#nuanceblr

[alialycat-blog]

I personally think that tras down playing trans people's rights and wrongs are the whole reason why people don't listen to tras when they have valid things to say. Like yes there will be trans women who do something wrong. Just like there's always going to be someone in any group that does something wrong. The important thing is not to downplay it but also not to let it represent all the people in one group but if they keep down playing it won't be "oh my god this one person did wrong" it'll be "oh my god this one person did wrong and people around them are trying to cover it up". People don't trust the Catholic church for the same reason and a lot of people don't trust men for the same reason. You have to hold people accountable and if you're trying to actively hide what they do wrong. You're just as bad as them

[tirfpikachu]

replied to a fellow gyn's post about this already but... i actually really love seeing gnc women embrace typically female names. it's so easy to assume we must use typically male names the second we start being seen as not "womanly" enough in how we dress/act, especially if we're sapphic too. we need to fully take on the Male Role and anything female-coded doesn't suit us anymore. but honestly, i love seeing gnc women have traditionally female names & gnc men with traditionally male names, and have them just be like "so what?" because it shows that people with those names CAN be gnc. people with those clothes/behaviors/etc really CAN be normies.

they don't need to conform to whatever bullshit gender roles their sex is associated with. of course ppl can change names if it makes them happiest, i myself did for a while, but i feel like it's not talked about often enough how badass it is to see a she/her gnc woman who still shrugs off being female, or a confident feminine guy who is still a dude. seeing ppl's eyes widen when they realize that female ppl who aren't trans really CAN look and act like that, and male ppl who aren't trans CAN be feminine and still be cool with their sex at birth, and not even have it be a gay thing either. it's a uniquely radical way to be gnc too. those folks still experience gncphobia, a unique kind of sexism and people can't be like "oh yeah they're trans/gay... THAT'S why they're so unwomanly/unmanly! otherwise it'd just be weird haha!" which makes more sense in their tiny sexist brains.

it's 100% cool to tie your sexuality to your gender nonconformity in some ways, but imo it's also really fucking cool to see a gnc woman who isn't gnc bc she's gay or trans or whatever. same with a gnc dude. you ofc can be gnc and distance yourself from male/female-typical things if it makes you happier, that's cool too. but people who don't are also amazing in a unique kinda way. because current society thinks breaking outside your box means there's something different about you. they see masculinity or the lack of femininity and think female things/terms "just don't suit you." they see femininity on a male body and assume it must say you're different. that it must mean you want to be seen as a woman, it must mean you want the world to see you as unmanly. but when you tell them that no, being a man and wearing sparkly shit and skirts doesn't make you less likely to identify as not a man, or more likely to be gay bc it's a "womanly" thing to be feminine... when you say no, it just means you like sparkles and skirts just so happen to be comfy for you... it breaks their little brain. when you're female and aren't dysphoric about it, aren't trying to distance yourself from femaleness at all, yet you STILL allow your body to be naturally hairy and you wear things that aren't skin-tight or wear unfeminine pants and boxers bc you don't have to worry about showing your ass while doing normal human shit, or that you'd rather spend your time cuddling your pet bunny and watching dumb reality tv in the morning instead of spending half an hour before work doing makeup and wearing hyperfem bullshit and microanalyzing your appearance, now THAT threatens the patriarchy in its own way too.

if being gnc isn't just a trans thing anymore, isn't just a gay/bi thing anymore, that means the foundations of the heteropatriarchy aren't as solid as bio men and brainwashed female folks would like to believe they are and even their OWN camp are fighting against it. when we make being gnc accessible to all and have it say fuckall about someone other than what clothes they like to wear or behaviors they like to do... that makes the patriarchy sweat in ways it's not used to. there's lots of ways to go against it, but it's always super refreshing for me as a gnc dyke to see some gnc folks not distance themselves from being male/female. and as a lesbian, i actually fucking love seeing gnc cis/bio hetero men & women too. feminine men and unfeminine women, metrosexuals/femboys and tomboys or whatever society wants to call y'all. i want being gnc to be an anti-sexist movement that overlaps with lgbt rights but also has its own spaces. i want being gnc to be shrugged off as being totally big deal, and have it say nothing about somebody, have it not be weaponized against gnc women and teach gnc boys they don't need to "man up" or whatever the fuck. i want people to be gnc in whatever way they want. this ain't the only way to rage against the machine, but it's a form of expression i feel like isn't celebrated enough. anyone facing gncphobia in their day-to-day lives is badass as hell <3

