I used to argue that using 'TERF' for trans-exclusionary radical feminists was simply a value-free & accurate descriptor & not a slur. They can argue that they don't exclude trans ppl from feminism coz they include trans men but this misses the criticism.
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Or at least completely unaware of these connotations and needing to be made aware lest they be misunderstood. The same slide has happened with the term TERF. Not only is it used almost exclusively in a derogatory sense, it need not apply to trans-exclusionary radical feminists.
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I have decided against using TERF to describe feminists with this attitude but refer to them as 'gender-critical feminists' and say why I think their views are wrong & their activism harmful (when it is) whilst defending their right not to believe in gender identity & say so.
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End of conversation
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I can't brook an interpretation where an initialism or acronym can carry more pejorative than its member words. "FOB" is a pejorative because "fresh off the boat" is a pejorative phrase. If calling someone a transwoman-exclusionary radical feminist is not inherently pejorative/
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then I can't get behind any interpretation where "TERF" is suddenly all these things that, well, TERFS allege they are (a violent, threatening, exclusively misogynist slur? No chance). /
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It's just another case where "the usual suspects" are trying to trump language, and declare authoritatively that your explicitly, objectively non-pejorative language is all these bad things and YOU. WILL. ATONE! So, that's where I stand on that issue. :)
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