I just read your Twitter thread about engaging with TERFs/TERF-lites re: "kink critical" because I've been reading responses to the ask I sent OTNF. I actually read all of the threads you linked to because they're very engaging reads. 😅
I don't have a Twitter so I can't respond there, but I found it really interesting that the way you recommend dealing with TERFs (do not engage, do not try to convince them you're a person, just block them and move on) is also how I've seen anti-fascist experts recommend you deal with fascists/incels/alt-right dweebs on the internet. The similarities between TERF behavior and online fascist behavior is something I find fascinating. You deal with a TERF on Tumblr the same way you deal with an Incel on Reddit because both are predators fueled by hate looking for an easy target. Both groups demand the scapegoating of a more vulnerable group as a cost of membership.
I'd love to know if you have any thoughts on this, and if so, I'd love to read them. Treating TERFs as the indefensible bigots they are seems to be an effective tactic, and I think there's value in insisting on labeling them as extremists. However, I don't know if there's been any research on TERFs like there has on incels and the alt-right. It seems like a deep rabbit hole to go down.
I'm glad you found the threads interesting!
I tend to apply my academic upbringing (philosophy, theology and literature) to most things I talk about, because that's just how I experience the world, but I don't do gender nearly as strictly as I do, say, media analysis/historical revisionism critique, because all my gender/race insights are more from a lived perspective than a "studied/research" perspective.
My thing with TERFs and other extremist/radical niche groups is that I've sort of reached the conclusion they're essentially disconnected micro cells of high control groups, and so I tend to apply moderation methods surrounding high control groups to them. Their message itself is the harmful thing, so minimizing exposure to it is the best way of dealing with it, in my experience. There's value in challenging their ideas when they start showing in people you personally know and have a connection to, because a lot of times, a radicalization pipeline gets derailed because someone close to them pushes back and that sort of jolts people awake, so to speak.
The good news is that there is in fact plenty of ink spilled over the years, regarding TERFs. Third wave feminism does contend a lot with the burn-everything-to-the-ground insights of your average second wave radical feminist, and the clout-chasing idiots who pretend to be that for the sake of internet brownie points and the chance to shit on trans people. The thing about TERFs is that they tend to parrot the talking points but not really talk in nuance about their framework because the framework is rotten and it doesn't really take long for a thinking person to start poking holes in it.
Some resources, top of my head, that I've found incredibly useful in navigating TERFs from a less lived perspective and a more academic one:
The Clayman Conversations about the TERF Industrial Complex.
TERF wars: An Introduction.
Terfism is White Distraction: On BLM, Decolonising the Curriculum, Anti-Gender Attacks and Feminist Transphobia.
Decolonizing Trans/Gender Studies: Teaching Gender, Race and Sexuality in Times of the Rise of the Global Right.
I found the quotes and bibliography of these to be a decent starting point to start digging into the WTFery of TERFs.
Another source I recommend a lot as a starting point is The Alt-Right Playbook video series by Innuendo Studios. The entire series is absolutely amazing at neatly breaking down and explaining exactly how alt-right tactics work, how to recognize them, and in some cases how to not engage with them. It was one of the first things that made me sort of zero in on the wide similarities between seemingly disperse/ideologically opposed groups, because they're all pulling from the reactionary, radicalized playbook and I think it's useful to know how to spot it.
If you can't stomach the whole series, and it's a lot, so that's fair, the one I 100% wish was required viewing before joining any kind of social media or online community is this one:
How to radicalize a normie.
