Coming to recent light, feminist and acclaimed novel writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie took it to television to remind the public that trans women are not real women. A synopsis of what she said to UK Channel 4 News follows: trans women can not be considered real women if they did not suffer the way women do their entire lives. They have indulged in the privileges given to a man at some point in their lives so therefore they cannot be considered real women.
“[I]t’s difficult for me to accept that then we can equate [trans-women’s] experience with the experience of a woman who has lived from the beginning in the world as a woman, and who has not been accorded those privileges that men have.” — Adichie, Channel 4 News interview.
Adichie can easily be classified as a TERF. A TERF, is a trans-exclusionary feminist who believes that trans women are not real women because they have enjoyed the privileges a man has at some point in their lives. A TERF believes that trans women can not relate to the plights of feminism because they have not been fighting for their rights their entire life.
TERFS are most dominant on the social media platform of Tumblr. Users take time out of their days to send women, such as Laverne Cox, backlash on how her statements that womanhood is a feeling are incorrect. They further discourage trans-women from feeling like women by reminding them they can’t get pregnant or have a period therefore they cannot even dare to sympathize with the hardships of being a woman.
TERFS identify themselves more commonly as “radfems” on the website, (every post found with the TERF ideology can be found to have this tagged at the bottom). Radfems want to create an online magazine dedicated to their hateful ideology. This online magazine, while it has not been named, plans to target young girls simply because of how impressionable they are. Users are calling for the website to be taken down as soon as it is up and running.
Trans-women are real women. To suggest there are not would be misogynistic and offensive considering all the violence they endure for being a woman. Experiences differ from woman to woman. No life is the same, so excluding trans-women from the fight would be dire to feminism. Radfems trying to reach out to young girls puts all off trans-women at risk from being erased for good from the community.
Trans-women are real women.
