I'm a 'Truth Enlightened Radical Feminist', sticking with the F-word that I have been fighting for against misogynists of all stripes (and both sexes) for many decades now. The bastards are NOT getting my/our word!
Hi Katrina, Yes to all of this, and I'm just adding a little context from the other side of the world based on my memory:
Having come of age in California in the 70s, and having studied women's studies in college there, I can attest to TERF being used, there at least, as a neutral descriptor of a type of radical feminist, with radical (at the root, or root cause) used to differentiate from liberal feminists. Liberals just wanted equal rights. Radicals saw the root problem as entrenched, institutionalized patriarchy that was not going to go away simply by giving women equal pay and men doing more dishes and childcare.
As "transwomen" arrived in our all-women and all-lesbian spaces, and they did, the question became, Do we for whom these spaces were designed accept them there, or not? insisted on excluding men - and transsexuals, as they were then called, were men - were TERFS.
How did the transsexuals see us? They were angry, some of them. They were insistent - though there were far fewer of them, and never violent in my circles.
When they took the word TERF and threw it as us later, they were weaponizing our word. Reclaiming it is simply taking our descriptive term back.
Great to have a dissenting voice in the comments - all too often I feel that Substack algorithms mean I’m reading in an echo chamber.
On the one hand, I agree with you that name-calling and making derogatory comments about Trans people is childish and does no one any favours. I agree with you that Trans people should be free to live their lives and go about their business free from persecution, providing they are not causing harm to others.
On the other hand, I have many concerns about Genderism and it’s effects on society.
I am disturbed by the overall 4000% increase in referrals of children and young people to the (soon to be closed) GIDS centre at the Tavistock clinic in the UK between 2014 and (I think) 2022 and the 7000% increase in girls being referred.
I am disturbed by children and young people being set on a lifelong medical pathway when they are too young to consent to what is basically still experimental treatment with puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and significant surgical interventions. Such “gender affirming therapy” can lead to sterility, anorgasmia, and bone weakness. There are also likely to be significant effects on cognitive and emotional development from blocking puberty but we currently don’t know because the necessary scientific studies haven’t been done. Hence the term “experimental”.
I am disturbed by the glamorisation of young women who have undergone bilateral breast amputation and the effect such glamorisation may have on impressionable adolescent girls.
I am disturbed by the presence of males in spaces where women (meaning biological females) are vulnerable to abuse, such as prisons, rape crisis shelters, and changing rooms.
I am disturbed by the negation of well established biological science, where school children are taught that “sex is a spectrum”, when it is most definitely a binary.
I am disturbed by the policing of language (including demands for other people to use pronouns that don’t square with their perceptions) and attacks on the freedom to express political views such as “sex is real”.
I am disturbed by the video footage of mask-wearing protesters (many of whom are obviously males) screaming at and threatening groups of women who wish to publicly express the issues I am outlining here.
I am disturbed by the effects of substituting “gender identity” for natal sex on data collection for medical research and criminal justice purposes.
I am disturbed by reports of the excommunication of detransitioners from the trans community and even the denial of their very existence.
Unlike you, I don’t believe that a reported increased violence against trans people is likely to have been caused by the actions of terfs. I believe that, if such reports are true, the increase in violence is more likely to be motivated by the bullying behaviour and ever increasing demands of transactivists and their allies.
In WEIRD societies (Western, educated , industrialised, rich, and democratic) it is the fate of those who live long enough to develop wisdom to be ignored or dismissed by younger generations. This is especially true for older women.
Yes, he was only a bit snarky, and not overly abusive, so I consider that his comment is good to stay. He amuses me, though, with his inference that younger people are morally superior to older people by valuing personality and character over 'gender' - and then makes ageist and sexist remarks about older women - lol!
PS I "am skeptical about "Terf" being used, even in California, in the 1970's as a "neutral descriptor" to distinguish radical feminists from liberal feminists. The words " radical feminist" and liberal feminist" are sufficient to make that difference. A radical feminist wants to change the structure of society away from a patriarchal to a woman- centred one. A liberal feminist wants to adapt to the current patriarchal structure, and reform it so that women have "equality" within it. The term "terf' was not required to distinguish between these two very different political approaches.
