sábado, 18 de junio de 2022

Why so called “TERFs” do not exist

By  SEGSTART:f29ab5b2-1bd8-4006-9723-d77d33f8bf69:3El Común

[SEGSTART:544e1ae3-8af3-4705-9430-be2c26d28f0a:5Translated from Spanish by Clariana]

27/03/2022

 [Keep away, TERF!]

SEGSTART:9c62d958-fb6c-4b44-b019-dfa5891eda94:8Amparo Domingo, is a feminist activist and representative in Spain of a worldwide feminist organisation promoting the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights.

The Patriarchy is given to manufacturing insults to apply to rebellious women who do not obey gender mandates, the latter being understood in the only sense possible as a social hierarchy impose between men and women which dictates that women’s only option is to submit and shut up.

SEGSTART:970f945b-8ad7-4f15-ab99-b543ab685d1e:19We have been called witches, frigid, feminazis, and more recently “TERFs”.SEGEND:970f945b-8ad7-4f15-ab99-b543ab685d1e:19

SEGSTART:809865cc-5f65-447f-8348-b69922e6bdd9:20“TERF” is an acronym of the English expression Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist, which despite having been repeated endlessly in every corner of the world, makes no sense whatsoever.SEGEND:809865cc-5f65-447f-8348-b69922e6bdd9:20

SEGSTART:e901aff5-5592-4341-b1ec-e883b962231f:21Radical feminism is not called such because it is extremist but rather because it seeks out the root of the structural inequality of women in patriarchal societies, which is none other than our sex.SEGEND:e901aff5-5592-4341-b1ec-e883b962231f:21 SEGSTART:e901aff5-5592-4341-b1ec-e883b962231f:22It is sex and everything deriving from it (pleasure, reproduction) which has led men to seek to dominate women from the beginning of time.SEGEND:e901aff5-5592-4341-b1ec-e883b962231f:22 SEGSTART:e901aff5-5592-4341-b1ec-e883b962231f:23Forms of exploitation of women such as prostitution or surrogacy are clear evidence of this fact.SEGEND:e901aff5-5592-4341-b1ec-e883b962231f:23

SEGSTART:5e18b81e-4e18-4137-b2f9-e9f7c7b4c4da:24Why do I say that it makes no sense to refer to radical feminists as “trans exclusionary” (“TERFs”)?SEGEND:5e18b81e-4e18-4137-b2f9-e9f7c7b4c4da:24

SEGSTART:fc1fd0c8-906f-4cc5-b017-049859197470:25For three reasons:SEGEND:fc1fd0c8-906f-4cc5-b017-049859197470:25

SEGSTART:dabcd450-8677-4e2a-a2e8-1dcf55facd1b:26Radical feminists believe that every person of the female sex is a subject of feminism, independently of whether at any point in her lifetime she may allege that she has a “gender identity” different to her sex, a declaration that would make her “trans” in the eyes of “gender identity” believers.SEGEND:dabcd450-8677-4e2a-a2e8-1dcf55facd1b:26

SEGSTART:5e51c7d2-5734-4796-b160-68014ee05457:27Therefore, given that radical feminism does not take into account, either for good or for bad, that a women may decide to call herself “trans”, it cannot be considered “trans exclusionary”.SEGEND:5e51c7d2-5734-4796-b160-68014ee05457:27

SEGSTART:04424cac-2f32-4ef6-88ec-03b060b6c019:28As our English-speaking colleagues may jokingly describe us, we are not “TERFs”, but “MERFs”.SEGEND:04424cac-2f32-4ef6-88ec-03b060b6c019:28 SEGSTART:04424cac-2f32-4ef6-88ec-03b060b6c019:29This is an ironic acronym of Male Exclusionary Radical Feminist, a pleonasm equivalent to saying “climbing upwards” or “descending downwards”.SEGEND:04424cac-2f32-4ef6-88ec-03b060b6c019:29

SEGSTART:65c28145-514e-4eab-9df2-3a2b403e16ce:30Radical feminists, likewise, coherently, also do not take into account that a male person may declare that he has a “gender identity” different to his sex.SEGEND:65c28145-514e-4eab-9df2-3a2b403e16ce:30

SEGSTART:6359453c-086f-4da6-8b87-80fc31b8458a:31Once again, this information has no relevance for us, and we are neither for nor against it.SEGEND:6359453c-086f-4da6-8b87-80fc31b8458a:31

SEGSTART:2f8866d8-1fbb-4308-993d-45c5b07f9a66:32This does not imply an aversion towards or fear (“phobia”) of anyone, it simply means that feminism is a movement by and for women.SEGEND:2f8866d8-1fbb-4308-993d-45c5b07f9a66:32

SEGSTART:a5e7147a-b8f0-42a9-939b-5b4a3f243b8f:33We can explain it using an analogy, for example with the dissimilarities between basketball and football, two sports that work very differently.SEGEND:a5e7147a-b8f0-42a9-939b-5b4a3f243b8f:33 SEGSTART:a5e7147a-b8f0-42a9-939b-5b4a3f243b8f:34In basketball points are scored by passing a ball through a hoop suspended at a specific height.SEGEND:a5e7147a-b8f0-42a9-939b-5b4a3f243b8f:34 SEGSTART:a5e7147a-b8f0-42a9-939b-5b4a3f243b8f:35In football, on the other hand, points are scored when the ball passes a line delimited by a structure called a goal.SEGEND:a5e7147a-b8f0-42a9-939b-5b4a3f243b8f:35

