Trans-women are women. Trans-men are men. I believe this.
There are those who don’t. There are the usual suspects – hyper-conservatives who describe religious or faith reasons for not accepting this.
Then there are TERFs – Trans-exclusionary radical feminists. Most visible TERFs came up through the second wave of feminism between the 1960s to the 1980s (J.K. Rowling is the most obvious example here).
It is important to understand that a large portion of second wave feminism rooted patriarchy in biological sex. Themes include reproduction as a means of control; male biological violence as a means of control; and the sex/class framework that defined women as biologically women and men as biologically men in order to describe and root women’s oppression as primarily related to biological men.
Given the foundational thinking of second wave feminists we can see their challenge to understand and accept that gender is a concept and not simply biological.
Within this framework men are men and women are women – this is the foundational reason for all of women’s oppression. To allow for an understanding that states that some cisgender men are in fact conceptually women is to allow the patriarchy one more avenue to exploit for female oppression.
Now it is important to note that not all second wave feminism is rooted in biology as the key differentiator and theme. There were many perspectives including one which today’s Trans-inclusionary feminists would follow rooted in Simone de Beauvoir’s thought that “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” from her 1949 work The Second Sex.
For TERFs the reality that the patriarchy is an oppressive system relying heavily on biological differences posits that a reaction has occurred and is required that is also rooted in biology…which simply excludes trans-women (and trans-men but not to the same degree as they may represent more of an infiltration into the patriarchy the way they see trans-women as an infiltration of the patriarchy into the matriarchy).
Of course what the TERF perspective fails to recognize or simply ignores is that trans-women face all of the same oppressive actions of the patriarchy, perhaps even magnified due to the patriarchy’s strong negative reaction and response to trans-women who face enormous pressures from violence and exclusion.
While generally speaking the idea of gender as a construct is picking up steam in academia, youth, and socially, the biological emphasis continues to be reinforced through legal decisions in the United States and the United Kingdom.
It is also worth noting that some consider the term TERF a slur, particularly when applied to themselves, and prefer the term Gender-critical Feminist.
Interestingly the men who most echo a similar philosophy (although would not call themselves feminists) include: Matt Walsh, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro, and Donald Trump. It is important to note that while these two groups come to the same conclusion the path they take is very different from one-another but imagine being a feminist and sharing the same perspective as this group of men who largely represent the patriarchy’s most oppressive ideals.
Ultimately I believe we are in the midst of massive change culturally and the issues related to gender are part of something broader and more significant that includes politics, faith and more. In this realm I believe we are moving toward acceptance of gender as a construct and eventually categories, which are necessary now to support the transition, will eventually fade until we have a society that simply sees people regardless of biological gender or sexual preference. People who differ in all kinds of ways that simply do not matter socially or culturally.
At least I hope we are.
