BUDDY, I THINK YOU'RE SLIME

vermouthea:

terf political ideology is inconsistent by design. advocating for the abolishment of gender while reifying women as being biologically constructed serves not to form the basis of a coherent ideology/philosophy of gender but as an attack on trans women, whose transition can be attacked as attempting to perpetuate gender (and therefore women’s oppression) while simultaneously attacking them for not having the same physicality of cis women. this is not a failure to create a cohesive gender ideology that is internally coherent; it is designed to allow the terf/gender critical feminist/”radical” feminist to construct an argument as needed.

in fact, terf ideology is itself notoriously fluid. women who describe themselves as being pro lesbian attack trans women as “raping” lesbians by forcing lesbians to be attracted to penises (despite the fact that trans women’s embodiment can be a spectrum of genitalia, because again terf ideology is not concerned with internal cohesion or even reality but instead with attacking trans women) but these same women will ally themselves with organizations that support kidnapping gay and lesbian children in order to torture them into being straight simply because said organization also is attempting to bully a young trans girl. in fact, if anyone has read the handmaid’s tale, it’s a cautionary tale about the coalition between terfs and the religious right in order to attack pornography and trans women (because terfs also often attack sex workers as a “cause” of women’s oppression)

terfs will also ascribe violence to trans women; whether we exhibit “typical male violence” by standing up for ourselves and defending our lives (as terfs have said about trans women who defend themselves when attacked on the street) or sexual violence by “raping the female form” as noted terf janice raymond insisted in her work, “the transsexual empire.” the fact of the matter is that these realities do not matter to terfs; their ideology is not based on evidence, internal cohesion, or really any basis in reality. their ideology is reactionary in every sense of the word, reacting to the very existence of trans women, reacting to the gains made by trans women, and reacting to the integration of trans women into everyday life. in that sense, terfs are incredibly similar to fascists, who react to those different from themselves by seeking their exclusion and eventual destruction. they cite the same fake news stories about their hated targets committing crimes, they circulate the same conspiracy theories, and quite often interact with each other in social media. the fact that terfs have often cooperated with the far right should be no surprise, because despite their attempts to claim the title “radical” they are every bit a regressive and reactionary ideology as any from the state of alabama’s legislature. their attempts to intellectualize their bigotry will forever be unable to convince those who are capable of analysis, but for those young people who have not experienced feminist analysis previously or those who are not willing or capable of doing high level gender analysis the terf position makes sense, precisely because it is circuitous and preys on the same assumptions about gender that appeal to everyday life. this is why it is essential to isolate terfs to their own communities and insist on properly labeling them and their ideology; simply put, their ability to indoctrinate youth and those just beginning to explore feminist analysis is too strong to simply debate, because again their ideology is not meant to make sense. much like fascists their ideology is more insidious than that.