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But, with a knowing wink, it is understood to mean “Jew”. In the same way, “shouting at women you don’t like” is reframed as “legitimate criticism of transphobia”. The intended audience knows exactly what’s being said, but the speaker maintains plausible deniability.Īs it happens, I told Dominique McLean that his use of “terf” was a glorification of misogyny. Another user added: “fuck off back to Mumsnet, terf”. (But I don’t even have any children to complain about there?) The ensuing wave of abuse included an image of an anime character pointing a gun at the screen, with the words “shut the fuck up, terf”. Twitter ruled that post did not violate its abuse guidelines, and neither did McLean’s video. Everything I received for calling out McLean was identical to the vitriol I got then, just with a new epithet meaning “woman” attached to it. The creation of “terf” has been a boon to sexists everywhere. It looks woke: you’re against transphobia! It can be defended as a neutral ideological description: it’s just an acronym! And it evades social media guidelines which forbid attacks on protected minorities: “terf” doesn’t mean woman, duh! Even better, it is isolating. Who wants to complain about it, and risk being called a terf themselves?Ī former quiz show champion called Arthur Chu used his opposition to GamerGate to launch a career opposing geek misogyny.