[dykeulous]

Lol so to you "nuance" is when we consider male feelings and perspective when they use every tool to opress women, including gender bc it makes you Uncomfy to awknowledge your reality. Stop trying to bring your male cult into feminist spaces.

to me, nuance is when we consider human feelings. to me, nuance is when we have free will and don’t blindfully follow an ideology without modifying it one bit to fit your own narrative. nuance is when we criticize systems, not individuals. nuance is when we can both hold gender identity ideology accountable without invalidating & harming people with dysphoria. nuance is when we authentically stay true to our beliefs & subscribe to a certain ideology despite disagreeing with some parts of it. nuance is when we can see the human in every person. nuance is when we don’t jump to attack a societal group just because the group has some shitty individuals in it. nuance is when we are open-minded. nuance is when we understand & acknowledge sex-based oppression & sex-based attraction, while also understanding & acknowledging that medical transition makes lives different for people & alters someone’s life experiences greatly, essentially affecting their material reality. nuance is when we can disagree with an ideology and yet remain respectful to people who follow that ideology. nuance is when we have empathy and human compassion. nuance is when we can talk about specific problems without minimizing the problems we personally don’t face.

[maive-the-sheep]

The view that everyone can do what you do and what works for you must work for others is a highly prevalent worldwide phenomenon that must be lowered.

People with aphantasia can't purposely visualize.

Certain people have always lacked specific emotions, including in aspd/disocial

Certain people can't do certain physical activities, including cause physical disabilities.

Some people can not vocally speak and must use sign language or aac.

And so much more.

But also, even identical twins will often times have different needs, different things that work best, different personalities. I'm friends with one identical twin, not the other, infact the other is annoyed by me. They have very different problems, ways of thinking, what works best for them.

[theangryman]

terms and labels

radical feminism is the recognition that sex based oppression is endemic, that it has shaped the experience of almost every human in every human society in history

and a recognition that the abolition of sex based classes, gender, would be the only way to remove such a disease from society

this disease shows many symptoms, and radical feminism sees such practices as prostitution or pornography as part of upholding that oppressive system

the “sex wars” were lost by the rad fems on the popular front to the lib fems, who believe that the purpose of feminism is to grant individual women the same freedoms/choices as men

a “TERF” sees gender transition as reinforcing this system. identifying as a woman while being assigned male at birth is claiming to be a member of an oppressed class, without having experienced that oppression. (a TERF might recognize that trans women experience oppression, but would see homophobia as the cause)

TERFs also see the idea of “gender identity” as reinforcing stereotypes. it isn’t unreasonable to point out that many trans narratives reinforce harmful ideas about what it means to be a man or a woman. if being a woman means liking pink and dresses, that’s obviously regressive as hell (some of this was baked into the earlier medical standards for transition even - when talking to my very first endo I had to be a perfect straight boy who always played with trucks and mud and never touched a Barbie)

there are trans women who are sexual creeps and predators, and considering how few spaces there are for women to be safe from sexual violence, the idea that someone could claim to be a woman to access those spaces is concerning. it is comically easy to find trans lesbians being whiny incels online

as a TIRF, my thoughts are that medical dysphoria is a real experience. Sex differentiation is a complex process, and “misalignments” happen. Most not-chronically online trans people do just want to live their lives.

even if no other humans existed to perceive me as m or f, I would still want a beard and the body testosterone gives me

I think gender transition does mostly serve the goal of the abolition of gender, that it helps more than it hurts. I’ve done a fair bit of trans activism in my life, and I can recognize where I’ve played into some of those harmful narratives.

[taintassassin]

or you can just live however the fuck you want, so long as you aren’t causing direct harm to others

[pokegyns]

nobody is ready to talk about actual gender abolition.

neither tras, nor radfems.

being deeply immersed in both communities, i’ve been observing the way that both of them function, and something i’ve noticed is– they both very often tend to claim to be gender abolitionists, and not only this– they both claim to profess gender abolition. they claim it is very near & dear to them, but as an autistic trans radfem whose special interest is gender abolition; i can confirm that both the radfem & the tra “versions” of gender abolition fail to be consistent, meaningful & coherent; both versions find the pitiful comfort in laying within the borders of the ever-raging status quo, fearful to challenge & genuinely step at its’ legs, to meaningfully cross the borders– both versions remain adamant on reformism & mere “gender fuckery”, all the while fervently shouting how progressive, how revolutionary, how status quo-breaking they are being. both versions advocate liberalism, more “wiggle room” & more leeway– but neither make the effort to go beyond the personal, beyond the individual and beyond free will/choice.

