Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies Publishes an Entire Issue on "TERFness"

Prepare yourself.

Last month, a reader alerted me to the fact that The Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies (DiGeSt) published a special issue in fall 2023 on the topic of “Varieties of TERFness.” After laughing to myself for a good little while, I opened the link and was further bemused at how much time and effort had obviously gone into this.

According to its description on JSTOR, DiGeSt “is a bi-annual, peer-reviewed international journal dedicated to the intersection of diversity and gender studies.” I think this gives us a good idea of what we can expect.

Note that the journal is free to access and you can download or view all of the articles for yourself.

The first editorial in this special issue is titled “Exploring TERFnesses” and it is as funny as its title would suggest. It starts by attacking Women’s Declaration International and its Lesbian Bill of Rights and only gets better from there.

The next piece, “‘I’m Real, Not You’” concerns “the rise in visibility, relevance, and power of trans exclusionary women’s and feminist movements in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) between 2015 and 2022.” In particular, it tries to slam “women’s and feminist movements” for engaging with “right-wing populist-centered anti-gender coalitions, which include right-wing religious, conservative, and right-wing extremist actors.”

These ideas are expanded upon in “Transphobic Truth Markets: Comparing Trans-hostile Discourses in British Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist and US Right-wing Movements” and “Evangelicals, Feminists, and the 'Unlikely' Discursive Alliance at the Heart of British Transphobia.”

The next piece seems to be entirely about one single French feminist, Christine Delphy, who the authors label a TERF, asking “How is one to understand the fact that a feminist whose thinking would seem to inscribe itself in the direction of transfeminism allies herself with the TERF movement?” The abstract is incredibly word-salady and I didn’t want to subject myself to such a painful read, so I didn’t even open this one.

This was actually followed by a fascinating read titled “What’s in a woman? An ethnographic study of Southern Oregon lesbian lands.” Here, the author conducts in-person interviews with women separatists on “lesbian lands” in Oregan, concluding:

In conclusion, defining what ‘woman’ means on lesbian lands requires a multilayered answer: first and foremost, ‘woman’ is centered around the female body, with indisputable biological qualities that reside both on the macro (external genitalia) and the micro level (ovaries, genes, chromosomes).

Based.

The final editorial offers great insight into the way that the trans movement practices DARVO: deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender. The title is “Protecting Children in 'Gender Critical' Rhetoric and Strategy: Regulating Childhood for Cisgender Outcomes” and the abstract begins:

While academic works on the ‘gender critical’ movement have generally focused on its advocacy and claims regarding womanhood and adult women, the movement also heavily targets children.

This is a movement that quite literally tries to identify children for hormonal and eventual surgical castration—but it is the dastardly “gender criticals” who are the ones targeting children, you see.

The issue then includes some Open Forum articles that continue with many of the same topics:

• The Anti-gender and Gender-critical Roots of the Italian Anti-trans Parent Activism

• Gender Critical Feminism in Mexico: Origins, Particularities, Attributes

• Strange Bedfellows: Anti-trans Feminists, VOX Supporters and Biologicist Academics

• An Epidemic of Transphobia on French Turf

• Queers and Right-wing Ideology: Case Study of Serbia

• TERF and Anti-trans Initiatives in Russia: Is There a Connection?

I need to point out this absolute gem of a statement in the abstract of the last piece:

Knowing a trans person was not a predictor of trans inclusion, many feminists joined the TERF movement after meeting a trans person supporting patriarchal gender norms.

What’s that common refrain?

“Get to know a trans person!”

“I did, that’s why I am a TERF.”

As the movement against gender ideology grows, I think it is fascinating to see what the other side is saying. It actually makes the opposition less intimidating to witness how badly they misunderstand the concerns raised. They refuse to engage with our actual ideas and criticisms, and this is telling. They can’t understand—or at least they pretend they can’t—why anyone could possibly have a problem with men invading women’s spaces and the transitioning of children, and so they end up sounding like conspiracy theorists.

This is why we will eventually win.