#that’s absolutely a terf dogwhistle

[bumblebeerror]

Hiii just wanted to say not only are u a cunt ur a stupid cunt for acting like tagging faggot, a slur, as f slur, is terf rhetoric. Trans fems who have been called faggot, queer, or the d slur especially have every right to not want to see those slurs.

Hi person I’ve never talked to or seen in my activity tab before. Did you know you’re on the gay lesbian queer faggot tranny dyke website or are you lost on your way back to Twitter

[creatingblackcharacters]

Do you have any advice/suggestions/requests for non-black members of fandom as far as how to respond to racism in fandom spaces? Obviously we shouldn't be speaking over black voices, but it doesn't seem fair for black members of fandom to have to do all the work of making a fandom space safe and welcoming for themselves.

You are correct! Tbh, these are tips for being a good ally in general:

Amplify Black Voices!

Odds are, whatever manifesto you have in your mind about the injustice of antiblackness in your fandom, a Black fan has already said it multiple times. While I appreciate the sentiment, I must admit I'm salty when I see that people are more supportive of (usually white) voices that discuss my lived experience, over my own voice and my lived experience. What does that really solve? You need to be following Black fans too, that way you're actually in the know when these things are happening.

Don't be a Bystander!

If I'm getting jumped and you (who had the power to help) show up afterwards to say "I really empathized with your pain", I'm not going to think "wow they cared, I'm so grateful". I'm going to think "WOW they really let me get my ass beat!" Same idea with this. That's honestly the most painful part for me; it's not the lone racist themselves, but the hordes of people who back them up, and the rest (some of whom you may even consider a friend) who might disagree but say absolutely nothing.

When you see that a Black peer is being railroaded and you KNOW it's wrong, step tf up! Be willing to say "you're out of pocket for behaving this way, and I will not be supporting you now that I know you're a racist". I will never know you're an ally if you're only an ally in your head! It's the thought that counts, but the action that delivers!!

It's going to be uncomfortable! Stand on it!

If you share that you're against antiblackness in fandom spaces, but next you're reblogging whitewashed art, or an artist known for whitewashed/racist pieces, or still following someone who's made covert/overt antiblack statements, etc. just bc you "enjoy their stuff"... You're not being an ally. Be willing to hold those creators accountable, and when they disappoint you, unfollow them. Be willing to tell your friends, "hey, that person did/said this thing that was anti-black and were unapologetic about it". And if your friends don't care? Now you know who's around you. I'm not saying it's easy, but... Do you stand on business, or would you rather allow racism so that you can stay comfortable? Because your Black peers have to live under this discomfort you're only momentarily experiencing. It's far harder for me to approach these people and hold them accountable. And if I see that you're still kicking it with known antiblack racists... I'm probably not going to assume highly of you, either.

Educate yourself on what these aggressions look like!

You might not know what to look for, and if you don't, you're gonna miss a lot. What is actually antiblackness will often be posited as "drama" or "fandom wank". Or, if they're really trying to sound progressive, it'll reveal itself as dogwhistles in other important topics like queer representation or misogyny (e.g. how white women often claim misogyny when confronted with their racism, or TERFs). That's how it gets swept under the rug. Learn to recognize microaggressions, learn to recognize the signs. It requires work! Listen to and believe your Black peers when they explain what they saw! Bc trust, once you see it... You'll realize there's a lot of it lmao. And that's what many fans are afraid of confronting.

That's what I have for now, if anyone else has anything to offer. 👍🏾 Thanks for asking!

[nyancrimew]

somewhat genuine question to the terf who has been trying to harass me on anon for a few days, why do y'all need like 20 new extra childish and cringy slurs to call us when there are plenty already existing way more harmful ones? if i have to reverse engineer words you're clearly using as a slur to figure out what you're trying to call me that's pretty meaningless, like these words have no meaning or effect outside of being dogwhistles inside your small edgy bubble. these make sense as in-group terms (which any good fascist movement ofc needs lots of) and absolutely nothing else.

[oarfishing]

Alright, I'm sick of seeing TERFisms on my dash, so here's a handy list of TERF dogwhistles and talking points to think about before you reblog a post.

I've seen a few of these before, but it doesn't hurt to make more. Especially when we're seeing a lot of radfem rhetoric popping up in LGBT spaces from people who might not know better.

SCREENNAMES: these are terms that commonly appear in radfem usernames across the web

rad or radical

fem or femme

vulva, clit, uterus, womb, ovary, vagina, etc.

febfem

anything along the lines of "angry woman"

xx or chromosomes

wombyn, wimmin, womyn, etc.

