I find it fascinating that TERFs often ally themselves with the conservative right. Do they really believe 'the enemy of an enemy is my friend?' The religious right pushes the belief that most trans people will simply turn out to be gay - but yet they believe homosexuality a choice. So they're using an argument they don't agree with as a weapon. Stunning.
I find it fascinating that TERFs often ally themselves with the conservative right. Do they really believe 'the enemy of an enemy is my friend?'
I have a theory! Well, a bunch of theories, actually.
First and foremost, I think TERFs are not unlike a female version of the Log Cabin Republicans. I think whether or not one is attracted to fascistic and bigoted politics is a matter of personality and character, and all things being equal, those vary pretty independently of one's sexual orientation or gender identity. The "problem", of course, for LGBTQ people (and women) who want to join in on the fascist fun is that the fascists don't want them. They have two options. Either give up on bigotry and admit that even if they see the appeal, it's wrong, and they know it's wrong from direct experience + the Golden Rule. Or adopt the principle, "No, see, I'm one of the good ones! You're wrong to be prejudiced against my identity, but it's totally fine to be prejudiced against all those other identities. Prejudice is totally fine! Just mistaken in the case of my minority identity. And I totally agree that some of the people in my minority – maybe even a lot – are just like your stereotypes say, and totally worthy of condemnation and contempt. But not all of us! See, I'm okay! Hey, I'll even help you discriminate between the Good Ones like me and all the Bad Ones."
Which is what gets us people like Blair White, for a really obvious case. I just think TERFs are an unobvious case of the same thing.
Which ties into another theory of mine. TERFs make a lot more sense if you start from the hypothesis that what's actually going on with them is that, contrary to what they espouse, they are all deeply misogynist. If you ignore what they say and observe what they do, it turns out that what a TERF is, in practice, is someone who moves in on feminist spaces to attack other women. All of their most avid policies and principles are about discriminating between the "good" women and the "bad" women and punishing the bad women. These are the people in favor of prosecuting sex workers – a category they themselves conceptualize as exclusively women. These are the people who want to criminalize BDSM – or at least when women participate in it, given they don't care about what happens between consenting men. I gather these are the people responsible for a bunch of really foul movements on Tumblr, all of which turn out the necessitate attacking women.
So of course they attack trans women. Trans women commit the most egregious outrage in the mind of a misogynist: they demonstrate valuing womanhood. That completely wrecks their narrative that obviously everyone scorns women and would never voluntarily be one. That's unforgivable.
As a corollary, TERFs and the far-right both have very essentialist views of women. TERFs want to dance naked and smear themselves in menstrual blood as tribute to the Goddess or whatever they're into and the far-right wants to enslave women in the home, but both accept woman as Other, as opposed to a human entitled to equal amounts of dignity and human rights. A TERF, when pressed, may suggest that women are inherently superior to men, but a far-right type will also argue that (and that's why they need to be protected at all costs from feminism, brown people, the vote, etc.) through the "Angel of the House" rhetoric.
TERFs make a lot more sense if you start from the hypothesis that what's actually going on with them is that, contrary to what they espouse, they are all deeply misogynist.
Yeah, makes sense. I think gender essentialism and misogyny are deeply intertwined, at least currently.
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(no subject)
I have a theory! Well, a bunch of theories, actually.
First and foremost, I think TERFs are not unlike a female version of the Log Cabin Republicans. I think whether or not one is attracted to fascistic and bigoted politics is a matter of personality and character, and all things being equal, those vary pretty independently of one's sexual orientation or gender identity. The "problem", of course, for LGBTQ people (and women) who want to join in on the fascist fun is that the fascists don't want them. They have two options. Either give up on bigotry and admit that even if they see the appeal, it's wrong, and they know it's wrong from direct experience + the Golden Rule. Or adopt the principle, "No, see, I'm one of the good ones! You're wrong to be prejudiced against my identity, but it's totally fine to be prejudiced against all those other identities. Prejudice is totally fine! Just mistaken in the case of my minority identity. And I totally agree that some of the people in my minority – maybe even a lot – are just like your stereotypes say, and totally worthy of condemnation and contempt. But not all of us! See, I'm okay! Hey, I'll even help you discriminate between the Good Ones like me and all the Bad Ones."
Which is what gets us people like Blair White, for a really obvious case. I just think TERFs are an unobvious case of the same thing.
Which ties into another theory of mine. TERFs make a lot more sense if you start from the hypothesis that what's actually going on with them is that, contrary to what they espouse, they are all deeply misogynist. If you ignore what they say and observe what they do, it turns out that what a TERF is, in practice, is someone who moves in on feminist spaces to attack other women. All of their most avid policies and principles are about discriminating between the "good" women and the "bad" women and punishing the bad women. These are the people in favor of prosecuting sex workers – a category they themselves conceptualize as exclusively women. These are the people who want to criminalize BDSM – or at least when women participate in it, given they don't care about what happens between consenting men. I gather these are the people responsible for a bunch of really foul movements on Tumblr, all of which turn out the necessitate attacking women.
So of course they attack trans women. Trans women commit the most egregious outrage in the mind of a misogynist: they demonstrate valuing womanhood. That completely wrecks their narrative that obviously everyone scorns women and would never voluntarily be one. That's unforgivable.
(no subject)
As a corollary, TERFs and the far-right both have very essentialist views of women. TERFs want to dance naked and smear themselves in menstrual blood as tribute to the Goddess or whatever they're into and the far-right wants to enslave women in the home, but both accept woman as Other, as opposed to a human entitled to equal amounts of dignity and human rights. A TERF, when pressed, may suggest that women are inherently superior to men, but a far-right type will also argue that (and that's why they need to be protected at all costs from feminism, brown people, the vote, etc.) through the "Angel of the House" rhetoric.
(no subject)
Yeah, makes sense. I think gender essentialism and misogyny are deeply intertwined, at least currently.