Is Third Wave Feminism Intersectional? : A Study of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism
By Megan Muratore
Feminism has, so far, been defined in three different waves: the first with the suffragettes fighting for women’s voting rights in the early 20th century, the second wave in the 1960s and 1970s to discuss a woman’s right to an abortion, and having agency over her own body, and the third wave coming to be in the 1980s through the start of the 21st century.
Third wave feminism differentiates itself from second wave feminism with the approach it offers to overcoming some of the impasses which developed in feminist theory in the 1980s.
According to “What Is Third Wave Feminism? A New Directions Essay” by R. Claire Snyder, third wave feminism takes three tactical moves to respond to a series of problems discussed with the second wave. Firstly, third wave feminism responds to the collapse of the category of “women” and foregrounds more intersections for trans women, non binary people, and not just anyone who is a cisgender (someone who defines themselves with their gender assigned at birth) female. Secondly, third wave feminists embrace multivocality of feminist ideals over a singular justification of feminist theory. Finally, the third wave of feminism emphasizes inclusivity and an approach which does not police the boundaries of the feminist political, and, instead allows for more personal narratives under the feminist umbrella.
Third wave feminism was built around being more inclusive for people of color and being who do not adhere to the gender binary, yet White Feminism and Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism are still issues under the feminist umbrella.
In her book Constructive Feminism: Women’s Spaces and Women’s Rights in the American City in the chapter “After the Second Wave,” Daphne Spain discusses the role of single-sex spaces for women, claiming that “mandatory segregation of the sexes limits women’s opportunities, thus benefitting men, but segregation by choice can be liberating. Feminist places were empowering because there, women proved that they could grain strength and take care of themselves apart from men.”
While spaces tailored for women can be important and empowering, these spaces often exclude trans women or non-binary individuals, who were not assigned female at birth. The term applied to this exclusive form of a supposedly inclusive type of feminism is called “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism or TERF.
In her article “Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminism: What Exactly Is It, And Why Does It Hurt?,” Kelsie Brynn Jones defines the practice as “a loosely-organized collective with a message of hate and exclusion against transgender women in particular, and transgender people as a whole. They have attached themselves to radical feminism as a means to attempt to deny trans women basic access to health care, women’s groups, restroom facilities, and anywhere that may be considered women’s space.”
Many TERFs believe that transgender women lived part of their life “as men,” and thus still hold on to their male privilege which feminism attempts to fight against. This concept conflates the idea of one’s genitals representing one’s gender identity, which often invalidates the existence of trans folks. This sort of rhetoric erases the struggles that trans individuals go through in order for society to understand that not aligning with the sex they were assigned at birth is just as valid of a choice of gender identity as aligning with one’s assigned sex.
In spaces such as the Women’s Marches in response to Donald Trump’s inauguration, many women chose to wear “pussy hats” or hold signs with phrases such as “pussy power” and other genital-based slogans, which isolate the transgender community. While these phrases directly comment on the lewd comments of many male politicians or public figures, using them at an event labeled as a “Women’s March” this assumes that all women have “female” genitalia.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines feminism as “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” Taking this definition into account, feminist spaces which exclude non binary and trans individuals further perpetuate the misconception that feminism promotes misandry instead of equality.
Feminism has come a long way on the journey of inclusivity, yet until trans individuals among other marginalized groups are fully incorporated into the feminist umbrella, there is still work to be done.
