I see a lot of people say things like “TERFs aren’t real feminists” or “We should call TERFs something besides feminists,” and I understand where this viewpoint comes from, but as a transfeminine person, I honestly don’t like this approach.

I feel like when people utilize this approach, they’re trying to see TERFs as a problem from the outside rather than a problem within. We cannot build a better, more inclusive, and more intersectional flavor of feminism if we assume that problematic tendencies such as transphobia are inherently beyond feminist thought.

Is TERF ideology flawed and misguided? Absolutely, 100%. Is it not feminist? On some level, I see why some would say it isn’t, but at the very least, it’s in the name of feminism. Although TERFs are incredibly sus with their hyperfocus on trans people, especially transfeminine people, and very minimal focus on actually advocating for women’s rights, TERFs are not exactly stemming their transphobia from a viewpoint that conservative Christians, for instance, might stem their transphobia. Their viewpoint is tied to a certain interpretation of feminism, even if that interpretation sucks major doodoo ass.

We have to remember that even mainstream, liberal feminists are not exempt from some problems that TERFs embody. These kinds of feminists can often have transphobic and bioessentialist ideas as well. The difference? They are often more implicit and mask-on with these problematic tendencies. If they’re not outright transphobic in their thinking, they, at the very least, tend to be very erasing of trans struggles, as they usually are with all other kinds of intersectionality. Their major issue with failing to grasp intersectionality is painfully obvious with how much they focus on white cishet women, failing to demonstrate that they don’t even have a single place in their mind concerned about black women, trans women, and other more marginalized groups of women. I see these feminists as a problem obviously (because libs suck), but I certainly wouldn’t say they’re not feminists.

I’m functionally at a point where I can only trust feminists that are truly intersectional and communists, but unfortunately, I wouldn’t say that outlook comprises most self-identified feminists. However, I wouldn’t say that any feminist that deviates from the most helpful outlook on patriarchy isn’t a feminist. They’re just, in some way, a failed one in desperate need of education.

  • ButtBidet [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    33·
    18 days ago

    On this topic, it looks to me that liberals will hold onto exactly fucking one progressive ideology and think that they’re done, but really their spin on it is absolutely toxic. TERFs are just one manifestation of that. Ya feminism is great and important, but it’s not the only method of analysis. Heaps of non-white feminists like bell hooks have written entire books about how white feminism is problematic by itself.

    I say this as a vegan, but FUCKKKK vegans that imagine that veganism will solve everything or that they’re done with growth because they try not to harm animals. Yes veganism is important for not harming animals, and yes it will cut down on a lot of environmental destruction. But veganism doesn’t do anything to solve capitalism, imperialism, and patriarchy. A lot of non white people online call this “white veganism”, and I’ll borrow this term from them.

    I feel like a lot of valuable movements get hijacked by middle class Westerners and turned bullshit. It’s one really insidious way of managing popular discontent.