"Specifically, the invigilator took issue with students employing the acronym ‘TERF’ (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist) to criticise a range of ideological positions, because they considered the acronym a misogynist slur. The course convenor’s line manager subsequently asked whether the term was used within teaching materials.
The convenor had not, in fact, used the TERF acronym at all in any of their teaching, nor explicitly engaged with questions of ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ trans1 positions within feminism. A lecture on trans feminism had focused specifically on understanding transphobia as a manifestation of misogyny, drawing on the work of writers such as Julia Serano (2007), and media analysis of films, including Silence of the Lambs and Ace Ventura. It was the students themselves who applied what they had learned from contemporary popular discourse to their exam scripts. They had chosen to use the acronym to reference a series of increasingly fraught disputes over how feminism should conceptualise and respond to trans identities and experiences, and did so because ‘TERF’ was part of their everyday vernacular in discussing the politics of gender, sex and inclusion/exclusion in feminism. The invigilator’s objection to the acronym, meanwhile, is indicative of wider disagreements over the deployment of language and, indeed, the very terms of debate when it comes to disputes within feminism."
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The convenor had not, in fact, used the TERF acronym at all in any of their teaching, nor explicitly engaged with questions of ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ trans1 positions within feminism. A lecture on trans feminism had focused specifically on understanding transphobia as a manifestation of misogyny, drawing on the work of writers such as Julia Serano (2007), and media analysis of films, including Silence of the Lambs and Ace Ventura. It was the students themselves who applied what they had learned from contemporary popular discourse to their exam scripts. They had chosen to use the acronym to reference a series of increasingly fraught disputes over how feminism should conceptualise and respond to trans identities and experiences, and did so because ‘TERF’ was part of their everyday vernacular in discussing the politics of gender, sex and inclusion/exclusion in feminism. The invigilator’s objection to the acronym, meanwhile, is indicative of wider disagreements over the deployment of language and, indeed, the very terms of debate when it comes to disputes within feminism."
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The divide over scholarly debate over gender identity rages on
The disagreement over scholarly debate about gender identity rages on.
Opinion | How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans (Published 2019)
A surprisingly mainstream movement of feminists known as TERFs oppose transgender rights as a symptom of “female erasure.”
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