It is deeply, deeply beneficial to TERFs if the only characteristic of TERF ideology you will recognize as wrong, harmful, or problematic is "they hate trans women".
TERF ideology is an expansive network of extremely toxic ideas, and the more of them we accept and normalize, the easier it becomes for them to fly under the radar and recruit new TERFs. The closer they get to turning the tide against all trans people, trans women included.
Case in point: In 2014-2015, I fell headlong into radical feminism. I did not know it was called radical feminism at the time, but I also didn't know what was wrong with radical feminism in the first place. I didn't see a problem with it.
I was a year deep into this shit when people I had been following, listening to, and looking up to finally said they didn't think trans women were women. It was only then that I unfollowed those people, specifically; but I continued to follow other TERFs-who-didn't-say-they-were-TERFs. I continued ingesting and spreading their ideas- for years after.
If TERFs "only target trans women" and "only want trans women gone", if that's the one and only problem with their ideology and if that's the only way we'll define them, we will inevitably miss a vast majority of the quiet beliefs that support their much louder hatred of trans women.
As another example: the trans community stood relatively united when TERFs and conservatives targeted our right to use the correct restroom, citing the "dangers" of trans women sharing space with cis women. But when they began targeting Lost Little Girls and Confused Lesbians and trotting detransitioners out to raise a panic about trans men, virtually the only people speaking up about it were other transmascs. Now we see a rash of anti-trans healthcare bills being passed in the US, and they're hurting every single one of us.
When you refuse to call a TERF a TERF just because they didn't specifically say they hate trans women, when you refuse to think critically about a TERF belief just because it's not directly related to trans women, you are actively helping TERFs spread their influence and build credibility.
what is some TERF ideology we should be on the look out for?
This isn't comprehensive, but I'll do my best.
TERFs are, first and foremost, radical feminists. Radical feminism is essentially second-wave feminism without the intersectionality brought in by third-wave feminism. It believes that patriarchy is at fault for the oppression of women, but sees this in a very strict, binary way: women are the oppressed, and men are the oppressors.
TERFs use this to justify their specific brand of transphobia. This idea, among others, is essential in supporting that transphobia.
I'll try to outline some of those ideas, and some of the logical thruoughlines they use:
Women are uniquely oppressed, and always in danger. Womanhood- or the experience of being a woman- is defined by oppression, misogyny, and Being In Danger.
Women are particularly in danger in the presence of, and in relationships with, men. Spaces that exclude men are essential to preserving the safety of women.
Socialization: men are raised to support patriarchy, while women are raised to be subjugated by it. Men have no motive to unlearn these lessons, so all men are inherently more corrupted by these lessons than women.
Relationships with men are therefore inherently (more likely to be) abusive, and relationships with women are inherently safe(er).
Sex, in particular, is more often exploitative than not. Only some kinds of sex are not exploitative. Many kinds of sex that we think are consensual, or that people say are consensual, are either rape or proto-rape.
Exchanging money for sex is inherently rape/exploitation/non-consensual in some way.
As women who deny men access to them, lesbians are The Most Oppressed and also The Most Endangered. They must be protected at all costs.
Because so many women have been raped by men with penises, both men and penises are inherently traumatic to A Lot Of Women.
Many lesbians will naturally have an aversion to relationships with trans women because of this. Trans women who argue against this "genital preference" are potential rapists trying to infiltrate lesbian spaces to hurt and take advantage of women.
Men will always try to invade "women's spaces" to take advantage of women, endanger them, and strip away their resources both for personal gain/pleasure, and in service of upholding the patriarchy.
If we allow men to say they are women, they will invade those spaces and hurt "real" women. Men who say they are women are dangerous, and must be excluded and punished.
Men may try to obfuscate labels and terminology to "define women out of existence" or otherwise cause confusion, which they can manipulate to further their infiltration.
Women are all miserable with their bodies, cursed with the pressure to reproduce and have sex with men.
Women are all miserable with their genders, forced as they are to ensure the overwhelming and constant suffering that is patriarchy.
Women will attempt to escape this misery and pressure by "becoming men". This is cowardly, but understandable; a tragic but inevitable result of patriarchy. These women must be saved.
Some women who try to escape patriarchy are doing it out of self-interest; they are betraying women by becoming men, and contributing to their oppression. These women must be punished.
Bio-essentialism: women are oppressed specifically because of their bodies and ability to reproduce. This is an inherent and defining part of womanhood. Nobody can claim womanhood without this experience, everyone who has had this experience is a woman.
Women's bodies are all beautiful and perfect because they are women's bodies. If the womanliness of them is tampered with, they become less valuable. Men's bodies are gross and undesirable symbols of patriarchy.
Testosterone makes people violent, aggressive, irrational, and angry. Estrogen makes people calm, kind, and happy.
