There has been a worrying movement in the past few years of people claiming to be feminists but pushing for sexism and transphobia. One group of these people call themselves the “gender critical” or trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) movement.
Despite calling themselves feminists, they certainly do not act like they want equality between the sexes. These people are known for their hatred against trans women, and to a lesser extent, men. People within the TERF movement claim that trans women are not women, but are dangerous men who want to manipulate women and take over their freedom of speech.
They do not seem to know there is a difference between sex and gender and sometimes someone’s gender does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Sex takes into account chromosomes and organs, which are not always apparent in a person. Gender is a social construct within the mind of humans and usually, but certainly not always, coincides with someone’s sex.
It should also be stated that there are more than two sexes and genders. Intersex and nonbinary people are very much real and typically ignored by these hateful movements. I myself fall under the nonbinary umbrella.
I find it terrifying that sexism and transphobia still exist when they should be considered ancient relics. Someone’s sex or gender should not matter and it makes me so sad people are divided and treated horribly because of trivial differences. While I despise both misogyny and misandry, the TERF movement falls into both.
Some people in the TERF movement are also part of a conspiracy group called “Transvestigation.” These “Transvestigators” will look at cis women and think they are actually trans women because they show supposed masculine features. Most notable was the conspiracy theory that Michelle Obama was a trans woman, which is a theory that is racist, misogynistic and transphobic all in one.
I find it so ridiculous these people call themselves feminists but partake in these misogynistic activities. Even if the women they were investigating were trans, it should not matter and they should not be treated any differently. What is actually happening is these people are looking for anything that can be considered masculine on a woman and coming to the conclusion that she must be a man in disguise. Women should be allowed to be any way that makes them comfortable. They should not have to fall into patriarchal norms of what it means to be a woman.
While people in the TERF movement may say they agree with me, their actions and words do not match. After Matt Walsh’s transphobic movie “What is a Woman” came out it got a lot of praise from TERFs. The phrase “adult human female” has come up as a definition to what a woman is, which ignores the difference between sex and gender. While most women were assigned female at birth, not all were.
The TERF movement tends to ignore trans men, but it does not always. These people tend to believe trans men are helpless victims that were taken advantage of into having their breasts removed. This shows they fall into both misogynistic and misandrist lines of thinking. A lot of them believe all men to be dangerous predators and all women to be mindless victims. While people in the TERF movement claim to be against gender stereotypes, they tend to reinforce them time and time again.
Nico Brazill can be contacted at
nbrazill@kscequinox.com
