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TERF (/ˈtɜːrf/, also written terf) is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. Coined in 2008, the term was originally applied to a minority of radical feminists who espouse sentiments that other feminists consider transphobic, such as opposition to transgender rights legislation, the exclusion of trans women from women's spaces, and the rejection of the assertion that trans women are women. The sense has since expanded to refer more broadly to people with trans-exclusive views who may have no involvement with radical feminism.

Those described as TERFs often consider the word a slur and may prefer to describe themselves as "gender critical".

Coinage and usage

Trans-inclusive cisgender radical feminist blogger Viv Smythe is credited with popularizing the term in 2008 as an online shorthand. It is used to describe a minority of feminists who espouse sentiments that other feminists consider transphobic, including opposition to transgender rights and the inclusion of trans women in women's spaces and organizations, or who reject that trans women are women.

Smythe has been credited with having coined the term terf, due to a blog post she wrote reacting to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's policy of denying admittance to trans women. She wrote that she rejected the alignment of all radical feminists with "trans-exclusionary radfem (TERF) activists". In a 2014 interview with The TransAdvocate, Smythe said:

"It was meant to be a deliberately technically neutral description of an activist grouping. We wanted a way to distinguish TERFs from other RadFems with whom we engaged who were trans*-positive/neutral, because we had several years of history of engaging productively/substantively with non-TERF RadFems."

While Smythe initially used TERF to refer to a particular type of self-styled radical feminists who are "unwilling to recognise trans women as sisters", she has noted that the term has taken on additional connotations, and that it has been "weaponised at times" by both inclusionary and exclusionary groups.

On her transgender rights website, The TransAdvocate, Cristan Williams argued that the term references "a brand of 'radical feminism' that is so rooted in sex essentialism and its resulting biologism, it actively campaigns against the existence, equality, and/or inclusion of trans people." Writing in The New York Times in 2019, feminist theorist Sophie Lewis used the term "TERFism" to describe anti-transgender feminism in the United Kingdom. Lewis wrote that the term TERF has become a catchall for all anti-transgender feminists, regardless of whether they are radical. Edie Miller, writing in The Outline, said that the term was applied to "most people espousing trans-exclusionary politics that follow a particular 'TERF logic', regardless of their involvement with radical feminism".

Views

Opposition to the word

Feminists who exclude trans women from womanhood and women's spaces generally object to the term TERF and refer to themselves as "gender critical" instead. These feminists, mainly second-wave feminists, perceive trans men as "traitors" to womanhood and trans women as "infiltrators". They argue that they cannot accurately be described as trans-exclusionary since they are inclusive of trans men—though trans men do not necessarily welcome this inclusion. The people at whom the word TERF is directed often characterize it as a slur or hate speech.

British journalist Catherine Bennett has described the word as "a bullying tool" which has "already succeeded in repressing speech – and maybe even research". She cites incorporation of the word into insults and violent rhetoric such as "fucking terf scum" and "I punch terfs!". British columnist Sarah Ditum wrote in 2017 that "the bar to being called a 'terf' is remarkably low." Feminist blogger Claire Heuchan states that the word is often used alongside "violent rhetoric" such as "stab a Terf" or "kill a Terf". She says language of this type is used to "dehumanise women", often lesbians, "who are critical of gender as a political system".

In a July 2018 solicitation of essays regarding "transgender identities", British magazine The Economist required writers to "avoid all slurs, including TERF", stating that the word is used to try to silence opinions and sometimes incite violence. In August 2018, seven British philosophers wrote on the website Daily Nous that two articles by Rachel McKinnon and Jason Stanley published in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research had normalized the term. They described the term as "at worst a slur and at best derogatory". On her blog, Language: A Feminist Guide, Oxford University linguist Deborah Cameron, whose academic research is focused on the relationship of language to gender and sexuality, wrote that arguments about whether TERF is a neutral descriptive term or a derogatory slur, "raise a question which linguists and philosophers have found quite tricky to answer," but that, "many individuals who have been described as TERFs have called it a slur".

Responses to opposition

The claim by anti-transgender feminists that they are not trans-exclusionary because they categorize trans men as women has been rejected by trans men. Trans men and their allies have called this denial "divisive and contradictory part of their transmisgynist [sic] ideology", transphobic, and "fetishistic, often infantalizing [sic]".

