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Yes: TERFs started, and lead, the battle against "queer."
TERFs want you to avoid "queer."
TERFs want you to think "weird/freaky" is bad.
TERFs want you to think it's bad that it's deliberately vague and inclusive.
TERFs want you to fight over who to exclude from the acronym.
TERFs want you to avoid "queer."
TERFs want you to think "weird/freaky" is bad.
TERFs want you to think it's bad that it's deliberately vague and inclusive.
TERFs want you to fight over who to exclude from the acronym.
TERFs have managed to get a lot of their rhetoric and strategies into the larger community. Even to people who hate TERFs.
1994: Huge TERF Sheila Jeffreys writes a paper called "The Queer Disappearance of Lesbians," against "the 'queer' perspective."
https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(94)00051-4
1994: Huge TERF Sheila Jeffreys writes a paper called "The Queer Disappearance of Lesbians," against "the 'queer' perspective."
https://sci-hub.tw/https://doi.org/10.1016/0277-5395(94)00051-4
Her paper specifically attacks "queer" politics.
For TERFs, everything about cis women's rights is part of lesbian feminism. Everything else addressing gender/sexuality is queer culture... therefore, not lesbian feminist... therefore, a Gay Dude Thing... therefore, lesbophobic.
For TERFs, everything about cis women's rights is part of lesbian feminism. Everything else addressing gender/sexuality is queer culture... therefore, not lesbian feminist... therefore, a Gay Dude Thing... therefore, lesbophobic.
Essentially, TERFs want to overturn sexist gender roles for cis women, WITHOUT changing anything else around gender.
If you're already thinking, "TERFs are exhausting," don't worry, so am I.
"But," you may ask, "how the heck does 'queer politics' make lesbians disappear?"
If you're already thinking, "TERFs are exhausting," don't worry, so am I.
"But," you may ask, "how the heck does 'queer politics' make lesbians disappear?"
TERF politics are VERY binary.
Three of the biggest problems with binaries: (1) they're almost always false; (2) we're trained to frame them as good/bad; (3) oppression works by erasing all but two aspects of any category, and putting down the "bad" one to profit the "good."
Three of the biggest problems with binaries: (1) they're almost always false; (2) we're trained to frame them as good/bad; (3) oppression works by erasing all but two aspects of any category, and putting down the "bad" one to profit the "good."
To a TERF, the world basically boils down to:
Gay people, who are oppressed;
Every other group, which -- if oppressed -- is only oppressed accidentally, when mistaken for gay.
Lesbians are doubly oppressed: gay people who also suffer misogyny. Therefore, they should be centered.
Gay people, who are oppressed;
Every other group, which -- if oppressed -- is only oppressed accidentally, when mistaken for gay.
Lesbians are doubly oppressed: gay people who also suffer misogyny. Therefore, they should be centered.
Any other take on things, any attention given to any other group, necessarily puts lesbians farther from being centered.
On one hand, I can't blame them. Cis white gay men have been in charge since before Stonewall. We're ALL tired of waiting, and of fighting for scraps.
On one hand, I can't blame them. Cis white gay men have been in charge since before Stonewall. We're ALL tired of waiting, and of fighting for scraps.
On the other hand, I could sit here and make pretty little graphs about the outcomes of oppression all day long, showing how gay and lesbian outcomes have improved over the past 40 years (even though lesbian stats are still worse), and how ace, intersex, bi, and trans stats SUCK.
Let's fast-forward a quarter-century.
AfterEllen's been riddled with this stuff ever since a TERF took over: "Microidentities are as common as rats... actual gays fought to be accepted as normal, not 'deviant oddities,' the literal definition of queer." https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/568221-how-i-became-the-most-hated-lesbian-in-baltimore
AfterEllen's been riddled with this stuff ever since a TERF took over: "Microidentities are as common as rats... actual gays fought to be accepted as normal, not 'deviant oddities,' the literal definition of queer." https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/568221-how-i-became-the-most-hated-lesbian-in-baltimore
I hear that argument a lot.
It punches down at everyone who's still seen as "deviant oddities." Every group treated as subhuman freaks.
As an autistic genderqueer person, I have strong feelings about this.
Embracing "weird" is the only route to embracing a lot of us.
It punches down at everyone who's still seen as "deviant oddities." Every group treated as subhuman freaks.
As an autistic genderqueer person, I have strong feelings about this.
Embracing "weird" is the only route to embracing a lot of us.
That TERF piece talks about marching with a sign saying "Lesbian Not Queer;" calls "queer" misogynist; and says "Queer needs to be questioned. The term is not applicable to female homosexuality.... to be queer is to be sexually fluid – meaning the term queer is male-inclusive.”
Think about that one for a sec. "Queer = sexually fluid = male-inclusive."
That isn't an objection to the presence of queer guys. That is an objection to the inclusion of bi/pan+ women.
Just like when TERFs fought to get the B out of Pride in 1992. https://twitter.com/UnicornMarch/status/1263299975812771841
That isn't an objection to the presence of queer guys. That is an objection to the inclusion of bi/pan+ women.
Just like when TERFs fought to get the B out of Pride in 1992. https://twitter.com/UnicornMarch/status/1263299975812771841
TERFs are constantly targeting "queer":
- Everyone else has privilege over lesbians & "queer" obscures that!( https://www.afterellen.com/columns/545781-im-lesbian-not-queer)
- Queer means believing in gender identity!( https://www.afterellen.com/people/547033-lesbian-feminism-asserts-future-female-not-fluid)
- People say "queer" to erase and rape lesbians! ( https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/553883-the-internets-shameful-lesbophobia-problem)
- Everyone else has privilege over lesbians & "queer" obscures that!( https://www.afterellen.com/columns/545781-im-lesbian-not-queer)
- Queer means believing in gender identity!( https://www.afterellen.com/people/547033-lesbian-feminism-asserts-future-female-not-fluid)
- People say "queer" to erase and rape lesbians! ( https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/553883-the-internets-shameful-lesbophobia-problem)
- "Queer" is bad bc it's "about more than who you love or fuck. There’s no requirement to be homosexual...."
(Comments: "queer culture is cancer," "The LGBTQIAWTF+++ is toxic to lesbians," and "T & Q have been infiltrated by Transtrenders and MRAs."
( https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/539955-queerness-cultural-capital-lesbians-go-broke)
(Comments: "queer culture is cancer," "The LGBTQIAWTF+++ is toxic to lesbians," and "T & Q have been infiltrated by Transtrenders and MRAs."
( https://www.afterellen.com/general-news/539955-queerness-cultural-capital-lesbians-go-broke)
Peak TERF Comment:
"'Queer' is a slur, 'terf' is a slur, lesbianism isn't a fucking fetish, lesbians don't like dick, females aren't objects, costumes, or feelings, and homosexuality ≠ depravity--but these queer theorist, pomo dipshits sure as hell love to act like it does!"
"'Queer' is a slur, 'terf' is a slur, lesbianism isn't a fucking fetish, lesbians don't like dick, females aren't objects, costumes, or feelings, and homosexuality ≠ depravity--but these queer theorist, pomo dipshits sure as hell love to act like it does!"
And then there's TERF Twitter.
(Names in red are the ones the Chrome extension Shinigami Eyes knows are TERFs.)
(Names in red are the ones the Chrome extension Shinigami Eyes knows are TERFs.)
If you want even more examples, @freetofic has compiled a ton https://twitter.com/freetofic/status/1089912629399834624