Men can never understand women's bodies as well as other women do.
People can be attracted to other people on the basis of "sex" alone. This is inherent, immutable, and unquestionable.
Men are sexual animals who inherently and unavoidably find lots of bad things sexually arousing. Because "youth" is attractive, many men find young girls and children attractive, and will try to take advantage of them. Misogynistic control/power over women, hurting women, and even rape are also inherently sexually appealing to men.
"Gender" is meaningless; it's founded in misogynistic stereotypes about men and women, and when you remove the stereotypes, there's nothing left at all. Only binary "sex" is real, because that's what patriarchy (and biology) is based on.
Manhood is itself a toxic, oppressive, inherently corrupting concept. Anyone who participates in manhood is corrupt and immoral; who would choose to be the oppressor?
Masculinity is defined only by hating women, having power, and being aggressive, violent, and controlling (etc.)
Patriarchy doesn't just target women, but femininity as a whole, for its association with women.
Patriarchy doesn't just reward men, but masculinity, as it rejects femininity. People who reject femininity and embrace masculinity are rewarded by the patriarchy.
Some of these ideas are contradictory, but they lead to the same conclusions. Some of them lead to similar conclusions, many of which take very little further nudging to push into more dogmatic ideas.
This is exactly why we need to understand all of these paths into TERF ideology- and more.
In fact, the vast majority of the points on this list- particularly the beginnings of their logic- can be very easily swallowed while still holding that trans women are women, and trans men are men.
That's what TIRFs (trans-inclusive radical feminists) are, and they're still incredibly dangerous. TIRF ideology normalizes these points, making it far easier for TERFs to recruit; even if TIRFs themselves try to be aggressively anti-TERF.
Again, this isn't comprehensive, and it would take a long time and a lot of words to cover every flaw and danger in every line of reasoning here.
But remember how these things work; even if some of them begin with a grain of truth, even if some of them are true- especially if you define the words they contain differently- be wary of them.
It's important to note how sex-negative they can be, and how in some circles this leads to a belief that being a lesbian is the only way one can liberate oneself from the abuse of men. They see sexual orientation as a choice to be made for one's safety, or a political act--not something based on genuine attraction. They also sometimes push the idea of the "gold-star lesbian"--that is, a lesbian who's never been with a man--as the ideal. If you're a bisexual? Disgusting, don't interact.
It's... sadly common to see on dating sites.
radical feminism is almost indistinguishable from evangelical conservatism. both camps believe that heterosexual sex is a violent consumption (and an immoral corruption) of women’s pure bodies. they believe that womanhood is inextricably centered around the uterus. they believe that men are basically ravenous violent sex-obsessed beasts who need to be restrained by the morality of good women. they believe that your sex at birth defines your character for the rest of your life, and that male and female are completely different, oppositional states of being. they believe that limiting young people’s access to information will keep them safer than giving them a full education and letting them make their own fully informed choices. they believe it’s better--safer and more virtuous--to be an innocent victim than an active agent. they both believe that suffering through all of this sanctifies women and proves that they’re more noble and virtuous than men. and, of course, the more suffering a woman endures, the more noble it must have made her.
the only difference is that radical feminists express their anger over these terrible beliefs and evangelical conservatives repress it.
and lot of these beliefs are familiar, and comfortable, to a lot of people who aren’t even radfems or conservatives. they pervade western thought already. it’s a framework of understanding sexism that resonates with a lot of our lived experiences. and going from acceptance of a terrible system to righteous anger at that terrible system can be an important and cathartic stage for victims of that system! but the next step is to reject the validity of that system, which radfems do not.
It’s implied but not explicitly stated above that BDSM--all BDSM no matter how well negotiated--counts as “rape” in this type of ideology.
Other highlights: All rape fantasies are inherently sick and dangerous. Pornography is inherently unhealthy and people who say they can separate porn from real life are suspect. "Informed consent” is fake: people are inherently harmed by BDSM/weird fantasies/porn/whatever, and saying yes to those things is just a sign that the person is damaged, not a valid conscious choice.
In a fandom context, the above stuff looks like this:
AFABs who write m/m instead of focusing on female characters are self-hating women who are betraying their sisters.
It is the duty of AFABs to write f/f in particular.
Being into m/m if you aren’t a cis man is “fetishization”.
Everyone could just choose to write f/f if they were being politically good. Saying you’re “just not into” something is an excuse rather than a valid description of how desire and inspiration work.
“Because it makes me horny” is never a valid reason for fic.
F/F is purer and better and softer than any other content.
All kinky fic is furthering rape culture.
Kinky f/f is especially heinous and must be stamped out.
The fact that you have to click on “gross” AO3 works to see them doesn’t matter because their very existence is damaging to people.
