By Jeremiah Ancheta

Introduction

The term TERF, or Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, has become more known in recent years as the fight for (and unfortunately, the fight against) trans rights continues. But what exactly is the deal with TERFs and what relevance do they have with trans people?

This post will give an explanation of TERF ideology and why it is harmful towards transgender people.

Feminism and Radical Feminism

First, what is feminism? I like the simple definition given by bell hooks that encompasses various strands of feminism throughout history – “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” Radical feminism can be described as a strand of feminism which seeks to eliminate the patriarchy with a re-ordering and re-structuration of society. 

Feminists and radical feminists point out the existence of the patriarchy, which can be roughly described as a social system in place that advantages men and disadvantages women in various social aspects of their lives. Such social aspects include one’s social standing, access to material resources, how they are affected in the political sphere, etc. The advantages that men have in society in virtue of being men is what makes them privileged, in contrast with women who are oppressed due to the disadvantages they have in virtue of being women.

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism, or TERF, can be described as believing in these two points:

1. Following feminism in seeking to end oppression towards women
2. Gender is identical to sex and is thus a biological phenomenon

As explained in a previous post by Cloud Dancers, those who believe that gender is a biological phenomenon believe that whether a person is a man/woman is based on biological features, typically one’s sex chromosome make-up and their sex organs. For such people, what it is to be a woman is to be a person with XX sex chromosomes and a vagina. This is also how one’s gender is assigned at birth.

Those who believe that gender is a strictly biological phenomenon typically deny the existence and identity of transgender people – people whose gender does not align with one’s sex assigned at birth. 

So for TERFs, trans-women do not count as women. As such, they are excluded from being considered oppressed as women in following their project of feminism. 

Furthermore, it is seemingly the case that those associated with the term TERF also vehemently criticize trans activism. For instance, J.K. Rowling and Dave Chappelle are two such notable individuals and have criticized trans activism and trans people within their fields of work. For more on this, see Cloud Dancer’s posts on Rowling and Chappelle. 

As seen through the actions and reception towards Rowling and Chappelle, those associated with TERFs see much support due to their public endorsement of feminist ideals, yet their ideology continues to hurt trans people by denying their existence and identity or painting their activism in a negative light.