Anti-Trans Feminism Since the 1960s
After a couple of recent essays by Sophie Lewis chronicling this movement
Sophie Lewis has a truly great article in the Fall 2024 issue of Lux Magazine. It’s 5,000 words, or a 20-minute read as we’d say here on Medium. It’s called “TERF Island: There Have Always Been Enemies Inside the Feminist Camp.”
People have opinions about the word TERF, and there’s always someone ready to voice an objection to it. I tend to avoid those debates if I expect they’ll distract from other things I want to communicate. I just try not to use that particular controversial word. Though, for the record, it does seem to me that “trans-exclusionary” should be a neutral, accurate descriptor for people who operate by trans-exclusionary principles. I may have a reason to avoid certain labels they choose for themselves, and it cannot be that every other possible descriptive term is a slur.
For this essay, the word TERF is unavoidable, as Lewis is telling the history of what has been called TERFism (including by some of those feminists themselves).
Riding on the coattails of my essay from a couple days ago — a dialogue between two anti-trans figures that they themselves headlined with the word TERF — I’ll proceed with this new attempt.
