• Zero22xx@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    2 days ago

    Based on a couple of arguments I’ve now had, they actually sound a lot like manosphere, anti woke people. Just a bit more intelligent and well read. But even the “trans ideology” phrase that they like to use is just their version of “woke agenda”.

    I think that it is a sect of feminism that has been created and seeded by the same right wing christian nationalist types that are also behind the manosphere and MAGA. The Peter Thiel and Elon Musk types. They realised in the '90s that calling everything “satanic” wasn’t working, so they started coming up with new terminology to pull people in.

    First it was “SJWs”, then “woke” but it all attracts the same kind of people. And “trans ideology” was the term they came up with for women that read and aren’t completely dense. So they’re all behaving like reborn christians and going around stomping out anything the norm. But they also sincerely believe they’re right.

    But honestly, based on the conversations I’ve had so far, all alt right people have the same talking points, which TERFs definitely are a part of. They’re just, as I say, not as clearly dumb as other alt right types.

  • Taewyth@jlai.lu
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    2 days ago

    They aren’t feminists as they impose a singular, white european centric, view of what a woman can be.

    While they claim to seek feminist goals, those goal don’t extend to women of colours or from non european cultures who often don’t fit their preconceived notion of what a woman should be, notion that was built by the patriarchy and colonialism/colonialist propaganda.

    This way of thinking is also where their transphobia comes from, and the transphobia is what they use as a basis to validate and justify.their racism.

    See the case of Imane Khelif for an illustration of what I’m saying here.

  • Infrapink@thebrainbin.org
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    2 days ago

    Short answer: Yes.

    Long answer: TERF is an acronym for Trans-Excluding Radical Feminist. They are indeed feminists; they believe that women should not be inferior to men. They also incorrectly believe that transwomen are actually men because they have penises, and therefore do not accept them as part of the feminist movement.

    One thing that is often forgotten¹ is that just because you are part of an oppressed minority, or on the receiving end of bigotry, doesn’t mean you can’t be a bigot yourself. TERFs genuinely believe in tearing down the patriarchy, but they are fundamentally transphobic.

    On a related note, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton were two of the most prominent and influential feminists in 19th-century America. They campaigned tirelessly for women to be treated the same as men… of the same race. They believed that white women should be the equals of white men, and that black women should be the equals of black men, but that black women and men should be inferior to white women and men. And they actively opposed black people of any gender being allowed to vote. They were genuine feminists and also giant racists.

    Or for a modern example, look at Israel. Jews may well be the most oppressed people in history, but that doesn’t stop Jews in Israel from being incredibly racist towards Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular…

    Or look at us Irish. Anti-Irish racism was common up until the 1980s, and did we learn empathy? Did we fuck. The way we talk about Travellers and Poles today is much the same as the way the British talked about the Irish in the 1970s. Heck, I just did it there when I referred to Travellers as being distinct from the Irish, even though they are obviously Irish.

    Similarly, the Fediverse in general and Mastodon in particular was largely built by trans people but keeps driving away black people, because a lot of white trans people are also pretty damn racist.

    To summarise: Those who fight for social justice and still be bigots.

    ¹definitely related to the perfect victim fallacy

    • Tiefling IRL@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      2 days ago

      They also incorrectly believe that transwomen are actually men because they have penises

      A small note, not all transwomen have those. TERFs hate transwomen because they’re transphobic, simple as that. They also view transmen as “traitors”

  • my_hat_stinks@programming.dev
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    3 days ago

    Terfs by definition exclude women and are therefore not feminist. Hate groups often try to legitimise themselves by adopting more reasonable names even when it goes directly against their views, eg “All lives matter” formed specifically to counter the claim that black lives matter.

  • TheFogan@programming.dev
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    3 days ago

    I’m sure some are… but I would say certainly seems to be a much larger percentage that prioritize their hatred of trans… and don’t seem to do a lot of actual reach in protecting women.

    Big thing is the terf label or stereotype is generally assumed to try to make it look like you are fighting for a group, rather than fighting against. Lets say hypothetically I’m claiming to be super in favor of protecting birds, and say that I hate wind farms because they kill birds

    If you never once hear me talk about house cats, or poachers, or any of 500 other things that can kill birds, you’ll pretty quickly catch on that I’m not actually pro-bird. Especially if I start reposting statistics about wind farms that have already been debunked etc…

    • rico@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      3 days ago

      agreed. saw a woman on twitter giving usernames of trans ppl so her fanbase could harass them.

      • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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        3 days ago

        @WindFarmsofTikTok, the new kind of terrorist, hiding her barely veiled commands to her followers to bomb-threat green infrastructure behind her love of birds :(

    • spujb@lemmy.cafe
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      3 days ago

      excellent answer and analogy, and even more points for not using the useless phrase no true scottsman :) /gen

  • recursive_recursion they/them@lemmy.ca
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    3 days ago

    As a feminist who stans for transpeople I personally don’t believe terfs to be feminists and there are a couple of reasons as for why I believe this to be the case:

    Transwomen believe themselves to be just as genuine as cisborn women. As such, transwomen often fight for the same rights and desires that cis women want. Empowering transwomen also help cis women in this system, so kicking down your fellow allies and supporters is suicidal.

    For those reading this, if you believe that you’re a true feminist then I strongly recommend supporting and standing with the transcommunity as they will help you in reciprocal quid pro quo fashion.✊🌻

  • Fondots@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I think you’re going to get into some “no true Scotsman” territory here pretty quickly, there’s not exactly a worldwide organization that determines the “feminist agenda” or a universally agreed-upon checklist that determines that you are or aren’t a feminist if you check so many boxes. It’s going to depend a bit on who you are, where you come from, etc.

    For example, if you come from some sort of backwards ultra-conservative Christian background, it might be fair to call you a feminist just because you think women should be allowed to wear pants instead of a dress, because in that context you are, even if most of the rest of the world has long-since moved past that stage of feminism.

    I think most if not all TERFs probably hold some amount of views that could be called feminist from certain perspectives. Whether or not they mesh with any of the more mainstream views on feminism is a different matter entirely.

    EDIT: to be clear, TERFs absolutely do not mesh with my idea of feminism, to me you’re way behind the curve on feminism if you’re not recognizing trans women as women.

  • Krudler@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Just chiming in here with some random nonsense. I am now 50, I have never once met someone who self-identifies as feminist who’s actually about equality, they’re actually scared, hate-filled people.

    • Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com
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      3 days ago

      Same with those civil rights people, they were always marching, and shouting, and angry at an unjust system, and scared of police beatings. Always complaining about lynchings and how they were oppressed. So scared and hate filled.

      Funny how history rhymes. They’re scared and angry because they have something to be scared and angry about.

      I’ll leave this here. If that doesn’t make you scared and angry then I’m not sure we’re going to have a productive conversation.

    • tomcatt360@lemmy.zip
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      3 days ago

      Only the Jedi speak in absolutes. Plenty of activists have made an impact without being intersectional. Some of them singlehandedly. Intersectional efforts are effective too, but voices are voices. Just my 1 am thoughts