✨🏳️‍⚧️A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO TERF DOGWHISTLES🏳️‍⚧️✨

✨🏳️‍⚧️A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO TERF DOGWHISTLES🏳️‍⚧️✨

I’ve already posted something similar to this in a reblog, but I figured that for the sake of our safety, I’d rewrite it in a post of its own (with some additions and elaboration). Please consider reblogging this; we need to educate our community on warning signs that hide in plain sight, and once you know what calling cards TERFs use, you’ll be seeing them everywhere.

(Also please note that dogwhistles function in plausible deniability. While some of these points may sound innocuous or incriminating, always check for context clues first before blocking or exposing a potential TERF. Content warning for discussion of transphobic, misogynistic, racist, and anti-SW terminology/ideology under the cut. Please continue at your own discretion.)

• TIM/TIF: “trans-identifying male/female.”

• “Dysphoric female,” used to describe trans men.

• “Gender traitor,” used to shame post-transition men.

• “(Male) invader,” used to describe trans women.

• “Gender-critical” or “gender abolitionist.”

• Weaponization of detransitioners

• Discussion of “irreversible side effects” or “regret rate.”

• “Womyn,” “wombyn,” “gyn,” or omissions of the -man suffix.

• “Adult human female,” used as a mockery against the term “cisgender.”

• “Female homosexual” in the place of “lesbian,” especially if paired with the statement “lesbians don’t date men.”

• “Libfem”: derogatory term for trans-inclusive liberal feminists.

• The 🍒 (referring to Joanna Cherry) and 🏁 (referring to the cis gender binary) emojis.

• TRA: “trans rights activist,” used in a derogatory manner. (Note that this acronym can also mean “transracial adoption,” which has nothing to do with bigoted rhetoric.)

• “Peak trans (moment),” used to describe a TERF’s moment of radicalization.

• Any discussion of “rapid-onset gender dysphoria”. It’s transphobic psuedoscience and does not exist.

• Transmedicalism: the idea that you’re not “actually trans” unless you have a desire to medically transition. TERFS will use this to “fakeclaim” trans individuals who don’t “pass.”

• Use of the term DSD (“disorder of sexual development”) instead of intersex, and/or advocating for the “medical correction” of intersex bodies.

• Invalidation of, exclusion of, or aggressions against intersex people.

• Exclusion or invalidation of aspec identities (asexual, aromantic, aroace, etc).

• Exclusion or invalidation of multi-gender attraction (pansexuality, bisexuality, etc), usually on the basis of one being a “traitor” if they like men and women.

• Discussion of autogynophilia or autoandrophilia, implying that trans identity is a “sexual fetish.”

• “Fetishist” being used as an insult, specifically against trans women or sexually autonomous trans individuals.

• Anti-kink puritanism and the treatment of (particularly female) sexual liberation as a shame or taboo.

• Applying the “male gaze” argument to real-life women who are open about and comfortable in their sexuality.

• “What about the children?!” rhetoric, specifically manifesting in claims that children are being groomed, indoctrinated, or forced into “dangerous” medical procedures.

• Language such as “transgenderism,” “gender ideology,” “genderist,” “gender cult,” or other terms that pathologize trans identity.

• Denial of intersectionality’s effect on systems of oppression and the belief that the patriarchy is solely to blame for all of women’s problems.

• Self-proclaimed “radfems.” (Keep in mind this is a VERY tricky one, simply because many people don’t fully understand what radfem ideology entails. Look for context clues!)

• An open hatred toward all men.

• Denial of the fact that men can be oppressed or harmed, specifically trans men and minority groups.

• Strong aversion to being called cis or claiming the word is a slur.

• “LGB community” or “LGB, drop the T.” Any exclusion of a letter from the acronym could be a warning sign for bigotry or exclusionism.

• The Hydra symbol, used to portray trans individuals as an ever-expanding threat.

• “Did you just assume my gender?!” or “I identify as a ___” being used as mocking comments.

• Discussion of “basic biology,” “female/male biology,” “biological markers,” or “biological sex”/chromosomes.

• Transvestigating: intense scrutiny of one’s appearance and anatomy, especially around stereotypically gendered traits (body hair, eyelashes, muscles, height, facial structure, hips, waist, chest, etc).

• Phrenology: a form of pseudoscience claiming that one’s character can be determined by their facial shape and proportion. Phrenology holds extremely racist/antisemitic implications and heavily favors femme Eurocentric beauty standards, leading to women with non-European features being “transvestigated” or viewed as masculine and therefore “brutish” or “threatening.”

• Conflation of feminine expression or aesthetics with purity or goodness (oftentimes overlapping with phrenology).

• Noticeable disgust or bitterness toward masculine/butch gender expression.

• Erasure of nonbinary identity or categorization of nonbinary people into their AGAB.

• Gender purism: any belief that there’s a “right” and “wrong” way to be a woman.

• Gender essentialism: belief that all men are inherently violent oppressors and all women are inherently fragile and vulnerable.

• Separatism: enforced separation of men and women, specifically manifesting in “women only” spaces and the belief that trans women are “male invaders” trying to enact violence on other women.

• Defining the “female experience” exclusively by suffering, physically or mentally.

• Discussion of the “divine feminine.”

• “Woman-born woman,” “AFAB woman,” “biological woman,” or “natal woman” as an avoidance of the word “cisgender.”

• Defining womanhood as the possession of a womb and the ability to menstruate and give birth, usually paired with the statement “men can’t have babies/periods.”

If you stuck around for this long, thank you for taking the time to look through this. If you know of any other potential dogwhistles, I invite you to reblog this post or comment with your additions so I can add them into this list.

TERFS will be blocked on sight. You are not fucking welcome here. Trans people will always exist, are valid as fuck, and deserve the right to life and happiness.