If you disagree, it’s because you're a broken, deluded victim engaging in self harm.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
A lot of fandom wank is explicitly and overtly pushing radfem garbage and calling that progressive. Yes, you, trans teenagers of tumblr. No matter how many times you reaffirm that you hate TERFs.
When you say “X is bad except for cope-shipping”...
When you demand that hobbyist women write about female characters...
When you say that people are clearly predators or going to become predators because of their Bad fic content...
You are helping TERFs.
(recapping previous posts to repeat:)
TERF ideology that doesn’t say anything about trans women or even trans people, and that I have seen trans people brandish about, and that is still TERF ideology:
Idolising women (/in fandom: female characters)
Women are better, lesbians are better (/in fandom: female characters and f/f)
This sometimes comes through very innocuous speech like “lesbians are smarter, that’s why they’re attracted to women only” or “this female character is too smart to be straight” (gender-essentialist, sexist, biphobic!)
All women understand, love and support each other
Disinterest or dislike for a woman is strictly caused by sexism and misogyny (the girlboss phenomenon). (/in fandom: the idea that the absence of content about a female character or a f/f ship is strictly a sign of sexism/misogyny/lesbophobia)
Women are pure and soft, infantilising women (/in fandom: you cannot write dark content involving female characters, depicting a female character as anything else than perfect is sexism and misogyny)
Lesbians are pure and soft, infantilising lesbians (in fandom: you cannot write dark or PWP femslash, depicting a wlw as anything else than perfect is lesbophobia)
Leading to: you can never be abused or raped by a woman, lesbian relationships are never abusive or unhealthy (normalising abuse, denying support)
As well as acephobia, with the implication that sex is a matter of morality, purity and choice, and that’s it’s more moral to depict characters in an non-sexual relationship, as opposed to asexuality and sex-repulsion being just an uncontrollable and morally-neutral orientation and feeling
Misandry, including casual misandry like “ew men are gross”
Leading to: All men are abusive and rapists, of course you got raped, you shouldn’t date men, what did you expect? (normalising abuse, victim-blaming, retraumatising, denying support)
As well as the concept that a woman is tainted/damaged by her attraction to men or her romantic/sexual history with men. That sound like anything?
Biphobia, including casual biphobia like “why would you choose to date a gross guy when you could date ~WOMEN~”
Leading to: general queerphobia, due to the idea that you can choose who to date/have sex with and there is a moral choice to make; yes, the idea that lesbians are better has queerphobic and sexist undertones
Demonisation of kink as a weapon of patriarchy, including “kink is abusive and cannot be consensual, kink is caused by trauma and victimhood (if only the victimhood of patriarchy), and kink harms pure and innocent women”
Demonisation of porn, sex work, and sex workers as all weapons of patriarchy, including “no one would choose to be a sex worker, it’s inherently degrading and non-consensual (and so it’s completely normal that a sex worker would get assaulted and hurt), sex workers need help so they can stop doing sex work altogether”
Demonisation of any unpure desires or thoughts: if you find women attractive you are predatory to them, if you are a woman and masochistic you are a traumatised and endoctrinated victim of patriarchy, if you have rape fantasies you are not only a victim but a helping agent of the violence of patriarchy. All dark thoughts and desires are wrong and a sign that something is wrong with you, and it’s not healthy to indulge them.
Due to patriarchy, all women suffer and are miserable from being women. This is not only meant to scare trans women away from embracing their identity and transitioning, but also implies: no one could truly want to be a woman (and trans women do not really exist); if you don’t want to be a woman, that’s normal and a common womanly experience and a sign that you are a woman like us (and trans men do not really exist)
All men are horrible, violent people due to their upbringing but also testosterone. This is not only meant to scare trans men away from embracing their identity and transitioning, but also implies: no one could truly want to be a man without being a horrible person (and trans men are traitors to women); if you don’t want to be a man, that’s normal guilt to have because you are inherently a horrible person (but due to your upbringing you can never be a good person and a pure woman).
And finally, one that does talk about trans people, but pretends to be supportive and not transphobic...
Attraction to and celebration of trans bodies, especially in ways that end up with PIV sex, are predatory/fetishistic/violent to trans people/heteronormative/inflicting the horrible dreaded patriarchy, by the conduct of penis in vagina. (/in fandom: writing smut involving trans characters is fetishistic and predatory, writing dark content involving trans characters is especially heinous)
Note how this returns to the idea that no penis should go in a vagina, because penises bad and vaginas good and even if it involves trans people it’s heteronormative patriarchy, and trans people shouldn’t be confident with their bodies and use their bodies for sex. I have specifically seen this one a lot from trans people, even though... it’s stealthily rooted in radfem bio-essentialism transphobia and is intended to lead you to TERFism.
(Thank you SO MUCH for this post, OP, it’s extremely needed and it’s very helpful to get it from someone who had the experience of being taken in.)
