• Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
  • Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
HomeCultureWhat’s wrong with the TERF variety of femini ...

What’s wrong with the TERF variety of feminism? Where do we start? Cannot able to

June 11, 2015
15727265797_d19e20f6f2_z
Photo by Roehan Rengadurai via flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.

A recent and widely shared article in The New York Times, titled ‘What Makes a Woman?‘, mounts a critique of the trans movement in the US. Elinor Burkett, its 68-year-old author, complains that the trans movement is too focused on biology. She goes on to say that trans activists’ insistence on valorising femininity is at cross-purposes with a feminist need to bust open the definition of what it means to be a woman. The article frames itself as a response to Caitlyn Jenner‘s recent transition in the eye of a very public media storm. 

Trans-activists and writers have rightly called out the piece. So here are some lines (that made us whistle) from the most thorough critique of Burkett’s exclusionary feminism.

What most underlies Burkett’s stance in my mind is cissexism: the belief that cis people’s gender identities are authentic and real while trans people’s are questionable, coupled with the belief that cis people have the right to sit in judgment over trans people’s gender expressions, and decide whether to acknowledge a trans person’s gender identity. Burkett has positioned herself as having the right to decide who is acknowledged as a woman, or as a feminist, or as having a “real” gender identity.

Enough said. Also, check out this critique, which appeared on The Huffington Post. Here is some key background to this current debate taking place:

a) the term TERF: Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist. What’s that? This New Yorker piece tells you about radical feminists and their various grouses against transgender people. AKA: more than you ever wanted to know about TERFS.

b) This excellent interview with Judith Butler done by The Transadvocate, where she squashes the idea that her work implicitly argues for trans-as-false-conciousness. See below:

I have never agreed with Sheila Jeffreys or Janice Raymond, and for many years have been on quite the contrasting side of feminist debates.  She appoints herself to the position of judge, and she offers a kind of feminist policing of trans lives and trans choices. I oppose this kind of prescriptivism, which seems me to aspire to a kind of feminist tyranny.

 

Tags: Caitlyn Jenner, Elinor Burkett, judith butler, sheila jeffreys, TERF, trans movement, trans person

Share!
Tweet

ladiesfinger

About the author

Related Posts

‘Dressing Up is My Politics’: 16 Important Points From a Transfeminist Conversation

trans bill

Why People are Freaking Out about the New Trans Bill

The Finger Wrap: Hashtags, Hungry-for-love Scientists and Hazy Govt Logic

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

You May Also Like

  • After Payal Tadvi’s Death Can We Allow Medical Education to Continue to Pretend to be Casteless? May 28, 2019
  • Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker Win Reminds Us of Oman’s Recent Slave-owning Past May 24, 2019
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow is Sexy, Sterile and So Burnt By Marvel May 12, 2019
  • Let Us Admit the Sins of Atishi Marlena May 10, 2019
  • 20 Questions for SC Panel that Cleared the CJI of Sexual Harassment Charges May 9, 2019


Online Bachchi, Dil Ki Sachchi

Come on over for feminist journalism.

Politics. Pop Culture. Health. Sex. Law. Books. Work.

We write what we want to read.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • About
  • Contact Us

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Keep up with us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mail

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Copyright © 2018 The Ladies Finger
Subscribe to our RSS/Atom feed here