In response to claims that the word constitutes a slur, transfeminist and author Julia Serano has argued that because the word was originally created by radical feminists as a neutral term, it cannot be a slur, and "if the term has since accrued negative connotations, it is simply because most contemporary feminists view trans-exclusion as invalid, and TERF rhetoric as unnecessarily disparaging". Philosophy of language professor Rachel McKinnon has also maintained the word is not a slur, nor even pejorative by itself, because it can be used in a purely descriptive way, while slurs and all derogatory terms are necessarily derogatory in all contexts. Transwoman author Andrea Long Chu describes the claim that TERF is a slur as "a grievance that would be beneath contempt if it weren't also true, in the sense that all bywords for bigots are intended to be defamatory." Feminist philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher argues that, regardless of whether the term is accurately classified as a slur, it "has at least become offensive to those designated by the term", which suggests it might be best to avoid "in case one wants to have a conversation across deep difference".

In a 2018 paper, linguists Christopher David and Elin McCready argued that three properties make a term a slur: it must be derogatory towards a particular group, it must be used to subordinate them within some structure of power relations, and the derogated group must be defined by an intrinsic property. David and McCready wrote that the term TERF satisfies the first condition, fails the third condition, and that the second condition is contentious, in that it depends on how each group sees itself in relation to the other group.

See also

• Feminist theory
• Feminist views on transgender topics
• Framing (social sciences)
• Social exclusion