There are historical accounts that the term "terf" was created in reference to arguments about whether to welcome males to the Michigan Women's Music Festival and other related events or institutions. I think that there was also a debate about a women's record company, Olivia, which had a transwoman working for it. It makes much more sense that the term "terf"would have been invented by the opponents of the "terfs". The opponents were criticising the "terfs" for not encouraging trans identified males to attend the women's music festival ( even though quite a few TIM's actually did attend ).
I did not hear the term "terf" used in Australia, New Zealand or the UK in the 1970s or early 80's, although I knew some women who attended the Michigan Women's Music Festival. If the term had been used as early as the 1970's in the USA, and if some universities were saying that this term was "neutral', it could still have been been originally invented by opponents. Once the term started circulating, whether before or after it got into the universities, some of the radical feminists may have started to adopt the term for themselves. It's possible that the universities made a mistake and incorrectly promoted the idea that this was a term created in the first place by the real radical feminists themselves, when in fact it wasn't.
The term "Terf" may have had a more neutral vibe back then, compared to the extremely hostile vibe with which the term is associated nowadays : both the hostility and threats of violence directed towards "terfs" and the projection onto the "terfs" of all manner of bigotry. Back then the debate may have been less toxic but not doubt there was still much heated opposition and distortion of actual radical feminism.
Radical Feminists have never promoted excluding males from all aspects of human society. There were and still are, separatists, who believe that women should separate from men and create their own societies. Separatism is not the same philosophy as Radical Feminism. .
Vivian Smythe, who is credited with first using the term "terf" on the internet in 1988, ( see the linked Guardian article in my other comment) herself says that although she used the term "TERF" she thought that a better term might be TES ( Trans Excluding Separatist) as this is what she was really criticising. The thing is- she was *Opposing* the TERFs or TES's whatever they were called. In any case Separatists do not say that males should be excluded from all of human society; just kept out of women's societies, which they hope most women will join.
The term “TERF” is now used derogatorily , so I would never use it . The point is that trans” women” are not women , have never been women and will never be women, and appropriating that word is a big lie. They lie not just to appropriate the word but to cheat women out of as much as they possibly can . The activists go as far in their lies as to violently attack women . How any women can go along with the lying is beyond belief.
Oops typo, Vivian Smythe used the term in 2008, not 1988. Maria Burton Nelson, I appreciate what you say, and you may be right of course. You were in the USA where this was happening. I felt need to express a different perspective on it.
The term "terf" wasn't ever neutral. The first recorded use of the term online is by a woman who is opposed to the views of 'terfs", Viv Smythe in 2008. Writing about the Michigan Women's Music Festival, Smythe considered herself to be within the broad category of "radical feminists ". She was opposed to radical feminists who she said were excluding transwomen from the women's music festival. ( In practice, as far as I know, they could attend as long as they didn't declare themselves as such). So it's not just a neutral term within the radical feminist movement. Right from the start, it was a term used by opponents of the women who were so labelled. It was a term used *against* women who questioned males being in a women's music festival. The term, especially as used in the last 20 years or so, is false and misleading, as it implies that "terfs" want to exclude trans identified men from all human rights and from all social and democratic institutions- which is simply untrue.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/29/im-credited-with-having-coined-the-acronym-terf-heres-how-it-happened
I guess I can see how using a stupid stunt very common these days in the US of claiming you have been labeled in a disrespectful way by people you disagree might be your way to discredit those people. That's if you think discrediting is a smart thing to do. The good thing about it, Ms Biggs is it kind of diverts attention from the real issue, doesn't it? The one about hounding a group of people you clearly have never met and don't have the slightest empathy or understanding of.
But the real problem for you Ms Biggs, and your warriors, is that no one other than your little circle will know or care about whatever that name is. It seems like your team are mostly aging women. Meaning that sadly your whole campaign is going to become increasingly irrelevant as the years go by and you all fade away. Because the younger generation live in a totally different world to you. One where race and gender is unimportant - they form their friendships based on more meaningful things, like a person's personality and character. And I don't get the feeling that trans people are likely to see your material and immediately decide to change their lives. Your ladies can have all the cake stalls and fairs to raise money for your cause that you like, and do lots of protesting. But trans people just aren't going to go away Ms Biggs. It's just not going to happen.
