Terf What is it And What Does it Mean?

The word terf is an acronym. It stands for trans exclusionary radical feminists. It was coined to describe adherents to gender critical feminism who believe that only cis women are women, and that trans women should be excluded from the feminist movement and women’s spaces. Today, most in the LGBTQ+ community see trans exclusionary radical feminism as harmful and divisive. Likewise, mainstream feminists have also rejected this movement. Despite this, terfs have established a political stronghold and effectively used rhetoric to rollback trans rights and paint gender-diverse people as immoral. Because of that, it’s important to understand this hateful ideology, its history, and how it plays a role in the anti trans movement today.

Terminology

Before learning more about terfs, it’s important to understand some words, phrases, and concepts.

TERF

Trans exclusionary radical feminists or sometimes trans exclusionary radical feminism. The term was originally coined in 2008 by Viv Smythe. Smythe coined the term as a way to distinguish trans excluding radical feminists from other radical feminists who were either supportive or neutral when it came to trans inclusion.

Today, usage of terf has evolved. It no longer has much association with radical feminists in common use – although there are certainly still radfems who are terfs. Many of the individuals who identify as terfs or fit that criteria today are actually social conservatives and anti feminist. Samantha Pinson Wrisley has even argued that trans exclusionary reactionary feminism is a more apt description as most terfs no longer hold values that align with radical feminism at all – instead supporting maga and other authoritarian cabals. That said, it is important to know that there are terfs in both moderate and leftist spaces as well.

Biological Essentialism

According to the Oxford Review biological essentialism is the belief that there are genetic or biological links to certain traits and characteristics while minimizing the impacts of social, cultural, or environmental factors. Gender essentialism applies this ideology to gender identity, essentially stating that only biological sex is a determining factor for gender.

Gender Critical Feminism

Gender critical feminism is a type of radical feminism that argues that the oppression of women as well as the identity of womanhood is based on biology. Gender critical feminists believe in sex based rights rather than rights driven by gender identity. Gender critical feminism is closely linked to the TERF label. Gender critical discourse rejects the inclusion of trans women in women’s spaces. Trans women are defined by gender critical feminists as men who use gender identity as a means to gain access and cause harm. Gender critical movements often use the term adult human female (ahf) to define womanhood strictly using biology as a criteria while referring to trans women as trans identified males.

Gender critical femists often oppose trans rights, align with anti-gender movements, and support the exclusion of trans women from women’s sports, organizations, and spaces.

Transgender Studies

This is the study of transgender people, history, culture, and movements.

Radical Feminists

Radical feminists are a subset of feminism that embraces the feminist theory that oppression of women is the result of patriarchy and systems that prop up male dominance, rather than simple chauvinism. Radical feminists or radfems advocate for systemic changes as a solution for inequality. Most radical feminists support trans rights today, but there are radfems who do not. Instead, they adhere to the belief that sex-based rights should be the ultimate goal, and that trans individuals do not beling in feminist movements.

Gender Affirming Care

This is any form of healthcare that helps a person align their physical characteristics and presentation with their gender identity. While this term is frequently used in reference to trans youth and adults, both trans and cisgender people receive gender affirming care. Terfs often weaponize extremist rhetoric about gender affirming care as a way to fight against trans rights.

Womyn or Wombyn

These are alternative spellings adopted by some radical feminists as an alternatives to the words women or woman. It is often used by those aligned with TERF ideology to specify cis women as being the only valid women based on their anatomy and chromosomes.

Cis gender

Cis gender or cisgender refers to people whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth. Cis women are women who were born with external female genitalia and designated as such on their birth certificates. This is in contrast to trans women whose identity does not match what they were assigned at birth.

History

TERF isn’t just an acronym. In fact, trans exclusionary radical feminists have existed for several decades. Let’s take a look at the history of gender critical feminism, anti-trans movements, and the evolution of TERF from its conception to its use today among neoliberals and conservatives.

Early History – Radical Feminism And Gender Policing

Decades before the word TERF existed, there were disputes over trans women in feminists spaces. Manhy early radical feminists argued that women’s oppression originated in biological sex rather than social power. This framework held influence in the evolution of femist theory and women’s studies in the 1970s by pushing the idea that women were adult human females who had common political interests based on shared biology.