References

1. ^ Lewis, Sophie (2019-02-07). "Opinion | How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-05-05.
2. ^ Miller, Edie (2018-11-05). "Why Is British Media So Transphobic?". The Outline. Retrieved 2019-05-03. The truth is, while the British conservative right would almost certainly be more than happy to whip up a frenzy of transphobia, they simply haven't needed to, because some sections of the left over here are doing their hate-peddling for them. The most vocal source of this hatred has emerged, sadly, from within circles of radical feminists. British feminism has an increasingly notorious TERF problem.
3. ^ Vasquez, Tina (2014-02-17). "It's Time to End the Long History of Feminism Failing Transgender Women". Bitch. Bitch Media. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
4. ^ Smythe, Viv (2018-11-28). "I'm credited with having coined the word 'Terf'. Here's how it happened". The Guardian. Retrieved 2019-04-13.
5. ^ Dalbey, Alex (2018-08-12). "TERF wars: Why trans-exclusionary radical feminists have no place in feminism". The Daily Dot. Retrieved 2019-01-27.
6. Dastagir, Alia (2017-03-16). "A feminist glossary because we didn't all major in gender studies". USA Today. Retrieved 2019-04-24. TERF: The acronym for 'trans exclusionary radical feminists,' referring to feminists who are transphobic.
7. Bollinger, Alex (2018-12-19). "Famous lesbian site taken over by anti-trans 'feminists'. Now lesbian media is standing up". www.lgbtqnation.com. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
8. "SNP MP criticised for calling trans campaigners at Edinburgh Pride 'misogynistic'". indy100. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2019-06-26.
9. O'Connell, Jennifer (2019-01-26). "Transgender for beginners: Trans, terf, cis and safe spaces". The Irish Times. Retrieved 2019-04-24.
10. Wordsworth, Dot (2018-05-05). "Terf wars and the ludicrous lexicon of feminist theory". The Spectator.
11. ^ Flaherty, Colleen (2018-08-29). "'TERF' War – Philosophers object to a journal's publication 'TERF,' in reference to some feminists. Is it really a slur?". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
12. Williams, Cristan (2016-05-01). "Radical Inclusion: Recounting the Trans Inclusive History of Radical Feminism". TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly. 3 (1–2). Duke University Press: 254–258. doi:10.1215/23289252-3334463.
13. Williams, Cristan (2013-09-24). "You might be a TERF if ..." The TransAdvocate.
14. Goldberg, Michelle (2015-12-09). "The Trans Women Who Say That Trans Women Aren't Women". Slate. Retrieved 2019-04-12.
15. ^ Serano, Julia (n.d.). "TERFs". Retrieved 2019-04-21.
16. ^ Erickson-Schroth, Laura (2014-05-12). Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community. Oxford University Press. p. 568–569. ISBN 978-0199325351. Some feminists have perceived transmasculine people as traitors—that is, as women who identify politically with men. When inclusive of trans men, these feminists have often gendered them as women. Conversely, these feminists have tended to perceive transfeminine people as infiltrators of womanhood and of women's space. Many commentators refer to feminists who think in these ways as 'trans-exclusionary radical feminists' (TERFs). ...'The fetishistic (often infantalizing [sic]) embrace of trans men by lesbian communities is ungendering, othering, and transphobic.'
17. Flaherty, Colleen (2018-08-29). "'TERF' War – Philosophers object to a journal's publication 'TERF,' in reference to some feminists. Is it really a slur?". Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 2019-04-12. Allen objected ... 'most radical feminists who are apparently described' by the term TERF are inclusive of trans men, and so are not 'trans-exclusionary' anyway, she said.
18. Kennedy, Natacha (2016-12-15). "Anti-Trans Activism – Not What It Seems". Progress. Retrieved 2019-04-29. Beyond that, it's also entirely inaccurate, radical feminism is inclusionary of trans men (who are female by birth), it only excludes males—as a female liberation movement ...
19. ^ Wylder, Danelle; Westing, Corrie (2018-08-21). "Terfs Have No Place on the Left". Socialist Worker. Archived from the original on 2019-05-03. Retrieved 2019-04-28. It is worth noting, however, the divisive and contradictory position they held, wherein trans men were allowed on the land because TERFs considered them 'women-born' as part of their transmisogynist ideology.
20. Compton, Julie (2019-01-14). "'Pro-lesbian' or 'trans-exclusionary'? Old animosities boil into public view". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
21. Goldberg, Michelle (2014-08-04). "What Is a Woman?". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2015-11-20. TERF stands for 'trans-exclusionary radical feminist.' The term can be useful for making a distinction with radical feminists who do not share the same position, but those at whom it is directed consider it a slur.
22. ^ Bennett, Catherine (November 19, 2017). "Bullies everywhere delight in coming up with new insults". The Guardian.
23. Bennett, Catherine (April 29, 2018). "Violent misogyny is unfortunately not confined to the internet's 'incels'". The Guardian. Photographs of one vitrine, featuring a red bespattered T-shirt reading: "I punch terfs!" (trans-exclusionary radical feminists/women who disagree with me), may have struck a chord with anyone following the current UK debate about the government's self-ID proposals. To date, threats, from one side, which echo, inescapably, some of those in the pro-Rodger playbook ("die in a fire terf scum") have yet to generate comparably widespread concern, even after a woman was punched. Her assailant had earlier expressed the wish to "fuck up some terfs".
24. Ditum, Sarah (2017-09-29). "What is a Terf? How an internet buzzword became a mainstream slur". New Statesman. Retrieved 2019-04-13. On the other hand, if you are a feminist, the bar to being called a 'terf' is remarkably low. Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray achieved it by writing an article in which she pointed out that someone born and raised male will not have the same experiences of sexism as a woman; novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie likewise made the grade by answering 'transwomen are transwomen' when asked whether she believed that 'transwomen are women'.
25. "Claire Heuchan". Glasgow International. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 5 October 2019.
26. Heuchan, Claire (6 October 2017). "If feminist Linda Bellos is seen as a risk, progressive politics has lost its way". The Guardian. Terf stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. Online, it often it [sic] appears alongside violent rhetoric: punch a Terf, stab a Terf, kill a Terf. This language is used to dehumanise women who are critical of gender as part of a political system.
27. "Transgender identities: a series of invited essays". The Economist. 2018-06-29. Retrieved 2019-03-19. In the interests of fostering open debate we have set ground rules, both for essays and reader comments: use the pronouns people want you to use, and avoid all slurs, including TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist), which may have started as a descriptive term but is now used to try to silence a vast swathe of opinions on trans issues, and sometimes to incite violence against women.
28. ^ McKinnon, Rachel (2018-03-07). "The Epistemology of Propaganda" (PDF). Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 96 (2): 483–489. doi:10.1111/phpr.12429.
29. Stanley, Jason (2018-03-07). "Replies". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. 96 (2): 497–511. doi:10.1111/phpr.12427.
30. Weinberg, Justin (2018-08-27). "Derogatory Language in Philosophy Journal Risks Increased Hostility and Diminished Discussion". Daily Nous. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
31. Allen, Sophie R.; Finneron-Burns, Elizabeth; Leng, Mary; Lawford-Smith, Holly; Jones, Jane Clare; Reilly-Cooper, Rebecca; Simpson, R. J. (2018-09-24). "On an Alleged Case of Propaganda: Reply to McKinnon" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
32. Cameron, Deborah (2016-11-06). "What makes a word a slur?". Language: A Feminist Guide. Retrieved 2019-09-19.
33. McKinnon, Rachel (2017-05-24). "Trans 101 #4: 'TERF' is Not a Slur". YouTube. Retrieved 2019-04-22.
34. Chu, Andrea Long (Winter 2018). "On Liking Women". n+1 Magazine (30). They also don't much like the name TERF, which they take to be a slur—a grievance that would be beneath contempt if it weren't also true, in the sense that all bywords for bigots are intended to be defamatory.
35. Bettcher, Talia Mae (November 2017). "Trans Feminism: Recent Philosophical Developments". Philosophy Compass. 12 (17): 7. doi:10.1111/phc3.12438.
36. Davis, Christopher; McCready, Elin (2018-11-19). "The Instability of Slurs" (PDF). Prepublication. Semantics Archive. Retrieved 2019-04-24.

• English words
• LGBT slang
• Trans-exclusionary radical feminism
• Feminist terminology