Trans people are not going away, and if they want to live in a fantasy, fine. Nobody would care if they wanted to trans to a Martian. But the point is that they want the rest of the world to accept their lies . Men cannot be women no matter how much lipstick they put on. It would not be a problem if they didn’t use the lies to get into women’s dressing rooms or women’s sports to take advantage of women. It would not be a problem if they didn’t take away women’s rights ! It would not be a problem if they left the rest of us .. the majority.. alone.
"One where race and gender is unimportant" Agree! Race is less important for forming friendships and Gender (Identity) doesn't exist -- but Sex is important and there are many of us who will stand up for the rights of women as a Sex class, something men can never belong to!
This brings up another point about the term terf - it is ultimately incorrect because most of us are not "trans" exclusive, we are male exclusive (we welcome women into women's spaces, even if they have undergone wrong hormone medicalisation or surgery). Call me a MERF when it comes to female spaces!
There is no enjoyment seeing a bunch of fanatics insult and abuse any other group in the community. There is no enjoyment knowing that the publicity you generate in the equally unfeeling media sources you have cosied up to will be a direct cause of the rising level of violence police are recording directed at trans people. There is no enjoyment knowing that your minds are so messed up that you will care not at all about such violence. There is not enjoyment, but some reassurance that it seems most of the fanatics here live in the land if exceptionalism - the USA - the land of culture wars, divisiveness and mass shootings. I don't. There is some satisfaction knowing that a women's party standing for the same meanness that you do got 0.08% of the vote in our last election. So 99.02% of the population wanted nothing to do with such nastiness. Meaning that we care. Whether or not you do in the trainwreck you live in really doesn't matter to us.
Actual violence directed at women who don't want men stealing their spaces, sports and shortlists far outweighs that experienced by TIMs. Most of the increasing violence being recorded by police is as "hate crime"- blasphemy against the new trans religion. Men are never women.
Tired of
Explaing
Reality to
Fools
That’s the best definition!
I'm a 'Truth Enlightened Radical Feminist', sticking with the F-word that I have been fighting for against misogynists of all stripes (and both sexes) for many decades now. The bastards are NOT getting my/our word!
Good on you!
Hi Katrina, Yes to all of this, and I'm just adding a little context from the other side of the world based on my memory:
Having come of age in California in the 70s, and having studied women's studies in college there, I can attest to TERF being used, there at least, as a neutral descriptor of a type of radical feminist, with radical (at the root, or root cause) used to differentiate from liberal feminists. Liberals just wanted equal rights. Radicals saw the root problem as entrenched, institutionalized patriarchy that was not going to go away simply by giving women equal pay and men doing more dishes and childcare.
As "transwomen" arrived in our all-women and all-lesbian spaces, and they did, the question became, Do we for whom these spaces were designed accept them there, or not? insisted on excluding men - and transsexuals, as they were then called, were men - were TERFS.
How did the transsexuals see us? They were angry, some of them. They were insistent - though there were far fewer of them, and never violent in my circles.
When they took the word TERF and threw it as us later, they were weaponizing our word. Reclaiming it is simply taking our descriptive term back.
Thanks for this Mariah! And for the background.
Excellent explanation.
I totally love Di Landy's acronym: Tired of Explaining Reality to Fools!. That completely sums up my experience.
Terrific. Got a screenshot out of that 👍
Haha - can count on Di :-)
Great to have a dissenting voice in the comments - all too often I feel that Substack algorithms mean I’m reading in an echo chamber.
On the one hand, I agree with you that name-calling and making derogatory comments about Trans people is childish and does no one any favours. I agree with you that Trans people should be free to live their lives and go about their business free from persecution, providing they are not causing harm to others.
On the other hand, I have many concerns about Genderism and it’s effects on society.
I am disturbed by the overall 4000% increase in referrals of children and young people to the (soon to be closed) GIDS centre at the Tavistock clinic in the UK between 2014 and (I think) 2022 and the 7000% increase in girls being referred.
I am disturbed by children and young people being set on a lifelong medical pathway when they are too young to consent to what is basically still experimental treatment with puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and significant surgical interventions. Such “gender affirming therapy” can lead to sterility, anorgasmia, and bone weakness. There are also likely to be significant effects on cognitive and emotional development from blocking puberty but we currently don’t know because the necessary scientific studies haven’t been done. Hence the term “experimental”.
I am disturbed by the glamorisation of young women who have undergone bilateral breast amputation and the effect such glamorisation may have on impressionable adolescent girls.
