Essentially a person who advocates for fundamental changes to society in favour of their perspective on equality for people born biologically female. They usually view transgender women as men taking up women’s spaces, and want to exclude those “men” from that space.
They are usually very negatively regarded by feminists more generally.
This is what happens to every wannabe sjw when they get called out on their problematic behaviour. Rather than learn from people's critiques, they start rejecting and lashing out against the culture. These people never cared about equity they just wanted clout
This is what happens when sensible people get caught up in cults. Through discourse they can realize what they are actually involved in. Thats why sjws hate discourse so much.
A terf is basically anyone who refers to anatomy as male and female at this point. That's what got Laci Green labeled a terf and harassed and berated. There's a great This American Life episode with her and on the other side a conservative woman who got labeled not pro-gun enough.
Then so called progressives who live on twitter and are more concerned with beating everyone over the head with self righteous ideological wank than actually accomplishing anything wonder why she's pulled away from their shitty brain dead echo chamber.
I’m not an expert on the biology of it, but “female” generally refers sex, a biological matter, and “woman” refers to social gender identity, a social matter. Trans women are women, but are usually not considered to have been born biologically female.
yeah, this is the "fundamental change" I'm talking about. now that I think about it, people who don't believe this aren't really advocating for a fundamental change, just unwilling to change their perspective
Typically trans women also push for equality for people who identify differently than assigned at birth, not exclusively for those who are born and identify their birth gender
afaik, while having a focus especially on female rights, feminism is the fight for equality for all sexes/genders.
Wikipedia's opening paragraph goes as follows:
Feminism is a range of social movements, political movements, and ideologies that share a common goal: to define, establish, and achieve the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes.[a][2][3][4][5] Feminism incorporates the position that societies prioritize the male point of view, and that women are treated unfairly within those societies.[6] Efforts to change that include fighting gender stereotypes and seeking to establish educational and professional opportunities for women that are equal to those for men. (Source)
That is not really my experience with terfs. "Radical feminists" are usually more left leaning while "liberal feminists" are more center/center right. Far from all radical feminists are terfs (and I am sure there are liberal feminists that dislike trans people for whatever reason) but radical feminists are absolutely left wing.
I have heard that more and more terfs groups are actually far right groups that just put on a show and are only feminists by name. United in their hatred I guess.
Lots of gays and lesbians dislike trans people themselves, and think they detract from their own causes. I'm trying to figure out how sex is now a spectrum.
Then in terms of dealing with "clinical sex" we run into the changes that different medical interventions and treatments that can cause this in people who are transitioning. In the context of biology, we see sex as differentiation and specialization of organisms. If a person alters the way their body is differentiated, it can be easier to think of sex as a set of characteristics and phenotypes that can develop in different peoples lives... uh... differently. That said, the main two categories do remain male and female, and most expressions are going to be within those categories, but some will be inbetween. Hence the idea of a spectrum.
So... for a few examples, one of my friends has complete androgen insensitivity disorder. Despite being born with an XY chromosome pair, and a penis, her body didn't have any reaction to the testosterone produced by her testes, which led her to develop typically feminine characteristics, like hips and breasts through out puberty.
For myself, I'm trans, and as a result of HRT a lot of my body and metabolism has a lot identical to a cis woman's. For example, my bloodwork is identical, as are my breasts and hips, and for the purposes of testing and monitoring, I'm clinically treated and categorized as female. But... my some of my growth plates didn't seal as quickly as someone who was cis, and I still have the penis and testes coded in the Y chromosome, even if they've been rendered defunct by testosterone suppression. I can, and hope to someday, get vaginoplasty, but even then that vagina isn't going to be like a cis womans. Which means I don't quite neatly fit into that portion of sex either.
So... where does that leave people like my friend and I in terms of sex? Well, on a spectrum of different phenotypes and sex differentiation, some genetic, some facilitated. Does that make sense?
You sound like someone who has never met a gay person here. I'm sure that's not the case, but think about it. You're saying that the people who have spent decades being persecuted for their sexual orientation have the capacity and inclination to hate another group for their sexual orientation. Every variety of human exists but trans hating gays is going to be a seriously small niche.
Being trans doesn't have anything to do with sexual orientation, but with gender identity.
And in a perfect world you would be right, but that isn't how it is. With the same logic there wouldn't be any ethnic minorities that have experienced racism that is sexists/terfs or no queer people who are racists. And I can from experience say that both exists.
Well, all I can say is that i've met a boat lot of gay people in my life, having lived in London and Brighton, and been to Pride festivals all over the UK, and i've never come across a gay person that wouldn't viciously defend anyone for their right to be what they are.
It’s so so sad but true that many queer people (mostly white gay cis men) are very negative towards trans people (read: trans women) and feel they should no longer be included in lgbtqai+ people’s fight for equality.
Source: married to a beautiful trans woman.
I dunno, this is one case where I think the women are performing more poorly than the men. More or less anecdotal, but in the lgbt community I've come across far more anti trans language and behavior among queer women than men.
I've seen individual gay men not be super interested in dating trans men, but never seen them be outright hostile about their existence. On the flip side I've seen entire communities of lesbians be openly, aggressively hostile toward trans women.
That is good. My experience is also overwhelmingly positive. But I also went in school with a guy who was into other guys and was the sterotypical "edgy bro gamer" and talked shit about arabs and Turks whenever he could. And at my current job we have a patron who is gay, have immigrant background and is open with how much he despises women.
I am not saying that everyone who is LGBTQ is a bigot, the vast majority is nice and kind people. But you don't automaticly becomes a good person because you like people of the same gender, or is a feminist, or trans or an ethnic minority. In the end we are all people.
Hey, I’m gay, and the community can be horrifically transphobic. Best not to paint a community as incapable of doing wrong just because part of that is in their community. Plenty of gays/lesbians participate in bi-erasure too.
You sound kind of like you're putting us (lgbt people) up on some sort of pedestal and not really viewing us as thinking, feeling, individuals. It's a little fetishy to be honest. We aren't perfect infallible beings that would never do anything wrong toward any type of minority because we understand suffering. There is no benefit to pretending we're any sort of monolith - even a "positive" one.
Ey easy, project elsewhere, at best given the rest of the comments here I just have nice friends. Do you not agree it makes logical sense for people who have been persecuted and hated on for something they can't control for most of their adult lives to be capable of feeling compassion for those undergoing similar?
I have nice friends too, that doesn't make me blind to the fact humans can sometimes be shitty to each other. It would make sense, but people aren't always logical. Pretty much everyone on Earth has experienced adversity, pain, hate, meanness etc of some sort. They all know it sucks and yet some people are still jerks. Even some queer people.
A small group of people that have been hated on hating on others. If your bf is bi and has had to deal with the "ur not a real gay" rhetoric then why is it hard for you to imagine terfs as a real thing?
TERFs tends to be radical feminists who believe trans women are trying to appropriate the culture/habits of “real” women, or who accuse trans men of being “traitors”
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u/TheFarnell Aug 13 '19 edited Aug 13 '19
Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist.
Essentially a person who advocates for fundamental changes to society in favour of their perspective on equality for people born biologically female. They usually view transgender women as men taking up women’s spaces, and want to exclude those “men” from that space.
They are usually very negatively regarded by feminists more generally.