February 02, 2015
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What Guardian columnist Julie Bindel, who is often maligned as a TERF, refers to as the “trans cabal“ routinely depicts TERFs as transphobic reactionaries who unwittingly serve the patriarchy and are therefore complicit in the exclusion, harassment, torture, and murder of transfolk the world over. They allege”without any evidence, as is the case in many such cartoonishly overwrought modern transsexual persecution complexes”that within their dark and sinful hearts, the TERFs want nothing more than for transsexuals to be wiped off the planet. In this sense, they argue, TERFS are no less fascistic or reactionary than all the homophobic right-wing Christian bigots who are always seeking to murder them, at least in their fever dreams. They actually have such a bloated sense of self-importance that they feel non-trannies are as obsessed with trannies as trannies themselves are.
Online, the TERF war consists of little more than both sides accusing the other of being psychotically hateful ideologues who are constantly persecuting, harassing, and threatening to kill them. Based on a cursory review of the trans/TERF battles online, I”d tend to agree, adding only that both sides are guilty of being psychotically hateful ideologues.
If I could sift through all the highly girlish drama”seriously, some of these trans activists can be so whiny that I am sometimes tempted to concede that they actually are women”and whittle it down to one point, I”d say that TERFs are merely alleging that “trans women” are men who are merely pretending to be women, no matter what “gender identity” they claim, how many hormone injections they receive, or surgeries they undergo. Until presented with evidence that convinces me otherwise, I will agree with them on this point.
Otherwise I have no dog in this fight, no skin in this game, no heart to be broken in this emotionally pitched drama. I”m content to sit back and watch the chicks battle the men who pretend to be chicks over whether or not the latter group consists of bona fide chicks. To me, that’s entertainment.
