Grand Duchess of Douche

What do TERFs actually believe?

There's a few core principles to TERF belief:

All men are evil and seek to abuse women, no exceptions.

All men either are rapists or are future rapists, who will trick, force, and coerce women into sex at any opportunity.

All trans women are evil men.

All trans men are really abused women, either trying to gain power over women by pretending to be men OR abused by men into thinking they are A Men (and therefore need rescuing from the Evil Men)

GNC people, nonbinary people, and intersex people do not exist, are genetic mistakes, or are somehow also evil men.

This is what TERFs believe wholeheartedly and spread. The core of it is that they perpetuate that no matter what, men, and anyone they decide is a man, is the most dangerous thing on the planet. Disproportionately, they target POC, especially black and indigenous men and women who do not fit their idea of proper masculinity or femininity, which is almost always very eurocentric.

TERF ideology crosses paths with racists, eugenics, and neo nazi ideology quite frequently and this is no mistake. Most hardcore TERFs are, unsurprisingly, racist themselves and much of their beliefs hinge on spreading the idea that only white american or european ideas of gender are correct. Many of their dog whistles and ideals are stemmed directly from white supremacy itself and blatantly so.

How do TERFs spread this?

First and foremost, most TERFs don't start out posting that 'all men should die', they start slowly and over time, ramp up their behavior to indoctrinate their followers into their beliefs. They will post innocent seeming posts that actually have double meanings as way of finding each other and also to indoctrinate others into their beliefs.

Exclusion of certain aspects of the LGBT+ community is at the forefront, the biggest way terfs will begin to spread their ideology. TERFs often do this by going after parts of the community that are deemed a 'safer' target to attack and less likely to get their behavior called out, such as asexuals, aromantics, nonbinary and genderfluid folk, bisexuals, and anyone who does not fit into a proper label. Ace/aro exclusion is one of the most well known and still most prevalent ways for TERFs to get their foot in the door. This is done also with kink almost word for word, for the same exact reason, as those old enough to recognize it for what it is are the most likely to instantly kick any terfs out, while younger folks might not.

'Queer is a slur'/'Stop using queer' is another, a tactic to further split the community. Posts are often phrased in a way to appeal to young LGBT folk who don't know the community's history or that queer is one of the longest held terms to refer to the community, and plant the idea that it must stop being used and anyone calling themselves queer is in some way actually homophobic. It works exactly the same as exclusion, meant to further divide the community and slowly weed out anyone TERFs don't care for. The idea of queer being a slur was actually started here on tumblr by tumblr TERFs not that long ago, only beginning to crop up in earnest around 2014. It's another method of getting rid of genderfluid, nonbinary, ace, and aro folks along with any other groups that don't neatly fit into a label as simple as 'man or woman' and is the entire purpose of the movement.

Playing the victim any time they are called out on their behavior is another way TERFs recruit. A common tactic is for them to post dog whistles and bait people who recognize them into calling them out for it, and act like they're being ruthlessly harassed and attacked for no reason or 'trying to protect women'. This is meant to garner sympathy from people who can be brought into the fold and make it seem as though transgender folk, who are almost always the ones to catch it, are needlessly aggressive and attacking them.

Over time, TERFs will ramp up their posts, ignoring those calling them out completely and ignoring any losses in their following. They will begin to post more and more outright TERF ideology until those who do follow them are fully indoctrinated into their beliefs. Often, it's done with fandom affiliated accounts such as those for children's shows and media, to suck people in or hope that people looking for content for that media will find their blogs and get sucked in. Often times on tumblr and twitter especially, if you follow an innocent seeming account and suddenly get recommended outright TERFs to follow, it's a sign that it's an account of one.

Dog Whistles

A dog whistle is a term, phrase, or idea that seems innocuous on it's own, but has a double meaning to convey its true message. This is one of the primary ways TERFs will indoctrinate others, using them in order to get others on their cause and when called out for it, will act as though they're being attacked unjustly, further bringing their followers in to their side. There are far too many TERF dog whistles to list in their entirety, but these ones are pretty common:

'Queer is a slur'

Bathroom Attacks/Bathroom Predators

Gender critical

Radfem

Woman born woman / man born man / Natural gender

Protect the children

Genderists / trans cult

Cherry, red square, or checkered flag emojis in bio

Drop the T/A/B

Genderfree (not to be confused with agender, an actual LGBT identity)

There are however, far more dog whistles than can actually be listed here and some that need explanation.

Hygienic / Clean women This is a new one TERFs are using as a dog whistle to other TERFs. It is lifted straight out of the eugenics handbook on the idea that certain groups have dirty inferior genes and quite literally, a white supremacist dog whistle already, repackaged for transphobia.

Hormonal advantages The idea that men inherently are stronger than women because of testosterone AND that 'men' will take hormones to transition into women to kick 'real' women out of sports and win for themselves.

Skeletal/Anatomical Sex Markers This is straight up pseudoscience meant to sound smart while completely ignoring actual science. There are actual anatomical markers outside of the genitals to tell someone's biological sex, however, they are not something you'd typically see on a living non-skeletonized person outside of an xray. In order to spot and interpret them properly, you need a large deal of medical knowledge, which most TERFs do not have. TERFs will claim that they can, however, tell and see these markers, including but not limited to height, shoulder and pelvis width, muscle definition, cheek fullness, lip and eye size, neck definition, hand and foot size, and so on.

This handshakes not only with eugenics but again, white supremacy, as it disproportionately allows TERFs to target people of color who do not fit into white american ideas of gender. Hilariously, you can see just how full of shit this is on twitter, as it's become a meme lately to take photos of very famous, recognizable, FAMOUSLY CISGENDER celebrities and claim them to be a selfie and ask how well you pass- TERFs almost instantly dogpile onto the post, spouting absolute nonsense, claiming the likes of Sigourney Weaver, Mark Suckerberg, Elon Musk, Anne Hathaway, and so on, are all actually trans, without recognizing them at all.

Humans aren't fish/clownfish Many species, but most notably in clownfish, can change sexes at certain stages of life or if the female in their school dies. A terf saying is that humans aren't fish as way of mocking transgender women.

Mutilation/Sterilization/Forced Surgery This is a much more common dog whistle now than it used to be, especially as things such as the forced sterilization of indigenous folk by the USA and Canada have come to light much more lately. Often, this is in the form of comments on posts actually about that topic, and twisting it to say that it's the same as what people are doing to children now by 'forcing' kids to be trans. TERFs often will claim any form of transition is someone mutilating their body or forms of social transition in children, such as kids using a new name, cutting or growing their hair, and wearing appropriate clothing for their identity is people forcing kids to undergo hormone treatment and surgery. Another aspect of it is that TERFs may claim that the 'trans cult' is trying to sterilize women by making them think they're really trans men who may later get bottom surgery or the 'trans cult' is trying to make it so women can't breastfeed, by arguing trans men who have top surgery are again, just confused and abused women the transes tricked.

This is by no means a complete guide or anything, and TERFs are always changing their tactics and dog whistles, but I encourage anyone who knows any I missed to add onto this. Spread information and be wary of anyone using the common dog whistles and be mindful of what you yourself say and interact with- many of their tactics are designed to suck you in.

And finally, because it's inevitable they will come here and read this: