Male-identified men are now adopting ‘terf’ as a hate word for ‘woman’
A new hate meme appeared widely in social media on about May 1: a picture of a cute, winking, childlike figure with the caption, “Shut the fuck up TERF”. The long-haired child is pointing a revolver at the viewer and raising two fingers
Whereas discussion of gender in social media has been siloed into hostile camps, with short negative or even threatening messages predominating, Medium has served as a shared space for civil exchange of views. Examples are [Etti], [Lawford-Smith], [O’Brien], [Sirois], [Stock], [Uasal], [Williams]. The camps are named “pro-trans” and “radical feminist,” but the human experiences don’t necessarily fit into “camps.” The accounts of the experiences of children who socially transition, for example [Sirois], confirm observations of both “camps” about the harm done to children by gender stereotyping and coercion to conform. We who follow Medium may also want to follow the evolution of how words are being used.
The term, ‘terf’ (for trans-exclusionary radical feminist), appears often to label gender-critical feminists. This term is viewed by some as an objective designation and by others as a slur against feminists. Regardless, new evidence has appeared that open misogynists, not associated with transgender movements, have adopted the term as a hate word for women in general.
According to the “Know your meme” site, SonicFox is the originator or publisher of the “Shut the fuck up” gun graphic, whose character is named Lily. SonicFox is the alias of Dominique McLean, a highly paid “fighting games” professional [knowyourmeme].
In late April 2019, according to a news report, “McLean posted a Twitter video of him playing Mortal Kombat 11. It was captioned ‘What I do to terfs’ and featured a male character striking a female character so hard in the neck that her skin came off. Every time a blow fell, McLean shouted ‘terf’ into his headset mic” [Lewis].
In a human-rights committee session on human rights and democracy, in the UK parliament May 1, member of parliament Joanna Cherry questioned a Twitter executive about Twitter’s acceptance of the use of a revolver image to threaten women and to demand that they “shut up” [Lomas].
The word ‘terf’ has been used for years to label or slur feminists who question gender-identity politics. Thus, it has been associated, rightly or wrongly, with transgender activism and used in the name of transgender-identified people.
This association is misleading and ominous, because it has been feminism that has exposed gender stereotypes for decades, and it is transgender-identified people who have led, by their daily choices of self-presentation, in directly challenging these stereotypes, and who have suffered mistreatment for that. Thus gender-nonconforming people and feminists are natural allies for protecting the safety and equal treatment of both women and all trans-identified people.
Now, an anti-feminist slur, associated with the transgender movement by inflammatory rhetoric of some elements of that movement, emerges as an obvious hate word against all women, associated with violence and threats by the inclusion of the revolver in the meme.
A big danger here is that women may associate transgender people with these violent misogynistic threats, as the anti-feminist rhetoric of some activists has incited gender-nonconforming people with fear of feminists and against feminists. Two oppressed groups are falsely pitted against each other.
It’s all about words and their implications. If some male-bodied persons declare that they are women, some women sense an invasion of their protected space. Women have fought for safe, protected spaces away from males, who are the oppressor sex. Yet do male-bodied persons necessarily threaten women by declaring that they are women?
Likewise, trans-identified people want safe spaces. Are persons with male bodies wearing dresses or make-up safe in male spaces? No — they’re victims of male violence as are females. Are people safe when they assume the dress or appearance assigned to the other sex? No. They face any response from violence to rude questions about their sex. From childhood, any deviation from gender norms in hair, clothing, or gestures brings cruel responses. Trans-identified people have personal reasons to be angry. Lots more other people have personal reasons to solidarize with them. Some of the anger is directed against women.
Radical feminists are accused of transphobia based on their critiques of gender. They apply the understanding of sociologists that sex is biological, while gender is social; sex is body, gender is behavior. They adhere to the age-old scientific definition of women as the female sex. Thus they cannot affirm claims that a male-bodied person is a woman.
Trans-identified people and others — even legislative bodies and other social institutions — may define these words differently from radical feminists. The definition of “woman” as any person who identifies as a woman is in widespread use.
Definitions describe the ways we use words. They are not opinions. Words have different definitions, sometimes contradictory. The word “sanction” means both permitting and forbidding, for example. Scholars who define words differently don’t accuse, harass, or threaten each other. Definitions are conventions or preferences of usage. Millions of people have been killed in wars of religion, just for using different definitions and words for the divine. We can rise above this.
Women and trans-identified people need not see each other as threats just because they define words differently. What is needed is discussion and efforts to understand. “What leads you to call yourself a woman?” “Why is my calling myself a woman a problem for you?” “Why are my definitions of words a problem for you?”
The question of gender is under widespread discussion in the society. Should competitive women’s sports be open to participation by athletes born male? Are some male babies really girls and some females really boys? Should they be encouraged to choose surgery to change their bodies? These discussions won’t be stopped by name calling.
In at least one case, a musical group uses the ‘terf’ epithet in a murderous context, in its graphics and in its titles or lyrics. “Dumpster Dick,” of Madison, Wisconsin, has adopted the logo below and entitles its latest track, “TerfDestroyer666.” The logo shows a dumpster with flames rising above it, surrounded by gasoline cans, and labeled “TerfDestroyer666.” It is an image that evokes the burning alive of women. It makes the slogan, “Die in fire, terfs” more explicit, also evoking the murders of millions of women by burning, as witches, in Europe centuries ago.
The band’s name is a misogynistic phrase. According to the Urban Dictionary, a “dumpster dick” is a man who sexually uses women he despises [urban]. Rapists are dumpster dicks. Dumpster dicks call their targets “cum dumpsters,” according to the Urban Dictionary.
The leader of Dumpster Dick, who has adopted the name Christine Elaine and who belongs to the Men’s Roller Derby league, has chosen a feminist woman, Thistle Pettersen, as a target since 2017. Pettersen is a singer, songwriter, environmentalist, antiwar activist, and radio host. Together with a group called Degenderettes, Christine Elaine has been on a campaign to destroy the career of Pettersen and to silence her voice. The harassment has included posting doctored photographs of Pettersen holding a sign with the obscene message, “My favorite band are Dumpster Dick.”
Complying with the demands of Degenderettes and Dumpster Dick / Christine Elaine, several venues and organizations in Madison have declared Pettersen a “hateful bigot” and banned her from their stages (www.defendfeminists.net). Hers is one of many such cases of harassment of feminists: journalist Meghan Murphy, matriarchal-studies scholar Max Dashu, film maker Nina Paley, athlete Martina Navratilova, and writer Chimamanda-ngozi Adiche. A growing organized outcry has occurred against the harassment, de-platforming, and threats used to silence feminists.
Images of revolvers captioned “Shut the Fuck Up TERF”, and of trash containers burning women alive, don’t express the intentions or fantasies of people who authentically identify with or as women. The leader of Dumpster Dick is not acting out femaleness when fantasizing publicly about burning women alive. SonicFox, the source of the “Shut the fuck up, TERF” meme, actually has nothing to do with transgender activism, to our knowledge; he just hates women. These are both women haters brandishing male hate words and fantasies and appealing to other women haters seemingly in the name of gender-nonconforming people. Trans-identified people have never been asked whether they endorse hate words. As people targeted by hate words and worse, they aren’t likely to endorse them.
Open male misogyny has now appropriated for its own use the anti-feminist slur, ‘terf’.
The meaning of “Shut the fuck up, terf” is “Shut up, woman.” Burning ‘terfs’ in a dumpster actually means murdering women at will. Misogynists have succeeded in appropriating for their own agendas a word, ‘terf,’ that used to refer to differences of opinion over gender between some feminists and some transgender-identified people. That word now replaces or stands beside the ‘b’ and ‘c’ words for use when women-haters want to get away with using women-hating slurs.
References
[Etti] Etti‘s Daughter. Silencing Women. https://medium.com/@ettimclaughlin/silencing-women-1442e0031372
[knowyourmeme] https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1488196-sonicfox)
[Lawford-Smith] Holly Lawford-Smith. “A hate movement hiding behind a bunch of pseudo-feminist platitudes”: Response to ContraPoints. https://medium.com/@aytchellis/response-to-contrapoints-263a2796bb9b
[Lewis] Helen Lewis, Welcome to the age of ironic bigotry, where old hatreds are cloaked in woke new language. 5/1/19, NewStatesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2019/05/welcome-age-ironic-bigotry-where-old-hatreds-are-cloaked-woke-new-language
[Lomas] Natasha Lomas, Twitter grilled on policy approach that reinforces misogyny. https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/01/twitter-grilled-on-policy-approach-that-reinforces-misogyny/
[O’Brien] Ani O’Brien. Fundamentally misunderstanding gender critical feminism. Medium, 5/8/19.
[Sirois] Martie Sirois. The Uncomfortable Work Of Educating Teachers On Trans Issues. https://medMartie Siroisium.com/gender-from-the-trenches/the-uncomfortable-work-of-educating-teachers-on-trans-issues-31d1e129708a
[Stock] Kathleen Stock. Doing better in arguments about sex, gender, and trans rights. https://medium.com/@kathleenstock/doing-better-in-arguments-about-sex-and-gender-3bec3fc4bdb6
[Uasal] Jocelyn Uasal. The Truth About Growing Up Trans: The stereotypes on women and men all in one childhood. https://blog.usejournal.com/the-truth-about-growing-up-trans-966a1fe8946b
[urban] https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dumpster%20dick
[Williams] Rachel Anne Williams. What It Means to Be Authentic. https://medium.com/@transphilosophr/what-it-means-to-be-authentic-db0b8df40e50