Really hoping this doesn’t come off the wrong way but I wanted to talk about how TERF ideology hurts cis women as well (obv trans people are hurt the most).
So I am not a person who can get pregnant. I was born female and have remained so (though my gender id is a bit complicated now). I see a lot of pushback for TERFs and TERF aligned folks when terms like “people who are pregnant” or “people with uteruses” are used in lieu of women.
Sometimes it’s disguised as a positive. Like how “women are so amazing because they carry the gift of life!” And while that phrase may not be malicious in itself, it is really fucking tiring to see over and over.
Now, I don’t really want kids, never did. But after I went through intensive chemotherapy at 20, that option was sufficiently taken from me. Now on a personal note, knowing that I didn’t want to be pregnant anyway, it wasn’t a huge hit at the time. But lately I’ve seen more and more rhetoric that intrinsically ties womanhood to pregnancy. And I noticed I have been feeling like I am deficient in some way, which I know not to be true. But that’s the thing about seeing this shit everywhere—what’s in my head and what is said to me no longer add up.
TL,DR: Not all people who can get pregnant are women. Not all women can get pregnant.
Please do try to remember that.