in order to be able to advocate for gender abolition in its’ truest form, we first have to understand that gender are not merely just aesthetics, outward appearances, self-expressions, or even just silly stereotypes. understanding this is the first step to being able to understand gender abolition, and more often than not, both tras & radfems fail at this very first step. gender is a lethal force, a superstructure, a class-based system; it is a tool of the patriarchy, a very dangerous one. it has a base and a structure.

gender dynamics are created & directed by reproductive relations, and how we engage & interact with reproductive labor shapes our relations to gender. this extends beyond cultural stereotypes & fluctuating aesthetics. it is neither individualistic in the reformist tra sense where Gender is A Social Construct in the way that it is merely our “sense of self”, and neither is it individualistic in the radfem sense where Gender is A Social Construct that we must fight on an interpersonal scale. gender cannot be fought on a personal level. gender cannot be “played with” in the tra sense where we all choose a set of attributes to ascribe to & then call them gender, and neither can it be “played with” by attempting to opt out of the gender class system by claiming you are a “genderless adult human female” in the radfem sense. both are essentially minimizing the significance of gender in our current society, and both are advocating for a utterly western-centric, bastardized, watered-down & individualistic form of “gender abolition”. the tra understanding of gender abolition is all about choice, breaking down the notion that women & men must look this or that way, and destroying parts of superficial personality stereotypes. the radfem understanding of gender abolition is similarly also all about choice– telling people that gender nonconformity is an inherent act of Gender Rebellion™ [tras also do this!], claiming that gender is oppressive but also refusing to do away with it because “how will women then speak of their oppression?” [are they incapable of imagining a post-gender world? possibly, because they claim to be passionate gender abolitionists, while holding so strongly onto gender, since that is all they know & they must rely on it to further their theory], claiming that biology has nothing to do with gender yet reverting back to connecting gender to biology when it is convenient to their cause.

both are ultimately misunderstanding both gender & gender abolition. both see it as a mere performance, as aesthetics. both are advocating for reformism & desperate attempts at opting-out [tras try to opt out by promoting medical supplements, creating multiple new genders, messing with mere accessories; while radfems try to opt out by using meaningless words & phrases such as “a woman is an adult human female, nothing to do with gender at all!”, by trying to ignore gender & then assuming that their ignoring will somehow result in gender abolition]. radfems advocate for gender contraction, not recognizing that we cannot “revert back to sex” when our own very understanding of sex itself is extremely immersed & rooted in the sex-gender system– we cannot “revert back” to something that never even existed without the thing we are trying to leave behind in the first place [i am not saying anatomical differences don’t exist outside of gender– our *understandings* of the sex categories do not]. tras, on the other hand, advocate for gender fuckery, not understanding that liberation will not come along if we simply “play” with our biology & try to desperately ignore material reality. while radfems claim gender isn’t something to be overthrown & rather something to be ignored, tras claim gender is our own internal sense of self & gender roles are the thing we must abolish (again, heavy misunderstanding of gender as a class system from both sides; radfems lean into thinking that gender is this social attribute that only slightly limits women [they see Woman as a legitimate biological phenomenal category, not as a gender], and not a lethal force of the patriarchy that limits female people & influences & creates/goes hand-in-hand with sex-based oppression, while tras lean into thinking that gender is completely disconnected from stereotypes & roles [again, roles & stereotypes {be they external or internal/aesthetical or personified} are only one sect of gender, not the whole of it], their view of gender being limited to Gender Identity/Gender Expression/Gender Roles, with gender roles being *the thing* they are claiming to want to abolish).