I am disturbed by the presence of males in spaces where women (meaning biological females) are vulnerable to abuse, such as prisons, rape crisis shelters, and changing rooms.
I am disturbed by the negation of well established biological science, where school children are taught that “sex is a spectrum”, when it is most definitely a binary.
I am disturbed by the policing of language (including demands for other people to use pronouns that don’t square with their perceptions) and attacks on the freedom to express political views such as “sex is real”.
I am disturbed by the video footage of mask-wearing protesters (many of whom are obviously males) screaming at and threatening groups of women who wish to publicly express the issues I am outlining here.
I am disturbed by the effects of substituting “gender identity” for natal sex on data collection for medical research and criminal justice purposes.
I am disturbed by reports of the excommunication of detransitioners from the trans community and even the denial of their very existence.
Unlike you, I don’t believe that a reported increased violence against trans people is likely to have been caused by the actions of terfs. I believe that, if such reports are true, the increase in violence is more likely to be motivated by the bullying behaviour and ever increasing demands of transactivists and their allies.
In WEIRD societies (Western, educated , industrialised, rich, and democratic) it is the fate of those who live long enough to develop wisdom to be ignored or dismissed by younger generations. This is especially true for older women.
Yes, he was only a bit snarky, and not overly abusive, so I consider that his comment is good to stay. He amuses me, though, with his inference that younger people are morally superior to older people by valuing personality and character over 'gender' - and then makes ageist and sexist remarks about older women - lol!
PS I "am skeptical about "Terf" being used, even in California, in the 1970's as a "neutral descriptor" to distinguish radical feminists from liberal feminists. The words " radical feminist" and liberal feminist" are sufficient to make that difference. A radical feminist wants to change the structure of society away from a patriarchal to a woman- centred one. A liberal feminist wants to adapt to the current patriarchal structure, and reform it so that women have "equality" within it. The term "terf' was not required to distinguish between these two very different political approaches.
There are historical accounts that the term "terf" was created in reference to arguments about whether to welcome males to the Michigan Women's Music Festival and other related events or institutions. I think that there was also a debate about a women's record company, Olivia, which had a transwoman working for it. It makes much more sense that the term "terf"would have been invented by the opponents of the "terfs". The opponents were criticising the "terfs" for not encouraging trans identified males to attend the women's music festival ( even though quite a few TIM's actually did attend ).
I did not hear the term "terf" used in Australia, New Zealand or the UK in the 1970s or early 80's, although I knew some women who attended the Michigan Women's Music Festival. If the term had been used as early as the 1970's in the USA, and if some universities were saying that this term was "neutral', it could still have been been originally invented by opponents. Once the term started circulating, whether before or after it got into the universities, some of the radical feminists may have started to adopt the term for themselves. It's possible that the universities made a mistake and incorrectly promoted the idea that this was a term created in the first place by the real radical feminists themselves, when in fact it wasn't.
The term "Terf" may have had a more neutral vibe back then, compared to the extremely hostile vibe with which the term is associated nowadays : both the hostility and threats of violence directed towards "terfs" and the projection onto the "terfs" of all manner of bigotry. Back then the debate may have been less toxic but not doubt there was still much heated opposition and distortion of actual radical feminism.
Radical Feminists have never promoted excluding males from all aspects of human society. There were and still are, separatists, who believe that women should separate from men and create their own societies. Separatism is not the same philosophy as Radical Feminism. .
Vivian Smythe, who is credited with first using the term "terf" on the internet in 1988, ( see the linked Guardian article in my other comment) herself says that although she used the term "TERF" she thought that a better term might be TES ( Trans Excluding Separatist) as this is what she was really criticising. The thing is- she was *Opposing* the TERFs or TES's whatever they were called. In any case Separatists do not say that males should be excluded from all of human society; just kept out of women's societies, which they hope most women will join.
The term “TERF” is now used derogatorily , so I would never use it . The point is that trans” women” are not women , have never been women and will never be women, and appropriating that word is a big lie. They lie not just to appropriate the word but to cheat women out of as much as they possibly can . The activists go as far in their lies as to violently attack women . How any women can go along with the lying is beyond belief.
Oops typo, Vivian Smythe used the term in 2008, not 1988. Maria Burton Nelson, I appreciate what you say, and you may be right of course. You were in the USA where this was happening. I felt need to express a different perspective on it.
