What is a ‘terf’? Where did that word come from, and is it a good word or a bad word?

After publishing my previous blog titled ‘No wonder they don’t want terfs to gather’, I got an email asking what a terf was. I was happy to explain, of course. Then I thought perhaps I could expand on that explanation here a little for others, who are possibly also a bit mystified about the word ‘terf’. I have no doubt that least some of what I write will be considered debatable, but here I go, anyway.

Technically, ‘terf’ is an acronym for the term Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. Transactivists and their devotees use it as a slur against (mainly) women who don’t believe men can become women. Women who don’t believe men can become women have flipped the finger at transactivists, and owned it. Or, should I say, re-owned it.

As far as I can ascertain, the term ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’ arose in the 1970’s as a fairly neutral descriptor in feminist philosophy/theory for those women who didn’t believe that men who say they’re women are actually women. In contrast, there were women (like today) who believed that those men should be included in feminism. However, the word ‘radical’ in the above term is a somewhat contested word, as it has more than one meaning, or way to use it.

For the purposes of how it is used in the term ‘Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist’, the contest likely seems to be whether it was used as meaning the root, origin, or source; or meaning extreme. My money is on ‘radical’ more likely to have been used by 1970’s feminist philosophers/theorists in the meaning of the root, origin, or source, rather than extreme.

Since then, though, the word ‘radical’ has, in general, become more commonly used as meaning ‘extreme’, when used in political contexts. That word may be why some women don’t like being called a ‘terf’. Many women don’t consider themselves to be at all extreme, or radical, just because they don’t believe men can become women. Nor do they consider it extreme to protect the rights women fought long and hard for.

We see far more extreme behaviour from transactivists, than we do from terfs. Besides the objection by some women to being described as radical, the venom and all-too-often visible desire for violence with which ‘terf’ is used by unhinged transactivists can’t be denied.

Despite this, as far as slurs go, it has still lost much of its mojo.

Around 2008, the word ‘terf’ got resurrected and started being used online in a less-than-flattering way. Just as transactivists were thinking they had the perfect slur to denigrate and upset us, many women, myself included, turned around and began owning it. I realise there are mixed feelings about this, though. For myself, however, I don’t give a flying fig what transactivists call me or think of me – that ship sailed long ago. I’m happy to own the word. To me, ‘radical’ as used in the acronym which terf is derived from simply means ‘real’.

For the record, although I own ‘terf’, I’ve ditched calling myself a feminist for the most part. That description gets bastardised too much, so these days I mostly refer to myself as a women’s rights advocate. If that doesn’t seem to make sense on the surface, compared to the nonsense transactivists come up with it’s almost mathematical in its logic.

To finish, I’ll quote an excerpt from the reply I sent to the “what is a terf?” question –

“Whatever issues men who say they're women have, they're problems to be solved away from women's spaces and not intrude on the rights we fought hard for. Their problems must be solved in a different way, and finding that solution is not a burden that women should be expected to bear.”