r/Glasgow Tools

It stands for ‘trans exclusionary radical feminist’, it’s not exclusively used for women, it just an ideology that appeals more to women by design. It’s not a new term, it’s just become more mainstream as the ideology has become more mainstream. It wasn’t an insult, rather just a term to refer to a person who followed a particular ideology. Just as you’d refer to a fascist as a nazi, you’d refer to a transphobe as a terf. It follows the same playbook as fascism, appealing to the masses to turn against a ‘dangerous’ minority that is looking to disrupt the harmony of society, to predate on women and children, that’s actively trying to recruit, that there’s a level of dishonesty and giving that group more rights would be dangerous for everyone. They frame their arguments as ‘genuine concerns’ and the push back they receive as threatening their right to freedom of speech (this is actually the right to criticise your government without fear of being thrown in a work camp! Not freedom from consequence). The arguments they put forward to say that trans people aren’t real/mentally ill/predatory men in dresses etc, have all been quite thoroughly disproven/countered. It’s just plain old bigotry.

There is a theory on the go that the right wing fundamentalist ‘churches’ from the states - angry at losing the equal marriage fight - have begun to plow resources into this movement. It’s not new, it was more an american thing, but lately it’s taken off in a big way in the UK. Our disgraceful right wing media is of course lapping this all up and churning out as many hate pieces as possible. Here’s a good link in just how much the UK papers have covered trans stories.

https://teau.me/fourth-estate