This approach created strict boundaries around who could be called a woman. Trans people, mostly trans women, were cast as ideological threats and enemies of feminism. This gender critical ideology also impacted trans men. Some were dismissed as confused or misled. Others were simply erased.

In 1973, the West Coast Lesbian Conference became a flashpoint in gender critical and radical feminism. It was attended by 1500 lesbians and the event consisted of speeches, debates, community building, discussions, and more. However, the conference became infamous for a controversy over the targeting of trans lesbian activist and folk singer Beth Elliot who was humiliated and eventually pressured to make an exit from the event in the face of pressure from exclusionary feminists. Radfem group, the Gutter Dykes distributed leaflets referring to Elliot as a man and disrupted her musical performance at the event. Facing solidarity around Elliot, the Gutter Dykes relinquished the stage. While most attendees were in favor of her staying, Beth Elliot left shortly thereafter. This was the starting point of a split between adherents of gender critical feminism and other radical feminists. It was also the beginning of a recurring pattern where trans women were excluded from feminist spaces under the guise of protecting women.

Institutional Exclusion And Sex Based Rights

Throughout the remainder of the 1970s and 1980s exclusion became policy. Many feminist collectives, domestic violence and rape crisis centers, and lesbian organizations restricted participation to cis women. This was justified by centering sex-based rights, and arguing that including trans women would be unsafe for survivors and compromise political ideology.

Anti trans activists circulated publications within narrow circles of European and American feminist groups that equated the transgender identity with rapist mentalities, patriarchy, and intrusion. These sentiments were critical of gender ideology even before that phrase became a part of public discourse.

While the majority of feminists did not share these views, trans exclusionary radical feminists laid the groundwork for what would become the TERF movement. Even now, TERF-aligned people seek structure, identity, and power through biological determinism.

Coining The Term Terf

Radical feminist blogger Viv Smythe is credited for coining TERF as shortand for trans exclusionary radical feminists. It’s important to note that the acronym was originally meant to be descriptive rather than pejorative.

Keep in mind that at the time debates about trans topics were mostly limited to academic journals, feminists blogs, and conferences. TERF was a neutral term used to describe a specific ideological position – one that rejected the right of trans people to participate in women’s spaces or self-identify. However, that neutrality should not be taken as endorsement of that position or denial of harm. Simply put, the term wasn’t used in the public sphere teh way it is today. However, that changed as trans activists and the transgender rights movement as a whole gained visibility.

From Academic Debate to Public Discussion

By the early 2010s, discourse around trans people had moved to mainstream platforms including the New York times. It became, and remains, a hot-button topic on social media. At the same time, increased access to gender affirming care, gender clinics, and the rights of trans youth further pushed this topic from high-level academic discussion into lived reality. Several trans creators and celebrities publicly shared their stories of transition and living life authentically.

All of this triggered a backlash among gender critical activists, who targeted the gender diverse community – especially trans women. The opposition to the rights of trans people focused largely on:

• Gender affirming care for trans youth
• Access to restrooms
• Participation in sports
• Placement in prison

TERFs leaned heavily on rhetoric that they were concerned with protecting most women while portraying trans women as a threat.

Online TERF behaviour become inscreasingly aggressive. This included coordinated harassment of trans people, trans supporting academics, healthcare providers, and other feminists who who supported trans rights. What began as an academic debate began to resemble similar group dynamics found in extremist groups.

Alignment With Right-Wing Christians And Other Authoritarians

By the late 2010s a significant shift had occurred. While TERF ideology was previously aligned with radical feminists and lesbian separatists, it became aligned conservative Christian groups such as The Heritiage Foundation, anti-gender advocacy networks in the EU, and religious groups that oppose queer-inclusion.

This convergence did not happen on accident. Both anti-trans feminists and conservative groups share a common goal – to deligitimize the transgender identity and roll back transgender rights.

One example of this was the use of feminist language by extremist groups to justify inequalities. These groups who opposed other feminist causes such as abortion access and sex work advocacy. This exposed how TERF ideology lost even the slightest connection with liberation and instead had moved towards social dominance driven by a sense of moral superiority.

Academic Pushback And Legitimization of Gender Critical Views

TERF and TERF-adjacent ideas have appeared in academic publications such as European journal articles and pieces published by houses like the Oxford University Press. At the same time, articles like A Systematic Review of TERF Behaviour Online analyze the TERF movement more critically.