both will claim to be the biggest gender abolitionists ever, but both will cling onto it for dear life & get unnecessarily angry whenever you suggest to talk about actual gender abolition. both will say gender is limiting & restrictive, but the second you wish to talk about gender as a system in depth & analyze that the only way to go about gender abolition is by following principles of proletarian feminism, they will go back to treating gender as an extremely important & crucial part of society that we cannot live without. they both go back to proving they ultimately believe gender is Here To Stay. either out of their nonsensical “biological” reasons (radfem case) or out of nonsensical “self-expression” reasons (tra sense). gender is bad, until you actually want to suggest ways to get rid of it (radfem: “ignore it and it will go away! do to yourself whatever you want! man=adult human male! woman=adult human female! this is undeniable truth! men can like pink and wear dresses! women can like blue and do sports! this is literally how you do Gender Abolition™! there’s no one way to be a woman!”, tra: “just do whatever you want to yourself, stomp on those stereotypes! prove that there’s no one way to be a woman! [real gender abolition lays in destroying the class of woman by the way, and also probably introducing new simple terms for female & male humans that aren’t intrinsically linked to gender & contemporary sex categories; the english word woman is literally derived from words wife + man, so this just goes out to show that tras also don’t care about leaving the category of “woman” behind & only want to talk the talk] chicks can have dicks! lads can have vulvas!”).

perhaps radfems might say that their mere gender contraction is because they don’t believe that a woman is a gender, but this just goes to show that most of contemporary radfems have never read an ounce of radical feminist theory. radical feminist theory defines a woman as a social category to be abolished. the faves of many radical feminists, such as andrea dworkin, christine delphy, and monique wittig– all speak about genuine gender abolition, and they all correctly identify gender as a lethal tool of the patriarchy, not merely a passive social bystander to female oppression; but rather an active participant, encourager, and influencer of it. gender is so much more than mere aesthetics, roles, stereotypes, and attributes– and we just cannot “do away” with it if we cling onto some parts of it. we have to fully do away with it. we cannot abolish some parts, and leave the others intact. we risk allowing gender to recreate itself in some way by choosing this route. both tras & radfems are afraid of gender abolition because it forces them to challenge their set-in-stone beliefs, and their limited understanding of gender abolition is just not enough for genuine liberation. they don’t want gender abolition. in their ideal world, everything would stay the same; except maybe this time, boys would also be told to like pink & play with dolls and kitchen sets, while girls would be gifted action figures & be encouraged to play sports (goes to show how they have just no idea that gender is not locked in time– it fluctuates to adapt to new eras & time periods. giving action figures to girls will not end social misogyny nor will it liberate females in any way, shape or form. misogyny was also a thing back when gender didn’t take the shape we know it as today). maybe this time, women would regularly have beards and men would walk in dresses. will this stop femicide? child brides? pornography? economic exploitation more broadly? unethical misogynistic practices? no. i don’t think so.

– mod zoroark

[tirfpikachu]

@pokegyns is finally getting mods mwahahah >:]

[sxive-writes]

dispelling the trope

Women maintain the power of any relationship. Freely giving it up is the biggest trick she can fall for. Eve in Eden... pregnant single moms... vulnerable female bodies are prey to Male Ego. Staying out of his consumption is akin to "survival of the fittest." Validation, a shield seared by her confidence must come up before Defense can be dismembered by Ego's thorny hammer. If any chance of another breath unbullied by His envy can be wrought. Feminine Divine you are the context.

[maive-the-sheep]

More people should accept nuance in their lives. But not all, it's very nuanced.

Ok but seriously. Think of anti psychiatry.

Society causes distress and lower functioning and psychiatry doesn't aknowledge that...but the abolishment of psychiatry would not influence societies problems at all.

And there are things like I have. I have no appetite. Never have. That is dangerous. And I'm too motivated forward to the point that I cant enjoy things for their own sake. So I have a psychiatrist trying to get me meds that I can actually enjoy things for enjoyment sake (like games or art) as well as have hunger.

AND there are meds given to people that cause more detriment then benefit.

[nuancefems]

changed blog url to @nuanceblr !! but might use this for something too at some point :]

[everythingseasoning]

To continue: most people aren’t evil by nature. We come into the world with some programming and will have certain tendencies due to genetics, but other than that, we are blank slates, absorbing what the world around us tells us.

You could be in their shoes spouting their nonsense too if the cards lined up (psychology proves this over and over again, don’t argue with the messenger)— No matter how detestable you find it, there is always a very real possibility that if you grew up getting brainwashed or neglected, you’d be that very person you despise with your hateful eye

I know, that’s hard to stomach. It was and is hard for me, too.

“You’re defending them! You’re one of them!”