The term "terf" wasn't ever neutral. The first recorded use of the term online is by a woman who is opposed to the views of 'terfs", Viv Smythe in 2008. Writing about the Michigan Women's Music Festival, Smythe considered herself to be within the broad category of "radical feminists ". She was opposed to radical feminists who she said were excluding transwomen from the women's music festival. ( In practice, as far as I know, they could attend as long as they didn't declare themselves as such). So it's not just a neutral term within the radical feminist movement. Right from the start, it was a term used by opponents of the women who were so labelled. It was a term used *against* women who questioned males being in a women's music festival. The term, especially as used in the last 20 years or so, is false and misleading, as it implies that "terfs" want to exclude trans identified men from all human rights and from all social and democratic institutions- which is simply untrue.https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/29/im-credited-with-having-coined-the-acronym-terf-heres-how-it-happened
Ah - so some controversy around it remains.
Viv seems nauseatingly naive. 🫤
I guess I can see how using a stupid stunt very common these days in the US of claiming you have been labeled in a disrespectful way by people you disagree might be your way to discredit those people. That's if you think discrediting is a smart thing to do. The good thing about it, Ms Biggs is it kind of diverts attention from the real issue, doesn't it? The one about hounding a group of people you clearly have never met and don't have the slightest empathy or understanding of.
But the real problem for you Ms Biggs, and your warriors, is that no one other than your little circle will know or care about whatever that name is. It seems like your team are mostly aging women. Meaning that sadly your whole campaign is going to become increasingly irrelevant as the years go by and you all fade away. Because the younger generation live in a totally different world to you. One where race and gender is unimportant - they form their friendships based on more meaningful things, like a person's personality and character. And I don't get the feeling that trans people are likely to see your material and immediately decide to change their lives. Your ladies can have all the cake stalls and fairs to raise money for your cause that you like, and do lots of protesting. But trans people just aren't going to go away Ms Biggs. It's just not going to happen.
Richard Fanselow
Trans people are not going away, and if they want to live in a fantasy, fine. Nobody would care if they wanted to trans to a Martian. But the point is that they want the rest of the world to accept their lies . Men cannot be women no matter how much lipstick they put on. It would not be a problem if they didn’t use the lies to get into women’s dressing rooms or women’s sports to take advantage of women. It would not be a problem if they didn’t take away women’s rights ! It would not be a problem if they left the rest of us .. the majority.. alone.
"One where race and gender is unimportant" Agree! Race is less important for forming friendships and Gender (Identity) doesn't exist -- but Sex is important and there are many of us who will stand up for the rights of women as a Sex class, something men can never belong to!
This brings up another point about the term terf - it is ultimately incorrect because most of us are not "trans" exclusive, we are male exclusive (we welcome women into women's spaces, even if they have undergone wrong hormone medicalisation or surgery). Call me a MERF when it comes to female spaces!
I’ve never baked a cake in my life. I don’t like fairs either. I’m not ageing either mate !!
Sure. So just young with a dislike of a group of people you don't know, who just want to live their lives.
Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you enjoy future publications as much as you did this one.
There is no enjoyment seeing a bunch of fanatics insult and abuse any other group in the community. There is no enjoyment knowing that the publicity you generate in the equally unfeeling media sources you have cosied up to will be a direct cause of the rising level of violence police are recording directed at trans people. There is no enjoyment knowing that your minds are so messed up that you will care not at all about such violence. There is not enjoyment, but some reassurance that it seems most of the fanatics here live in the land if exceptionalism - the USA - the land of culture wars, divisiveness and mass shootings. I don't. There is some satisfaction knowing that a women's party standing for the same meanness that you do got 0.08% of the vote in our last election. So 99.02% of the population wanted nothing to do with such nastiness. Meaning that we care. Whether or not you do in the trainwreck you live in really doesn't matter to us.
Actual violence directed at women who don't want men stealing their spaces, sports and shortlists far outweighs that experienced by TIMs. Most of the increasing violence being recorded by police is as "hate crime"- blasphemy against the new trans religion. Men are never women.
You have too many "that"s in the last sentence of your quote re "What is a terf?". There should only be one. Cheers.
Darn. Even after reading it over more than once before publishing, a pesky extra 'that' can still go unnoticed. Fixed now :-)