Whether these academic works promote pro or anti trans views, studies involving trans people or gender affirming car can be problematic when they:

• Treat trans people as subjects of intellectual curiosity
• Exclude trans scholars
• Selectively ignore emprical research normalizing transgender inclusion
• Ignores the human cost of anti trans policies and rhetoric

Today, most contemporary feminist scholarship supports inclusion, and recognizes that trans oppression often intersects with race, class, disabilitiy, and socioeconomic status – thereby legitimizing the notion that trans rights are women’s rights.

TERF as a Modern Political Label

As TERF shifted from a descriptor used in niche online publications to something widely used in online debates – it’s become a political label. This left the original radfems who claimed their anti trans sentiments were about protecting women with a choice. Do they align with groups like The Heritage Foundation that also favor rolling back women’s rights, or do they distance themselves?

Answers to that question varied. Some, like Germaine Greer, softened their rhetoric but not their underlying views. Others like Catharine A. MacKinnon rejected TERF ideology as the movement was co-opted by conservative and authoritarian groups. Today, MacKinnon upports inclusion as a key component of the overall woman’s rights movement as well as a way to reject patriarchal enforcement of gender roles and violations of bodily autonomy. Her views now include support for including trans women in women’s spaces and acknowledgment that they should be legally viewed as women. Finally, radical feminist and anti-pornography activist Julie Bindel embraced conservative groups that shared her anti trans views. She even received support from organizations like Sex Matters – an anti trans activist group.

Despite some rejection and reframing, the TERF movement persists whether it is framed as rejection of inclusion under the guise of women’s rights or fully embracing far right political views. Anti-transgender activists have leveraged social media, spread their views through blog posts, keynote speaker engagements, and in political theaters around the world. Like-minded individuals have so fully adopted this ideology that it has effectively become identity for them – leaving little openness to opposing ideas or critique.

TERF Today

Today, TERF only has thin associations with the trans exclusionary radical feminists who originally engaged in rhetoric that trans people, particularly trans women, were an existential threat. Instead, it’s an indication of alignment with a broader movement that supports anti trans ideology along with other far right political views. Modern TERF ideology is distinct because despite leveraging feminism it often collaborates with other ideologies that oppose the fendamental tenents of feminism.

Why TERF History Matters

Whether we are examining the origins of anti-trans sentiment among some radical feminists in the 1970s or coining of term itself, learning this history reveals something deeper than an internet insult. People who are committed to anti trans ideology are often willing to abandon or compromise their other political views in order to maintain exclusion as a priority. From this, we can learn how second wave feminist ideals can be co-opted to reinforce the patriarchy

Flags And Symbols

There is a TERF pride flag despite the fact that anti trans ideology is widely rejected by the LGBTQ+ community. It contains purple, white, and green stripes and is based on a flag used in the women’s suffrage movement.

Some TERFs also use the radfem Pride flag. However, it is important to note that not all radfems are anti trans.

There is also the Labrys flag that has become heavily associated with anti trans sentiments and TERFs due to the publicly stated beliefs of its creator.

Finally, please note that the genderqueer Pride flag is representative of the gender diverse community. Unfortunately, it is often confused with the TERF flag.

Are You a TERF?

You may already self identify as a TERF, or be anti trans but believe this acronym is an unfair slur. If that’s the case, you may not feel comfortable participating in a progressive, affirming community like this. However, just like racism isn’t a binary, neither is anti trans bigotry. It’s possible to have some biased ideas and assumptions about the gender-diverse community, even if are also accepting and affirming. Keep in mind that most of us have been socialized into heteronormative cultures where gender has been explicitly tied to biology, and even today media like the Atlantic and the New York Times platforms and normalizes transgender hate.

Examining Your Views And Actions

Evaluating your words, actions, and attitudes for bias against trans people is about patterns and outcomes, not your intentions. Note how you talk too and about trans women compared to cis women, especially when there is disagreement. More importantly, how are you listening?

Do you frame the concept of womanhood as something that must be defended or as something that can be inclusive. Be aware of language that emphasizes what or who counts as a whole woman or a real woman. That often reflects underlying attitudes that cis women are more valid than trans women.

Also, consider how feminism reveals itself in your words and thoughts. While most feminists do support gender equity, many sentiments that invalidate trans women are couched in pro-feminist sentiments. These often reveal a comfort with hierarchy over genuine equality. Do your views or reactions to anti-transgender bias frequently find you defending or minimizing the impact of TERF views, expecting trans women to make concessions or take up less space, or treating lived experiences as intellectual exercises?