Well god forbid that I can be against horrible things while also (quite necessarily) acknowledging that nuance exists…

The ones you hate are, perhaps shockingly, people, too. And violence isn’t the answer. *Change* towards a better, kinder world should be the priority here. You’re being counterproductive by wishing death/hate on other humans (Seriously. You think they’ll listen to you when you say they should die?)

Take a look in the mirror if your immediate reaction to something bad is to do grab a pitchfork and spurn all those you deem as monstrous and evil — are you not also committing an act of evil right now?

Argue that they started it all you want, but be aware that you’ve lost your humanity, too, once you stop seeing people as people.

TLDR: are you helping the problem by educating others, or are you BECOMING another problem, by spewing more hate and nonsense into the world?

"Those people believe x. We know they're wrong because y, but here's how they got to this point."

"So you think x!"

"No, I'm explaining what they think."

"You're making excuses for it and arguments that support it!"

"I'm laying out the arguments they give. I'm not making them, I'm showing them. I broke down why it's wrong and how it became a prevalent view."

"You're an x-apologist!"

Right, sorry, my mistake. Those people don't have a distorted worldview that leads them to cruelty, they're just evil by nature, their essence is darkness and violence, there's no humanity in them, go ahead and fantasize about wiping out whatever population you marked as bad. Didn't mean to interrupt your fantasy. I can see you're quite attached to it. Go on, advocate for whatever useless violence you think should happen in retaliation. I thought violence should be a horrible but sometimes-necessary tool, but it can be a goal, that's fine too. Everyone needs a dream I guess.

[pokegyns]

Transmedicalism: The Sexism, Racism, and Classism of Transmeds

the theory of transmedicalism is undeniably intertwined with eurocentrism, white supremacy, colonial values, classism, and sexism.

1.) SEXISM

transmedicalists often propose the idea of “being born in the wrong body”– which has become the most widely accepted definition of transness. this is pseudoscience; no one can be “born in the wrong body”. this idea supports the neurosexist myth of the sex brain, “womb hormone imbalance”, “brain-body incongruence”, and general misinformed scientific misogyny. transmedicalism suggests medical intervention as the only solution to dysphoria & incongruence, which can be deeply harmful due to the unresearched nature of gender/sex dysphoria. the calls for the medicalizing of gender also fail to recognize the inherent intersexism this very idea is built on– unnecessary medical intervention on intersex infants is completely built on the medicalization of gender. of course, transness is medical & neurological– but it also undoubtedly is sociological, and transmeds fail to consider this fact. they fail to consider gender socialization, patriarchal values & environmental influence. their belief of having to involve medical intervention in every case of dysphoria fails to encompass the very fact that dysphoria can heal, and this uniquely disempowers & harms detrans people. with their assimilationist views, transmeds tend to revert back to cisnormative praxis. presenting medical transition & assimilation as the only path to trans happiness, they actively ignore the corrupt nature of the affirmative-only model, as well as the overly sexist practices presented to dysphoric individuals. the affirming-model, following transmedicalist thought, often attacks dysphoric people for not wanting to completely assimilate in the cispatriarchal society. assimilation is a direct attack on liberation. assimilation kills, assimilation is erasure, assimilation is the violence of invisibility. attacks on individuality & informed consent, as well as promising happiness to dysphoric people & claiming that medical transition is the only path available for them (& the fearmongering of, “if you don’t transition, you will die”) is the corrupt nature of transmedicalism. medical transition can be harmful, as much as it can be helpful. it is not the only cure to dysphoria, and sometimes it isn’t a cure, at all. the goal of trans liberation isn’t to assimilate into the strict gender binary, it is to destroy the gender binary.

2.) RACISM

attempts at purposing the “immediate need” for medical intervention in cases of dysphoria are also intertwined with colonization & white supremacy. strict attempts of white trans people to “pass” uniquely harm trans people of color. trans people of color are disproportionately subjected to extreme rates of poverty & discrimination, and are therefore bared from the resources they might need for the furthering of their desired transition. the emphasis that transmedicalist ideals place on the importance of passing as cis, as well as the ways in which racist stereotypes have bred toxic masculinity in communities of color, has led to a disproportionate level of violence being targeted towards trans people of color. pressuring dysphoric people to take unhealthy measures at “passing” & “assimilating” otherwise “they aren’t truly dysphoric”, undoubtedly is rooted in the westernized & eurocentric view of trans healthcare.

