Radfem terf

 Since the 1970s, there has been a debate among radical feminists about transgender identities.[79] Some radical feminists, such as Catharine MacKinnon, John Stoltenberg, Andrea Dworkin, Monique Wittig, and Finn Mackay have supported recognition of trans women as women, which they describe as trans-inclusive feminism,[80][81][82][83][84] [85][86] while others like Mary Daly, Janice Raymond, Robin Morgan, Germaine Greer, Sheila Jeffreys, Julie Bindel, and Robert Jensen, have argued that the transgender movement perpetuates patriarchal gender norms and is incompatible with radical-feminist ideology.[87][79][88][89]

Those who exclude trans women from womanhood or women's spaces refer to themselves as gender critical[90][91] and are referred to by others as trans-exclusionary.[92] Radical feminists in particular who exclude trans women are often referred to as "trans-exclusionary radical feminists" or "TERFs",[91][90][92][93] an acronym to which they object,[94] say is inaccurate (citing, for example, their inclusion of trans men as women),[91] and argue is a slur or even hate speech.[95][96] These feminists argue that because trans women are assigned male at birth, they are accorded corresponding privileges in society, and even if they choose to present as women, the fact that they have a choice in this sets them apart from people assigned female.

Gender-critical or trans-exclusionary radical feminists in particular say that the difference in behavior between men and women is the result of socialization, and the idea that someone would have an inborn sense of femininity or masculinity runs contrary to the theory of gender socialization. Lierre Keith describes femininity as "a set of behaviors that are, in essence, ritualized submission",[79] and hence, gender is not an identity but a caste position, and the philosophies of gender-identity (specifically the feminine essence philosophy) are an obstacle to the abolition of gender and a reversion to a sex-based society.[79] Julie Bindel argued in 2008 that Iran carries out the highest number of sex-change operations in the world, because "surgery is an attempt to keep gender stereotypes intact", and that "it is precisely this idea that certain distinct behaviours are appropriate for males and females that underlies feminist criticism of the phenomenon of 'transgenderism'."[97][98] According to the BBC in 2014, there are no reliable figures regarding gender-reassignment operations in Iran.[99]

In 1978, the Lesbian Organization of Toronto voted to become womyn-born womyn only and wrote:[100]

A woman's voice was almost never heard as a woman's voice—it was always filtered through men's voices. So here a guy comes along saying, "I'm going to be a girl now and speak for girls." And we thought, "No you're not." A person cannot just join the oppressed by fiat.

In The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male (1979), the lesbian radical feminist Janice Raymond argued that "All transsexuals rape women’s bodies by reducing the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves. However, the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist violates women’s sexuality and spirit, as well. Rape, although it is usually done by force, can also be accomplished by deception. It is significant that in the case of the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist, often he is able to gain entrance and a dominant position in women’s spaces because the women involved do not know he is a transsexual and he just does not happen to mention it."[101] In The Whole Woman (1999), Germaine Greer wrote that largely male governments "recognise as women men who believe that they are women ... because [those governments] see women not as another sex but as a non-sex"; she continued that if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were a mandatory part of sex-change operations, the latter "would disappear overnight".[102]

Sheila Jeffreys argued in 1997 that "the vast majority of transsexuals still subscribe to the traditional stereotype of women" and that by transitioning they are "constructing a conservative fantasy of what women should be ... an essence of womanhood which is deeply insulting and restrictive."[103] In Gender Hurts (2014), she referred to sex reassignment surgery as "self-mutilation",[104] and used pronouns that refer to biological sex. Jeffreys argued that feminists need to know "the biological sex of those who claim to be women and promote prejudicial versions of what constitutes womanhood", and that the "use by men of feminine pronouns conceals the masculine privilege bestowed upon them by virtue of having been placed in and brought up in the male sex caste".[105][79]

By contrast, trans-inclusive radical feminists claim that a biology-based or sex-essentialist ideology itself upholds patriarchal constructions of womanhood. Others assert that trans women also contributed to the feminist movement, and Susan Stryker stated that "transsexual women were active in the radical feminist movement of the late 1960s, but were almost entirely erased from its history after 1973" due to pushback from gender critical feminists.[106] Andrea Dworkin argued as early as 1974 that transgender people and gender identity research have the potential to radically undermine patriarchal sex essentialism:[107]

...work with transsexuals, and studies of formation of gender identity in children provide basic information which challenges the notion that there are two discrete biological sexes. That information threatens to transform the traditional biology of sex difference into the radical biology of sex similarity. That is not to say that there is one sex, but that there are many. The evidence which is germane here is simple. The words "male" and "female," "man" and "woman," are used only because as yet there are no others.

In the late 2010s, interest in the issue of trans-inclusive feminism rose as trans acceptance gained headway. In 2015, radical feminist Catherine MacKinnon said:[81]

Male dominant society has defined women as a discrete biological group forever. If this was going to produce liberation, we'd be free ... To me, women is a political group. I never had much occasion to say that, or work with it, until the last few years when there has been a lot of discussion about whether trans women are women ... I always thought I don't care how someone becomes a woman or a man; it does not matter to me. It is just part of their specificity, their uniqueness, like everyone else's. Anybody who identifies as a woman, wants to be a woman, is going around being a woman, as far as I'm concerned, is a woman.

