TERF
Reason: Please rewrite and expand upon the "beliefs" section's points.
Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) are transphobes who particularly target trans women in the name of feminism.
Origin
Alternate Names
- Trans-Exclusionary Radicals (TERs)
- Feminism-Appropriating Reactionary Transphobes (FARTs),
Definitions
- TERFs are Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists. They’re infamous in LGBT+ spaces for being very discriminatory towards trans women, as they believe they’re not real women. Some TERFs also believe that transgender men aren't real men, sometimes referring to them as "Lost sisters". - DNIdefinitions[1]
Established Issues
TERFs are especially manipulative, often targeting young (12-16) lesbians online who don't have access to offline LGBTQ+ spaces, and are thusly less taught on LGBTQ+ issues and are simpler to control. TERF philosophy can be sometimes hard to spot at first, as TERFs veil their exclusionary nature with the appearance of woman's rights. They will frequently offer expressions about "men", in the event that one didn't realize that individual is a TERF one would not realize assertion really implied trans ladies. In the example of a statement about how men are socialized to harm women, that assertion then greatly changes if the TERF means trans women when they say "men". By concealing what they're really saying behind more harmless explanations, they can get individuals to concur with them and from that point can influence them into their perspective.
While they are their own group, TERFs are part of the greater reactionary movement of so-called[2] gender-criticals.[3]
Beliefs
Sex is biological
TERFs and their variants typically imploy pseudoscience. TERFs equate women with their genitals and believe that women are those with "natural-born" vaginas and uteri and, more recently, XX chromosomes. As such TERFs will much of the time use images of a vagina or uterus to address ladies. They heavily focus over biological processes such as periods and the ability to give birth, usually to the point of attacking intersex cis women.
Trans people are invading the LGBTQ+ community
Transfeminine people are misogynist men
TERFs believe that all men are inherently oppressive and cannot change this due to the way they enforce the patriarchy. Trans women, and anyone assigned male at birth are included in this outdated definition of "men." They believe that, because they were born and were raised as men, all AMABs do not understand what it is like to be a woman and do benefit from male privilege.
Other transphobia
They believe that trans women are actually men who are trying to invade women's spaces and men who fetishize womanhood and have "autogynephilia." They also believe that trans men are actually confused lesbians. As with many conversations on trans people, [./https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Transmasculine transmasculine] people, such as transgender men and [./https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/AFAB AFAB] [./https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Non-Binary nonbinary] people, are often left out of the conversation. When they are acknowledged, TERFs often brand them as gender non-conforming lesbians with internalized misogyny or claim to support them because they believe all AFAB people are "female."
TERFs frequently sometimes use the word "womyn". This alternate spelling was originally meant as a way to avoid the suffix 'man'. However it was adopted by TERFs to mean cis women. TERFs also use the womyn-born-womyn (WBW) to mean "women raised as women", to exclude anyone AMAB.
Biphobia
Biphobia is rampant in TERF groups. They often believe that relationships with men (and trans women), particularly sexual relationships, are oppressive and women who willingly form relationships with men, such as [./https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Straight straight] women or [./https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Bisexual bisexual] women are oppressing themselves due to societal pressure. As such many TERFs are lesbians and refuse to be romantically involved with bisexual women under the belief that they've been "tainted" by men.
Sex Shaming
TERF ideology often includes being against kinky sex, believing that dom/sub interactions, even between two women, mirror the oppressive relationship between men and women. Therefore TERF ideology asserted that the only "pure" form of sex is vanilla sex between two (strictly lesbian) cis women. Many TERFs are also sex-worker exclusionary radical feminists or SWERFs.
Dislike of the Word TERF
Many TERFs dislike being called TERFs as the word blatantly calls out their transphobia. Many will try to claim that TERF is a slur. They often call themselves gender critical, radical feminists or radfems, which leaves out the trans-exclusionary part to hide their bigotry.
Related Terms
Subsets
SWERFs are Sex Worker Exclusionary Radical Feminists. They harass sex workers in the name of feminism, claiming that sex workers are the reason feminism is "Not taken seriously".[1]
TEHMs[1] are Trans Exclusionary Homosexual Males. They are cis men who harass trans men, claiming that they are "Invading" gay spaces and "Deceiving" gay men into getting into relationships and/or sleeping with them. They commonly misgender trans men, and harass them if they use the word "Gay" to describe themselves.
See Also
Gallery
Flags
The TERF "pride flag" is based on a flag for the women's suffrage movement. It may be mistaken for the Genderqueer pride flag due to its similar color scheme.
Combinations
Symbols
Coining
Other
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An example of the overlap between aphobes and TERFs.