3.) CLASSISM

transmedicalism is largely classist, through & through. grooming young dysphoric people, who oftentimes come from non-wealthy families, that the only way they can reach happiness is by medically transitioning, is a very well-known tactic of transmedicalism. transmedicalism fails to consider diverse economic situations, and by presenting medical transition as the only path to happiness of dysphoric people, transmeds breed a unique form of insecurity, self-doubt, and depression in the brains of dysphoric youth. they claim medical transition is the only way dysphoric people will ever be able to be happy, and as they make this claim, they simultaneously subject lower-class trans people to lifelong suffering. this is one of the many ways classism manifests as one big hole in transmedicalist thought. not everyone can afford to pass, and it is unfair to declare everyone who cannot pass as a “faker”. branding transition as the only “cure” to dysphoria, and then barring certain individuals from the said “cure”, tells us just how flawed transmedicalism is. capitalists love to profit from vulnerable people’s pain, and dysphoria is a neurological condition that, by branding such a commodifying solution as “the only cure”, can get capitalists thriving at the expense of deeply ill & vulnerable people. transmeds imply that dysphoric people immediately need fixing, otherwise they’re doomed to lifelong suffering & inevitable death. this is the fastest way of manipulating a marginalized group & thus providing & promising profit to consumerist industries & those on the top of the capitalist pyramid.

4.) CONCLUSION

transmedicalism is the most socially accepted idea of transness. it is one that supports assimilation, the patriarchy, racism & colonialism. it is one that is the most likeable to large corporations, conservatives, and the power thirsty capitalists. as such, we shouldn’t see it as a feminist idea of transness. i have seen far too many self-proclaimed radical feminists claim transmeds are “the best trans people” & “ones we should accept the most”. this is a blatantly incorrect & dangerous belief to hold. transmedicalism harms dysphoric people on a wide scale; it punishes deviation from the gender hierarchy, affirms medical transition as the only way to trans happiness, profits from dysphoric pain– and as such, is inherently anti-feminist. it is one thing to acknowledge that dysphoria can be neurological, and that dysphoria is a mental condition– but it is a completely distinct thing to pressure trans people to medically transition, to imply dysphoric people need “fixing”, and to push & betray our trans siblings to the large messy pit the capitalist industry of medical transition is. undoubtedly, medical transition can save lives– but it can also destroy them, and the industry needs immediate reform. a lot of transmedicalists declare themselves “pro-radfem”, which is probably why they’ve gained such sympathy from self-proclaimed radfems– but the two groups couldn’t be more separate from each other. radfems generally have more in common with the crowd that parades neopronouns & xenogenders– and although more than few radfems will find this nonsensical– we still have to admit that these people have no power in the gender hierarchy whatsoever, unlike transmedicalism– an idea that built its’ praxis & is turning into a huge corporation. dysphoric people are not an experiment, nor are we a public good & guinea pigs. our pain is not something that capitalist pigs should have access to commodifying. transmedicalism hurt me as an individual, as well– the effects kalvin garrah & the “truscum” community (i had quite a few toxic transmed exes) had on me as a vulnerable dysphoric teen were numerous. i hated myself, and i hate myself a little less ever since i distanced myself from the huge mess the “truscum” community is. feminism is helping me heal, and i get enraged every time i see transmedicalism be accepted as a radfem ideal. it is not, and it never will be.

– mod zoroark

[pokegyns]

Reclaiming “TIRF”

now i won’t say i personally call myself a tirf, and i absolutely respect the choice of any radfems who refuse to call themselves tirfs because that sounds like radfeminism centers trans people, i believe transmascs deserve to feel safe & respected within feminist spaces, as radfeminism (despite being heavily misrepresented) does have a tendency to mistreat transmascs & dismiss their struggles, as well as pretend dysphoria isn’t real/cannot ever be neurological. gender critical transmascs & their allies should have the right to reclaim the term tirf, similarly to how radfems who aren’t actual transphobes but have been called terfs have the right to reclaim the term terf. true nuancefems, who can be critical of gender whilst still not being discriminatory to trans people.