Feminists who describe themselves as "gender-critical" say that biological sex is "real, important, and immutable" and is "not to be conflated with gender identity", and that feminism should organize with emphasis on the basis of sex rather than gender.[126][127][128][12] These feminists are also often referred to as transgender-exclusionary radical feminists or TERFs by their opponents.[129][130][13][131][132] They hold beliefs considered transphobic by most other feminists,[14][15][16][17][19][133] such as the belief that transgender identities are invalid, incoherent, or irrelevant,[13] opposition to certain kinds of legal recognition and medical care for transgender people, and support for exclusion of trans women from women's spaces and organizations in favor of single-sex spaces.[134][135]

Claire Thurlow states that "what was once termed TERF ... is now more often referred to as gender critical feminism/feminist ... despite efforts to obscure the point, gender critical feminism continues to rely on transphobic tropes, moral panics and essentialist understandings of men and women. These factors also continue to link trans-exclusionary feminism to anti-feminist reactionary politics and other 'anti-gender' movements."[136] Feminist Viv Smythe, who is credited with coining the term "TERF",[131] says its intention as a "technically neutral description ... to distinguish TERFs from other [radical feminists] ... who were trans*-positive/neutral."[43][137] These feminists generally prefer the term "gender-critical",[13][138][139] and often consider TERF to be inaccurate,[7][13] or a slur.[62][139][140] Those described as TERFs or gender-critical are not necessarily associated with radical feminism. While these parties lack influence in academic feminist philosophy,[69] they are relatively powerful in opposing transgender rights in the United Kingdom.[14][17][141] Commenting on the bestselling books Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock and Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality by Helen Joyce, New Statesman writer Louise Perry observed that gender-critical ideas that had been on the fringes in 2004, when Julie Bindel was accused of transphobia,[113] had become mainstream in the United Kingdom by 2021.[142]

In July 2018, Sally Hines, a University of Leeds professor of sociology and gender studies scholar, wrote in The Economist that feminism and trans rights have been falsely portrayed as being in conflict by a minority of anti-transgender feminists, who often "reinforce the extremely offensive trope of the trans woman as a man in drag who is a danger to women." Hines criticized these feminists for fueling "rhetoric of paranoia and hyperbole" against trans people, saying that they abandon or undermine feminist principles in their anti-trans narratives, such as bodily autonomy and self-determination of gender, and employ "reductive models of biology and restrictive understandings of the distinction between sex and gender" in defense of such narratives. She concluded with a call for explicit recognition of anti-transgender feminism as a violation of equality and dignity, and "a doctrine that runs counter to the ability to fulfill a liveable life or, often, a life at all."[143]

In February 2019, feminist theorist, writer, and Yale professor Roxane Gay said issues that impact marginalized women, such as sexual harassment and misconduct, extend to trans women as well, and that trans-exclusionary feminists have "woefully failed" to consider trans women's experience. Describing the effects of transphobia as "appalling" and as leading to trans people's maltreatment and suffering, Gay stated: "I think a lot of feminists are very comfortable being anti-trans. And that's painful to see because we should know better, having been marginalized as women throughout history and today. How dare we marginalize others now?"[144] Hines states that trans-exclusionary radical feminists are a minority among feminists, and that they have published a declaration that advocates the concept of sex-based rights.[145]

In September 2020, Judith Butler said that trans-exclusionary radical feminism is "a fringe movement that is seeking to speak in the name of the mainstream, and that our responsibility is to refuse to let that happen".[146] In October 2021, she described the anti-gender movements as fascist trends and cautioned self-declared feminists from allying with such movements in targeting trans, non-binary, and genderqueer people.[147] In April 2022, feminist author Jude Doyle also argued that the TERF movement became infiltrated by fascists from the mid-2010s and poses a global threat to feminism.[148] Earlier in September 2020, Butler said that "it is painful to see that Trump's position that gender should be defined by biological sex, and that the evangelical and right-wing Catholic effort to purge 'gender' from education and public policy accords with the trans-exclusionary radical feminists' return to biological essentialism."[149]

In March 2021, Stock described those whom she considered gender-critical feminists as being critics of gender in the sense of social stereotypes. Stock wrote: "Gender-critical feminists particularly rebel against the idea, implicit in gender identity theory, that what makes you a woman or a man is a feeling. As far as they are concerned, this feeling could only be, deep down, about the applicability of restrictive and damaging sex-associated stereotypes to yourself."[10] In May 2021, Nancy Kelley, the head of Stonewall, has compared gender-critical feminism to antisemitism.[150] In June 2021, the Association for Women's Rights in Development said that the sex-based rhetoric employed by trans-exclusionary radical feminists "misuses concepts of sex and gender to push a deeply discriminatory agenda."[151]

In January 2022, the Council of Europe approved a report, written by General Rapporteur on LGBT+ rights Fourat Ben Chikha, which condemned "extensive and virulent" attacks on LGBT+ rights.[152] The report condemned "the highly prejudicial anti-gender, gender-critical and anti-trans narratives which reduce the fight for the equality of LGBTI people to what these movements deliberately mischaracterise as 'gender ideology' or 'LGBTI ideology'. Such narratives deny the very existence of LGBTI people, dehumanise them, and often falsely portray their rights as being in conflict with women's and children's rights, or societal and family values in general. All of these are deeply damaging to LGBTI people, while also harming women's and children's rights and social cohesion."[153]