By: Victoria Hincapie Gomez Date: March 28 , 2022
The acronym TERFS means trans exclusionary radical feminist , and it is used upon women that conceal their transphobia with the fact that they are ''feminist''.The coined term and whether trans women should be embraced or not in the feminist movement is something that has generated lots of debates these last few years.
When we go online and search the word feminism , the first thing that comes up is the following :''The advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes''. Which in other words mean , the ongoing search of women to gain the same rights as the opposite sex.
In the 60's the feminism movement was born out of the repression that most women faced by patriarchy , it represented and still represents a call for action to have the same rights and be subjected to the same treatment as men do.
So it is really ironic to see these women so called ''feminist'' exclude other women that have also being victims of the patriarchy. Trans women have been society's main target in terms of getting ridiculed , discriminated and overall shunned away from society, so one might think that this would be enough reason for TERFS to sympathized with trans women and what they have go through.
But that is not the reality whatsoever , because they shield their arguments in favor of excluding trans women of the feminism movement with the fact that trans women are discriminated on the basis of being trans instead of being women, as the famous writer of the Harry Potter books pointed out in multiple tweets in 2020.
It is stupid to grasp the simple fact that trans women have to face certain things that biological women don't to dismissed them as women. All women biological or not have different experiences of how they have been approached by society ,depending on their upbringing , their economic situation and where do they situate themselves geographically.
It's like saying that rich privileged women experienced womanhood differently than poor women , and because of that their womanhood isn't as valid. Sounds dumb doesn't it?
J.K Rowling isn't the first public figure to invalidate trans womanhood , feminist author Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche also falls into this category. Adiche believes that sex isn't biology but that actually is sociology and , because of this she grapples with the idea of equating the experiences that trans women who according to her at some point in their lives had the privileges of a man with the experiences of biological women.
Let's delve into this , first of all how do trans women who in its majority identify prior to transition as gay men had the society's male privileges if they clearly didn't fit in the patriarchal norms of what a man should be?. It is important to understand that the male privilege only applies truly towards heterosexual men that don't have in most case scenarios to worry about how they are treated professionally or in other social spheres.
It all seems like a bunch of arguments that really go against the feminist agenda that strives to fight against the whole concept of inequality. So how is it possible that these women ask for equality but dismissed trans women in the same way or even worst than they have been by men ?
It has to work both ways , we can't demand something that we aren't willing to give to others. TERFS cannot disguise themselves as feminist fighting for equality , when they exclude other women that despite their different experiences also fight for this.
I hope you liked it !, feel free to comment down below.
References
Feminism definition- Oxford Languages.
Romano,A.(2021).Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche's cancel culture screed is a dangerous. distraction.https://www.vox.com/22537261/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-transphobia-cancel-culture-jk-rowling-akwaeke-emezi-olutimehin-adegbeye
Wallis,A.(2020). J.K. Rowling doubles down on transphobic comments, reveals she's an abuse survivor. https://globalnews.ca/news/7053461/j-k-rowling-statement-transgender-comments-sexual-assault-survivor/
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