i understand that a lot of radfems who aren’t close-minded on trans topics call themselves terfs in an ironic way, to mock tras when they start with the harassment. but we also have to keep in mind that there has been a slow, but rising trend of conservative women co-opting our terms. they are downright right-wing & bigoted. they often tend to also target intersex women, detrans women, black & brown women– and generally everyone who they can call a “dirty male invading (white) women’s spaces”. their ideology is built on vulgar materialism, eurocentrism & white supremacy. they support transvestigating, and they want to achieve their goals of “total female protection” through invasive measures such as inspection of genitals. we shouldn’t jump to say “this never happens”– it does. mainstream tras often protect horrible people within their community, fearing that even simple criticism of “their own” will destroy their reputation, when it would actually improve it. they refuse to outcast those people, while outcasting others who merely disagree with them on an ideological level. this proves their corrupt immaturity & inability to conversate with understanding & nuance. we shouldn’t be like them. we need to outcast the genuinely hateful people, and show that they have no place in our community. they aren’t our allies. while i don’t believe that women can systemically harm trans women (i do, however, believe they can systemically harm trans men, though in a very very limited way, but the focus should be directed at cis men & not at them when talking about antitransmasculinity), women can definitely be hateful & still perpetuate & uphold bigotry & discrimination. these people also often use ableist slurs & call disabled people sensitive when they call them out, as well as using fetishistic slurs against trans people, especially against transfems. they often use conservative talking points & portray trans people in a weird & derogatory manner, mocking surgeries & bodies.

on the other hand, there are a lot of women who aren’t intersexist, racist, or otherwise bigoted– but they still tend to be close-minded on trans issues. they are often 100% anti-transition under every circumstance. i don’t believe ostracizing & outcasting them would be productive, as they often are detrans women who empathize with dysphoric people, but because the affirming-model harmed them, they harbor a lot of pent-up anger & express it in an extremist way. we should be conversating with them & exchanging opinions, but we still should be very careful not to harm the trans people in our own community & we shouldn’t force one-on-one conversation if the trans people in our community feel uncomfortable with that. i myself used to call myself a terf, but i feel quite uncomfortable with that, being trans myself– although i’ve been called one on multiple occasions. nowadays, simple things such as acknowledging biology & sexuality are considered terfy, it’s laughable.

i felt aversion to the term “tirf” for a little while, as there has been a recent boom of liberal feminists realizing that militant feminists are starting to mock them, so they started co-opting feminist branches. some of them call themselves intersectional feminists, although intersectional feminism is not its’ own school of theory. others call themselves marxist feminists without reading any theory, as they believe it’s simply the trans-inclusive alternative to radfeminism. some of them are starting to call themselves radfems, but they are always extra careful to preface that they are trans-inclusive. of course, libfems don’t give a damn about dysphoric people– they just weaponize our pain & scream “choice!” at everything they encounter. they are simply afraid of being mocked by feminists. there is, however, a portion of tirfs who are generally just afraid of being judged by tras. i do not think they can be considered real radfems (even if they express otherwise radfem views; anti-porn, anti-sw, anti-beauty industry, etc.), as radfeminism is inherently gender abolitionist, but we need to be welcoming to them, as they are usually nicefems whose fears should be understood. a lot of us were once in their position. being mean to them is counterproductive, we should let them go through their own journey of peaking.

i still personally feel levels of aversion to the term tirf, but if more actual nuanced radfems start using the term, maybe it will boom into some unexpected rising branch of nuanced radfeminism. radfems who, despite not actually being transphobic, can feel free to call themselves “terfs” in a mocking sense, as i believe it’s harmless. we shouldn’t mimic mainstream tra behavior & lock ourselves up in another echo-chamber, except this time instead of it being a tra echo-chamber it would be a magical tirf echo-chamber or whatever. shouting “op is a terf!” would just bring about unnecessary alienation. it would just remind me once again of the times i felt pressured to repress my beliefs & add a “terfs dni!” disclaimer every time before making a slightly-more-than-mainstream feminist point. but we should still be careful of making the trans people within our own community feel safe, and not letting actual genuine transphobes (so, not gender criticals & gender abolitionists & homosexuals, geez, i mean the actual hateful transphobes) in our spaces. i feel the term “terf” is not a good enough descriptor anyway, since the people who co-opt our terms to make bad faith (often conservative) points are not only discriminatory against trans people, but also people of color, intersex people, disabled people, detrans people & often also gay people. we can call out hate & bad faith points without alienating ourselves from our community, and we can outcast horrible people within our community without using meaningless terms to throw at them, the very same terms that are used against us 24/7 anyway as well.

– mod zoroark