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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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

More from Kirsti Miller

Would having the testosterone limit for transgender women at 10nmol/L (5-10 times what’s considered “typical” for women) give them a massive advantage over their cisgender opponents?


Absolutely not, is recognized an XY chromosome body is seen as unhealthy <12nmol/L or less. A XY female as they lose the ability to produce natural occurring testosterone, falls into a range of 0.4nmol/L.

Which we know too, the individual falls into menopause at 9.6nmol/L, and due to complete androgen deprivation eventually into the position of that would equate a XX female = who had had a complete hysterectomy including her gonads.

We can be assured, one this is extremely unhealthy – Moreover, and most important, we can be assured that there are no women either XX and or XY competing internationally like this.

This is not for anyone a desired state and for the participation high performance sport eventually impossible to participate longterm.

More from Transgender

Okay #trans allies - what are you going to do to help us? Actual, concrete actions? What will you do:
- today?
- over the course of a week?
- before the end of the year?
- throughout 2021?
I want to hear about it - and I want you to spread the word to other cis people.

Some ideas, if you're stuck. If you have the money, donate to one (or all) of these fundraisers/organisations:

1. @GoodLawProject Transgender Lives

2. A trans healthcare/mutual aid fund:
- @BlkTAlliance

- @BlackTransUK

-
https://t.co/4sIT4GJ08r

- @transMAMCR

- @SWTNMutualAid

3. @Genderintell, to get help to the young trans people under attack right now.

4. Educate yourself about #trans lives so that you can confidently spread that knowledge amongst your cis networks. Buy a trans-authored book today, read it cover to cover, then PASS IT ON TO A CIS FRIEND. Is there a trans resource you love? Give it to ALL your cis friends.
”No child should ever be forced to live a life that is not theirs, I did and it nearly killed me many times.”


It appears that every time an under-age Transgender person attempts to access medical care to make their lives better conservative people try to say they’re not ready for it.


As an older transgender woman who waited until I my mid 30’s due to those same prevailing attitudes, I feel it’s sad right-wing people are still trotting out those same tired old lines.

According to them, we’re too young to know our gender pre-pubescent and when we start undergoing a puberty which doesn’t align with our gender identity apparently we’re still far too young to access puberty blockers to make the masculinisation process go away.

These people only want us to access medical care after the age of 18 and that’s when it’s far too late for many Trans women, as the whole masculinisation process [which we didn’t want in the first place] has already happened.

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