TERF Wars

If you are on Twitter, you will notice that JK Rowling is in trouble again. A lot of angry people are calling her a TERF and frankly, I wouldn’t blame her if she just stopped listening. Shouting at and threatening people is never the way to get someone to understand your point of view. You can make the world change by bullying people but then they will become suppressed and unhappy and eventually revolt and trust me, there will be nothing scarier than a bunch of revolting women in their fifties.

As far as I can see, what JK Rowling has done is question the language on a headline about free sanitary products, which said for all who menstruate. She wondered if there was a word for that...woman, maybe? The headline is a much more accurate use of language than her suggestion, as I don’t think sanitary products are used by all, or even most women. As a lover of language, I’m sure she could have been easily persuaded that there was nothing wrong with the headline, except its lack of snappiness.

Obviously, the upset with Joanne goes deeper.

I’ve been seeing the word TERF flung around social media as an insult for middle aged women for a while now. It is something I have been trying, and failing, to understand. TERF, as a word, is short, violent and angry. It’s used with venom to shut down the debate. TERF, as an acronym, stands for Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist. I can’t help thinking that’s a lot of things for one person to be and I’m quite disappointed that we’ve moved back to using the word Feminist as an insult.

It is true that feminists have often clashed. Activists often do. If you are passionate about something then it is too easy to stop seeing the bigger picture. You only have to read about Erin Pizzey, who started Refuge, to understand how complicated the feminist movements that changed the world are. It’s a bit like that scene in Life of Brian where they are arguing about the People’s Front of Judaea.

Radical Feminism is a small branch that believes that society is a patriarchy that suppressed women. on all aspects. They believe that radical means are required to overthrow male supremacy and reorder society.

I suspect that the main part of the anger comes because people believe that the author is trans-exclusionary, meaning that she wants to deny the existence and rights of trans people. There will be a small number of people who need sanitary protection who are not living as women and this is the reason people are so cross with her. She may believe that people who are born girls should live that way forever, I can’t say but I would be surprised having read her books and knowing her to be someone who is concerned with equal rights and fairness for all.

As a society, we are just at the beginning of our understanding and acceptance of people being able to choose what gender or sexuality they live with. There is a long way to go but shouting at women who have fought hard, their whole lives, to get women to be seen as valuable in their own right, or for equal pay, is not the way to do it. There is a history that needs to be worked with, not against. Some of us come from a time when women were erased from history, ignored and suppressed and there is a fear that by refusing to even use the word woman for who it might offend that will happen again.

I hesitated to write this blog. With so much anger, it’s tempting to not try to understand but to shut down and hold any personal beliefs in. I don’t think that will help in the long run, so here is a picture of some of my roses to distract you,

while I whisper quietly, “Leave JK Rowling alone. She wrote some books. She isn’t responsible for keeping everyone happy.”