Finally, take a look at your social media. Which posts are you liking, sharing, and dismissing. Are you following trans creators, listening to the experience of trans people, and approaching discussions with empathy and curiosity? If you are called out or called in, do you react defensively? Remember that implicit bias doesn’t need to be based in malice to do harm.

How to Interact With a Terf

Whether you are in the comments section of a blog post, on social media, or engaging in real life – chances are you are going to be involved in conversations involving trans exclusionary radical feminists. These can be draining, and even unsafe. It’s important to approach these conversations strategically without being reactive, and without causing harm. Of course, how you approach these situations will depend on whether you are a trans person or a bystander who is bearing witness.

For Trans People – Especially Trans Women

Your safety, wellbeing, and peace come first. You are not obligated to engage, educate, debate, or justify your existence to anybody. TERF arguments are often built on a foundation of social dominance that is created by framing harmful rhetoric as feminism or concern for cis women. Similarly, trans women are often targeted with feigned concern about their mental wellbeing. Recognizing this concern trolling and attempts to twist an ideology that is based on equity and autonomy as the manipulation they are is key. This will allow you to engage or disengage without internalizing their their rhetoric.

TERFs have become very adept at using social media to engage in singular and coordinated attacks on trans women and other gender-diverse individuals. Fortunately, you have tools at your disposal to set boundaries and create a safe online experience. Make liberal use of blocking, reporting, and muting. This isn’t a sign of weakness. It’s simply you prioritizing your wellbeing and peace. If you decide to address someone keep your responses brief and factual. Be aware of sea lioning. That’s a technique used by right wing trolls that involves asking ongoing questions that require you to do research, make arguments, and post links – only to have the troll entirely ignore what you’ve posted just to restate their original point. You don’t owe anyone that kind of free labor. Instead, block or post simple, truthful information and exit the conversation.

Bystanders

A bystander is a witness to an event, and they can play a great role in disrupting harm. Unfortunately, if they do nothing, they can also make harm worse. Remember that neutrality always benefits the oppressor. On social media, taking a stand may look like countering misinformation, amplifying trans voices, banning people who harm women from online spaces you control, and giving trans women space to share their stories.

In person, support can be as simple as affirming trans women’s experiences and shutting down TERF rhetoric when it happens. If you do have to engage with a TERF in the presence of a trans woman or man, be careful that you don’t turn that person’s life and experiences into debate. Also, don’t ask trans women to educate or explain things to cis women.

If you witness a trans woman being attacked online or in real life, focus on helping them over responding to their attacker. It’s more important to assure someone that they are welcome in a space and that you affirm their identity than it is to win a debate with a TERF.

Finally, always respect the agency and autonomy of trans women. Ultimately, it is up to them to decide how and if to engage with cis women who want to leverage feminism to promote trans hate. There’s a fine line between having trans women’s backs and making them feel helpless and unseen – because you’ve ignored what they want in favor of fulfilling your own desire to confront someone. If you are unsure, ask.

Understanding Why Cis Women Become TERFs

Nobody is obligated to understand what motivates a hateful person. However, understanding may help you reach girls and young women before they are also indoctrinated with this ideology. Some cis women become trans-phobic because they have been socialized in spaces where there is rhetoric against the trans community and often the queer community as a whole. These women have usually rejected feminism as a liberal ideology, but may use feminist terminology as a way to make their views appear to be motivated by a desire to protect women’s rights.

It’s also important to understand that cis women, particularly white women often seek proximity to power. When given the choice of supporting trans women or aligning with the patriarchy, they will usually choose the latter in hopes that they will find protection in maintaining existing hierarchies.

Also, propaganda exists because it is effective. TERFs, right wing media figures, politicians, and others have engaged in a years long campaign to whip up fear and hatred about trans women. Sadly, many cis women have become convinced by that rhetoric.

That said, regardless of how or why some cis women and men adopt TERF ideologies, each individual is responsible for treating others with dignity. TERFs can evolve and change, but that requires accountability and a willingness to learn. The best way to engage with TERFs is to focus efforts on affirming and protecting trans women, not by being pulled into debates or confrontations with cis women who choose to use feminism as justification for hate.