TERFs are TERDs Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists are clea…

They don’t merely exclude. They are obsessed with criticising trans people. They are not given true personhood status, they are to be belittled and mocked.
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Trans people don’t even get the respect of their lived reality from TERFs. Apparently it’s completely fine to say that trans people don’t know themselves - that their lived reality is fantasy.
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Despite the phenomenon arising in human beings across thousands of years and in all cultures - they’re ALL making it up.
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Despite the psychology profession recognising it as just a distinct way of being human. Not an illness or syndrome. A way of being. Medical and biological findings back it, but we are dealing with dogmatic thinking.
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The central dogma is that there are only men and women, and everyone is born as one or the other. Despite an easily observed sex trait spectrum. Despite intersex people (whom they also classify as disordered, not simply human).
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Despite the underlying biological complexity being magnitudes more than the simplistic X/Y system. No, all of these experts are wrong. Because TERFs have an opinion too. Their opinion is angrily defended as though it’s fact.
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They are genuinely wrong, but they need to stand their ground. For them, womanhood itself is at stake. But what kind of womanhood?
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TERFs love definitions. Dogmatic thinking of course revels in definitions and wrapping reality, no matter how messy it is, around the definitions. These people are very hard to argue with. They are not scientific at all. Reality proceeds from dogma.
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Scientific thinking proceeds from observed reality on to descriptive and interpretive overviews. Have an argument and you’ll find it’s not much of a discussion. It’s typically repetition of the core dogma.
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Here’s how TERFs define ‘woman’.
It’s almost always reproductive function.

Women are adults that menstruate.
Women have ovaries.
Women have breasts and a vagina.
Women are capable of childbirth.
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Note that technically this excludes a whole lot of women that would have been called women from birth. But they’re regarded as collateral damage.
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The problem here is that this then flavours how they then go about their ‘feminism’.
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TERF feminism looks at first like it’s all about women’s rights - especially to be protected from ‘faux women’ such as trans women, whom they regard as men deluded in fantasy at best and as vile potential rapists more typically.
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But that’s it. The movement entirely is about that, and making sure women stay women and men stay men. In other words, they aren’t really feminists. They are traditionalists.
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The only radical aspect really is that they are so vicious with their hatred of trans people. They are old school feminists at best. Men vs Women is the worldview. Nothing so modern as intersectional feminism. A vision of a world where all genders find harmony and community.
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Nope. Women are women as defined by reproductive capability. Which serves the patriarchy very nicely thank you. Women’s essence is not something as so esoteric as being ‘feminine’
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it’s babies, periods, breastfeeding. Anything else is just not core. Some might aspire to more... but it’s icing on the cake that they can have a shot at after the core functions are performed.
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TERFs are not modern feminists at all - they are traditionalists.

Why are trans women a threat to TERFs?
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Well they are a threat because they are seen as men trying to take away their uniqueness. They don’t accept that women can exist outside of their narrow definition. If they are men, they might rape as well.
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Actual trans women are mostly incapable of that, but don’t let details get in the way of your hatred! Many modern feminists don’t have an issue with trans people. One reason is that they are not beholden to a narrow definition of ‘women’.
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Women are ‘those who regard themselves as women’ and typically are happy to say that they are ‘feminine’ - with that being understood to be extremely broad.
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The problem with the definition via reproductive capacity is that it leaves women in danger of that being entirely what women are about. It completely serves the patriarchy.

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Have a look at who the allies of TERFs are - it’s quite telling.... conservative media, religious conservatives, the far right. They don’t deserve the ‘F’ for ‘feminists’ at all.
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The absolutely rabid discourse in the media from TERFs follows their narrow thinking. At every point, trans people are to be attacked and disrupted. They can’t be left in peace. They are a threat! They are not real!
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But reality is not where TERFs dwell. That is how to deal with them. Ask them how they know what they assert. Ask them if they personally know any trans people. Ask them to outline how transition occurs. Ask them about the statistics of public bathroom attacks.
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Ignore the bluster. Ask them how they know trans people are lying. Ask them why they are correct rather than scientists. Ask them why reproduction is so important to the essence of a woman.
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TERFs are TERDs

Trans-Excoriating Reproductive Determinists
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@threadreaderapp please unroll

TERFs are TERDs

Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists are clearly misnamed.

Trans-Excoriating Reproductive Determinists
is far more accurate.

Written by an amazing Aussie Trans woman High School teacher. She nails this👍
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TERFs are TERDsTrans-Exclusive Radical Feminists are clearly misnamed. Trans-Excoriating Reproductive Deterministsis far more accurate.Written by an amazing Aussie Trans woman High School teacher. She nails this👍1-

More from Kirsti Miller

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You May Also Like

TERFs are TERDs

Trans-Exclusive Radical Feminists are clearly misnamed.

Trans-Excoriating Reproductive Determinists
is far more accurate.

Written by an amazing Aussie Trans woman High School teacher. She nails this👍
1-