy feminism altogether.
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