#there are downsides to only muting/ silencing terf rhetoric of course

[crystaltoa]

There's probably an interesting conversation to be had about whether being "anti-terf" is or should be similar to being "anti-racist." My thinking is that it's probably quite different.

People who say and do racist things, typically, don't identify as racists. They think their views are the norm. Many people say insensitive and hurtful things without realising. Many decent people carry and act on unconscious biases and enforce racist systems. So pointing out the problems with these behaviours is helpful to them, and helps POC. Even people who openly express bigoted opinions knowing many people find them offensive typically don't identify as racist. They may identify with a particular political ideology in which racism is normalised, but being racist is not in and of itself an identity to them. Calling out that behaviour and letting them know their views are not shared or tolerated by you is still a useful thing to do. Often it makes them think twice about acting that way in future. Even if their opinions don't really change, it makes the world a marginally better place for POC to be in.

With TERFs, you have the problem that it's become an identity to them, and they wanna be oppressed so bad. The say and do the things that they do because they want conflict, they want to rile up trans women and their allies so that they can then point at them and say "see? I was right! They're all VIOLENT MISOGYNISTS". Chances are they've been told why their behaviour is shitty before, and they didn't listen then and won't listen now. On a more serious note, some TERF circles operate basically like cults, encouraging the unpleasant behaviour which leads to the terfs being isolated from normal people and getting further entangled with an increasingly small social circle and further and further out of touch with reality.

That's not to say that being explicitly anti-terf is a bad idea. It's just that the context of their behaviour is somewhat different from other forms of bigotry, and I wonder what the implications for meaningfully addressing that problem are.

Personally, online, I don't get involved in their debates. I block every TERF I come across. I don't reblog memes of, say, Shadow the Hedgehog pr whoever with a gun telling them to shut the fuck up. While it's funny on one level to see them overreact to that kind of thing, the reality is that this is a group of dangerous, hateful and volatile people who are adding fuel to each others' garbage fire over anything, and then using the resulting panicked mob mentality to spread propaganda and cause genuine harm to people.

I don't claim to know better than anyone else, and if and how one engages with these people is a personal choice. But from my perspective as somebody who isn't a trans woman, my reasoning is this: If I was to start riling up terfs up into an incoherent rage for my own amusement and/or sense of justice, I would likely suffer no serious consequences as a result... but it does potentially have consequences for trans people. I am not directly responsible for how another adult human being reacts to my actions, sure, but am I really being a good ally if I deliberately provoke cruel and volatile people who like targeting vulnerable minorities?

It's a little different with examples of casual IRL transphobia, since often the person saying it isn't actually a TERF, they're just ignorant and parroting nonsense a friend of a friend said one time, and I've found that asking them what experiences informed their views, or gently correcting misinformation, actually does lead to a productive conversation in many cases.

Again, not a criticism of OP's post or the concept of "anti-terf" in general. I would genuinely like to know how other people define what it means to be anti-terf in actual practice, since it seems subtly different from how one might respond to other forms of bigotry.

incase it wasn’t clear - i am and my blog is anti-terf 👍