SEGSTART:74f72ca0-d56f-427a-bdff-52f313ae4514:36If we had to refer to basketball applying the logic of trans activism, would we say that basketball is a “goal exclusionary” sport?SEGEND:74f72ca0-d56f-427a-bdff-52f313ae4514:36 SEGSTART:74f72ca0-d56f-427a-bdff-52f313ae4514:37Or that people who play basketball are “goal phobic”?SEGEND:74f72ca0-d56f-427a-bdff-52f313ae4514:37

SEGSTART:4626f313-8394-4c38-a7c6-4d72d67e6e74:38Or is it that they simply practice a sport that pays no heed to the rules of football?SEGEND:4626f313-8394-4c38-a7c6-4d72d67e6e74:38

SEGSTART:51f9657d-2812-44f4-9d99-7f532621908f:39Feminists have always defended women’s freedoms and to that end we have fought against any sexist stereotypes and restrictions imposed on us by patriarchal societies.SEGEND:51f9657d-2812-44f4-9d99-7f532621908f:39

SEGSTART:d5676479-625f-4e1b-80ec-1d49b00e224c:40Therefore, any movement or theory defending the existence of “pink or blue brains” or of some form of sublime essence of femininity cannot, by definition, be called feminist. SEGEND:d5676479-625f-4e1b-80ec-1d49b00e224c:40 SEGSTART:d5676479-625f-4e1b-80ec-1d49b00e224c:41To assert that sexist stereotypes are in reality part of the “true nature” of what it is to be a woman is to walk back decades the progress made by feminism and once again fall into an absurd essentialism, which only differs from the one before it in that its idea about our “true nature” - this ineffable “identity” -, has no connection whatsoever to the body which we inhabit, but is rather a feeling inside us.SEGEND:d5676479-625f-4e1b-80ec-1d49b00e224c:41

SEGSTART:5fa1e372-6ec4-45bd-85ed-65b2fac2e230:42A world-view that seeks simply to restrict the sphere of action of women, limiting them to the world of emotions, care delivery or superficiality (a pre-eminent interest in their appearance), while it sets aside for men the sphere of rationality and public life, as well as qualities like valour and strength, cannot by any stretch of the imagination be classified as feminist.SEGEND:5fa1e372-6ec4-45bd-85ed-65b2fac2e230:42

SEGSTART:9429b249-ed8a-48d2-a828-59f7f5be3697:43Rather, quite to the contrary, transgenderism/transactivism is an anti-woman ideology as can be seen every day in its attempts to erase us from our language using expressions such as “menstruators”, “people with cervices”, “gestating people”, “lesbian people”, “bodies with vaginas”, “birthing bodies”, etcetera. Nothing properly relating to our biology can be named just in case it makes those men who say they “feel like women”, sad, because it reminds them of their true sex.SEGEND:9429b249-ed8a-48d2-a828-59f7f5be3697:43 SEGSTART:9429b249-ed8a-48d2-a828-59f7f5be3697:44We must “be kind” and prioritise their feelings above our rights when it comes to naming our reality.SEGEND:9429b249-ed8a-48d2-a828-59f7f5be3697:44

SEGSTART:9d2eb98f-4437-4a3e-91f2-cb7d64633582:45However, it is apparent that they do not have the slightest consideration for our own feelings.SEGEND:9d2eb98f-4437-4a3e-91f2-cb7d64633582:45 SEGSTART:9d2eb98f-4437-4a3e-91f2-cb7d64633582:46They do not seem to worry about the dehumanisation that it entails to say that our vaginas are “front holes”, nor does it concern them how sportswomen, despite tough training regimes and all the effort invested, may lose a competition to a mediocre male benefitting from the natural advantages which his masculine biology offers him.SEGEND:9d2eb98f-4437-4a3e-91f2-cb7d64633582:46

SEGSTART:54377ff0-b09e-48f2-ace5-3e88b109bee9:47All this shows us that what really concerns transactivism is how those people who have or had penises may feel:SEGEND:54377ff0-b09e-48f2-ace5-3e88b109bee9:47 SEGSTART:54377ff0-b09e-48f2-ace5-3e88b109bee9:48Patriarchy 2.0.SEGEND:54377ff0-b09e-48f2-ace5-3e88b109bee9:48

ThusSEGSTART:519e5f8a-7217-4939-8430-b5275c37768e:49ThtTTthauplgauoil xhu, it is not feminism that excludes transactivism, rather #TransactivismIsMisogyny, something in complete opposition to our values.SEGEND:519e5f8a-7217-4939-8430-b5275c37768e:49

SEGSTART:e5acf5be-dc53-43fa-a5ee-d36b7544430c:50I insist, due to what I have set out above, it makes no sense to talk about “TERFs”.SEGEND:e5acf5be-dc53-43fa-a5ee-d36b7544430c:50

SEGSTART:d58dcb5b-0504-41bf-b42a-416900cf5f6e:51Those who are not part of feminism have no rights regarding our movement and theirSEGEND:d58dcb5b-0504-41bf-b42a-416900cf5f6e:51SEGSTART:3e5861f5-219c-4f63-b919-5e8af2fb7e85:52ttttheithei desires do not constitute orders for us.SEGEND:3e5861f5-219c-4f63-b919-5e8af2fb7e85:52

 

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