TERF - Trans Excluding/Erasing/Exterminating/Eradicating* Radical Feminist:
Someone who believes that trans women are not women and don’t belong in women’s spaces. They believe that trans women are predatory cis men pretending to be women in order to have sex with lesbians.
*The true meaning of the “E” has been debated, but in the grand scheme of things, whichever one you choose, they’re all bad.
Excluding: TERFs attempt to exclude trans folk (especially trans women) from participating in feminist and LGBQ spaces, both physically and online. They attempt to prevent trans folk from accessing community, needed resources and care.
Erasing: TERFS attempt to rewrite history, and reframe it excluding the contributions of trans folk (especially trans women of color) As well, terfs attempt to gaslight and convince trans men that they are not actually trans / suffering from internaligised misogyny.
Exterminating / Eradicating: TERFs will resort to violence and death to pursue their ideologies. Also included are withholding needed support to cause harm and death to trans folk, not just physical murder.
SWERF - Sex Worker Excluding/Erasing/Exterminating/Eradicating* Radical Feminist:
Someone who believes that sex workers (those who make money from pornography or prostitution) are not feminist / not valuable / should not be welcome in feminist / women’s spaces. They believe that women participating in pornography or prostitution are upholding patriarchy and damaging the feminist movement. SWERFs believe that women who perform sex work are never their of their own volition, are always being exploited and must be rescued from from any and all sex work. Sex work should be outlawed completely.
EDIT: Also includes discrimination against performance sex workers like strippers / pole dancers, etc.
Truscum aka transmedicalists:
Someone who believes that you must experience body dysphoria in order to be trans. They also tend to be attached to the gender binary and erase or exclude anyone who does not conform to a male / female gender identity (genderfluid, non-binary, agender, bi-gender, etc)
Someone who believes that ace-spectrum people are not inherently LGBTQ+ and do not belong in LGBTQ+ spaces. They see ace people as secretly cis/straight invaders and leeches to LGBTQ+ programs and resources. They also tend to believe that the definition of LGBTQ+ centres around those who experience discrimination for same-sex attraction, and therefore ace folk do not belong.
Trans women are women.
Sex workers can be free and feminist.
Non-medical trans people are trans.
Ace people are LGBTQPIA+.
Know why we do not welcome those people.
Someone who believes that bisexual/romantic and pansexual/romantic people do not belong in the LGBTQIA+ community due to experiencing heterosexual attraction as well as other attractions. They can “pass” as straight and are therefore not oppressed. Bi and Pan Exclusionists also see Bi/Pan people as “fakers” or “confused” and either gay people suffering from internalized homophobia or straight people trying to claim oppression where none exists.
JERF: Jewish Excluding/Erasing Radical Feminist
Someone who does not include Jews, or erases Jews, from their activism. Thinks Jews are privileged, that they whine, are white, etc.
JEA: Jewish Exclusionary/Erasing Activism
Activism, like from the Women’s March or Chicago’s D*ke March, that excludes Jews, or erases their oppression, or even existence.
Just another distinction: TERF means Trans Exclusionary Radical FEMINIST. It means that their arguments are couched in Feminist rhetoric. They argue that trans women are not really women, that they are a threat to (cis) women, invading their spaces, stealing their resources. They argue that there is something exclusive to being a cis woman that trans women do not experience.
ETC
Sometimes, people use “TERF” and “transphobe” interchangeably, which is incorrect. For example, Trump banning trans people from the military is not TERFy, it is transphobic, because Trump is not a feminist, and he did not use feminist (”pro cis women”) arguments to reject trans people.
There’s quite a bit more to TERFs so I’ll just outline a few more things about them;
A) TERFs have been, and continue to be, the cause of death of many trans individuals. TERFs will dox trans women, harass them, and try and get them fired from their jobs. They have and will attack trans women, verbally and physically. So there is a real danger to these people that goes beyond the internet.
B) TERFs also hate and bully trans men. For trans men, they believe that they are women with internalized misogyny. They often accuse the transgender community of “stealing” their “butch lesbians.” If a trans man is gay, then he’s a “straight woman invading gay men’s spaces” or some such nonsense.
C) TERFs will often manipulate the stores of de-transitioned people in order to make it appear as if all trans people de-transition at some point in their life. They also use these narratives to push the idea that being transgender is a mental illness. However, upon further analysis, most of these stories turn out to be exaggerations or falsehoods. Current studies estimate the number of de-transitioners to be in the ballpark of less than 2%. So we can conclude that it is fairly uncommon, and usually situational.
D) TERFs are responsible for some anti-trans legislation, and many TERFs are professors at well respected institutions. Do not underestimate them as keyboard warriors. These are real, dangerous people spreading violent ideology against trans people.
E) Finally, TERF is not a slur. The term TERF was actually invented by radical feminists who wished to separate themselves from those who were transphobic. However, to avoid the term, which now has a negative connotation, they will call themselves; gender critical feminists, radfems, radical feminists, cisgender trans women (an oxymoron) and a variety of other bullshit terms. Anytime you see this symbol, be wary;
This is a symbol of TERFs. So if you see it on someone’s blog, used as a header, etc, they’re most likely a TERF. They also thoroughly enjoy using URLs that have something to do with the reproductive system, for some reason. Like “proud-uterus-womyn123″ or whatever.
(cis men are often just transphobes and not affiliated with transphobic radical feminism. there are some cis male TERFs, but female TERFS are better-organized and more widely spread.)
(transpeople by christopher a. shelley isn’t 100% solid, but there’s a good section on TERFs. highly recommended.)
they’re hostile and incredibly dangerous to both trans men and women, though: they do believe that trans women are cis men trying to sleep with lesbians, and focus on trans women as harassment targets, but also (to a lesser degree) will harass trans men under the guise of “helpfulness”, patronizingly imploring them to “accept their lesbianism” and stop “pretending to be men.” we all know that false benevolence to hide terrible views is bullshit. don’t believe them when they say they’re trying to help.
they’re… like nazis, in that they’re beyond reasoning with and that even allowing discussion of their “ideologies” allows for hate speech to spread. save a trans person some pain! block, blocklist, and ignore a TERF today!
“dysphoria,” in truscum mindset means “solely physical dysphoria” - with regards to one’s body, oft including genitals.
dysphoria can actually be more than physical! social dysphoria is a big thing, and it’s likely what clues most “non-dysphoric” trans people into the fact that they’re trans. (that and gender euphoria when presenting/gendered correctly).
LOTS of non-binary people, and a fair amount of binary trans people, don’t medically transition.
trans-related resources aren’t super limited and further limited by nonbinary/non-dysphoric use, they’re fucking governmentally gatekept and impacted by shitty, slow, expensive, and invasive medical systems. regulations, incl. “gender therapy” (which is itself shitty and gatekeeping) and mandatory amount of time spent presenting as your “preferred gender”, etc., make transitioning harder to access, and that’s because of the government, not other trans folks. anyone who manages to get through all the bureaucratic nonsense that comes with transitioning has fucking earned it - but we shouldn’t have to. and truscum (or at least some of them) want to keep these barriers up, or make them harder to get through.
as mentioned by prev. commenter.
personally, i think some of this stems from internalized transphobia. but that still doesn’t make it fucking justifiable.
pal, social transition works wonders too. and some people can “pass” without hormones. some people CAN’T go on hormones for medical or financial reasons. none of that justifies being an exclusionist asshole.
some people DO identify as trans and then stop doing so, or change their labels. identity is fluid. let people experiment and don’t be a jerk.
but they run in insulated circles online so, for the sake of your own safety, hit that block button and caution any trans people you know that might be following them.
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