The University of Cambridge’s student union released a guide on “how to spot” feminists who are supposedly “transphobic.”
The guide refers to alleged “transphobic” students by the slur “TERF,” which stands for “Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist.” According to the guide, “TERFs” maintain that “trans women are not women, and accordingly have no place in women’s spaces.
“TERFs claim all women, on the basis of biology, experience the same kinds of oppression. This completely glosses over the way that gender and sex are both systems of power that interact with other systems of power and oppression, such as racism, ableism, and colonialism,” the guide reads. “Women are not a homogenous group, and some people who experience misogyny are not women.”
The guide states that “there should be no room for transphobia or TERFs in feminist organising” because “trans liberation is part of feminism.”
Examples of women considered “TERFs” include best-selling author J.K. Rowling, who mocked the phrase “people who menstruate” as a replacement for the word “woman.” (RELATED: JK Rowling Blasts The ‘Hundreds Of Trans Activists’ Who’ve Threatened Her With ‘Rape,’ ‘Pipe Bomb’ And More)
Women who use phrases such as “sex-based rights” or “protecting women and girls” should also be considered “TERFs,” according to the guide.
The Cambridge guide encourages students not to speak with “TERFs” online. The author, Milo Eyre-Morgan, argues that an online feud could bring “transphobia into the timeline of your trans friends and followers who won’t want to see that.”
Eyre-Morgan is the university’s elected women’s officer who uses the pronouns “he/him” and “they/them.”
new “How to spot TERF ideology” guide just dropped https://t.co/UewdGgcpgB pic.twitter.com/qgGyJyMhDu
— Milo Cambridge SU (@SU_Womens) October 11, 2021
The advice encourages young, progressive activities to create compelling arguments for being inclusive of trans people and, if all else fails, explain why “TERFs” are akin to “the far-right.”
“If the person has strong feminist commitments, it may also be worth bringing up that TERFs (particularly the famous ones who figurehead the movement) spend a lot of time working with the far-right,” the guide reads.
The guide also states, in bolded letters, that disavowing “TERFs” is not enough.
“It’s not enough to disavow TERFs in words alone and say ‘Trans Rights are Human Rights’ or ‘Trans Women are Women.’”
According to the guide, the only way for students to be considered true feminists is if they can create spaces where trans people are comfortable, concede that “trans liberation is an essential part of feminism, ensure that trans people have a voice in leading discussions,” and “engage in and support the struggle of all marginalized people.”
Listed at the bottom of the guide is a book list with titles such as “Transgender Marxism,” “The Transfeminist Manifesto” and “TERF Wars: An introduction.” The university’s student union LGBT+ guide is also listed.
“It’s an attempt to set out a witch-finder’s charter and it’s driven by ideology, not reason,” said assistant professor in philosophy of religion James Orr, according to The Telegraph. “This is an extremely sinister development and is effectively incentivizing behavior among students that is wholly opposed to the flourishing of any serious intellectual culture.”