LGB

feminist

BIOS: things that show up in radfem bios

♀ or ⚢

febfem

female separatist

female, human female, adult human female

xx

something along the lines of "the scary feminist you were warned about"; being an angry woman, being sick of being silenced, being an evil woman, being an angry lesbian

detrans (NOTE: detrans people are absolutely not always transphobic)

dysphoric female

males/men do not interact

LGB✂️

misandrist

feminist (NOTE: again, very few feminists are actually terfs, but this is commonly in terf bios alongside some of these other terms)

TERMS: terms that radfems use in their circles

TIM - trans-identified male, a way of saying transfems, trans women, and other trans people

TIF - trans-identified female, same as above but the other way around, less commonly seen

DSD - disorder of sexual development, a way to avoid saying intersex and to categorize intersex people as "still male or female" (you might see "males with DSD" or "females with DSD" for example)

females or males instead of women and men

alternatively, women and males to dehumanize men

"peaking" or "peaked" - referring to becoming radicalized as a radfem or TERF

womyn, wombyn, wimmin, wo**n, and any other spelling that takes "man" out of the term woman

mentally ill men/women

sex-based oppression

gender critical

"TIRF" - trans-inclusive radical feminist (don't be fooled by the name, they're very much not)

TRA - trans rights activist, derogatory

sex-based rights

female separatism/"women's land"

WBW - womyn-born womyn

autistic girls/children

troon - (ridiculous) slur for trans people

RHETORIC: general ideological themes in radfem rhetoric

men are inherently more violent than women

women don't or rarely rape men

(woman on woman rape is ignored by almost all radfems)

being nonbinary is a way to "stop being" your assigned sex while still acting as your birth sex

lesbians are not attracted to men/penises and can never have sex with men/penises (otherwise, you're bisexual)

men can and will never be lesbians

there is no such thing as a bi lesbian, only lesbians and bisexuals. labels are rigid and sex-based

all of the world's suffering is driven by men

women would be better off separate

an all-female society is utopia

sex is binary, and intersex people are "glitches" or "still male or female but DisorderedTM"

men should expect to be feared by women

female/female relationships are safer and more pure than straight or gay male relationships

men and women are more different than similar

intersex people should not be allowed in sports

intersex people and trans men are never in men's sports

terrible world events wouldn't have happened if women were in charge

men are stupid and aggressive

being a man is not a positive thing

men's problems are lesser than women's

penises are disgusting and vaginas and vulvas are beautiful

trans women are performing at being girls

trans men see themselves as above lesbians

attraction is sex-based

porn is rape

porn is inherently violent

watching porn makes you predisposed to inflicting abuse

BDSM is inherently violent and misogynistic

transitioning children (whether socially or medically) are being abused

"bitch" and "cunt" are slurs against women

only gay men can say faggot and only lesbian women can say dyke

When you see a few or more of these together, RUN! It's a terf.

[wiisagi-maiingan]

I don't actually trust DNIs though tbh because people do just list a whole bunch of bigotries that they're "against" but they frequently perpetuate anyway and put absolutely no effort into recognizing and fixing their internal biases.

People with "terfs DNI" in their bios who regularly reblog blatant radfem posts because they refuse to learn to recognize dogwhistles, people with "antisemites DNI" who reblog literal blood libel and conspiracies about globalists controlling Hollywood, etc. People fill their DNIs and bios with all the things they're "for" and "against" and then think that their work is done, that they're One of the Good Ones™ and it's frankly exhausting.

[bloomshroomz]

Tumblr is still actively endorsing transphobia on this website. Reblog the fuck out of this.

Tumblr got back to me about a report for once... Just to tell me that the blatant transphobia I reported "does not violate community guidelines."

These are the posts which Tumblr staff decided should be kept on the platform, with screenshots.

Also, I apologize in advance for censoring the usernames of the transphobes in the screenshots. Tumblr does absolutely nothing to protect its trans users, so I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up getting in trouble instead, just for including their usernames. I will mention, however, that every transphobe had transphobic dogwhistles in their usernames and/or bio. Transphobes are not difficult to spot. Staff are just apathetic at best, and actively transphobic at worst.

Exhibit A: A post in which someone repeatedly and explicitly misgenders trans women, fearmongers about "trans ideology," uses transphobic dogwhistles, and denies the existence of transmisogyny. This isn't even the full post; it was an incredibly long transphobic tangent. The comments were full of transphobes as well. None of them were banned. Tumblr staff think this is okay.

Exhibit B: A post in which someone delights in the idea of a trans person hurting themselves by "ripping at their surgery scars," with additional ableist undertones. Not a hypothetical trans person either; a real individual trans person. She was not banned.

Exhibit C: A post in which a self-proclaimed TERF refers to consensual gender affirming surgeries as "forced surgeries" and frames trans people as "Nazis and fascists" just for trying to become comfortable in our own bodies. She did this in direct response to trans people celebrating their own surgeries. She was not banned.

Exhibit D: A post in which someone says "transgenderism is erasing women" and blames the existence of misgendering and degendering on trans people, as if we aren't also hurt by those things frequently. She also said that trans women are "not women" in comments on her own post. She was not banned.

Exhibit E: A post in which someone engages in a blatant form of Holocaust denial, by saying trans transgender and queer people "were not targeted" (while simultaneously casting doubt on the validity of those identities themselves by putting them in scare quotes). Trans persecution and book burnings are a well documented aspect of the Holocaust. This post was also reblogged by other transphobes. None of them were banned.

@staff care to explain why you think these posts are okay? Would you like to tell us how and why these "don't violate community guidelines"? Did you learn nothing from the lawsuit that happened because of transphobia among staff? After everything that has happened, why is there still nothing being done about the rampant transphobia on this website?

Just curious.

Also, in case I get banned or this post gets deleted, here's an archived version of my post. Keep it tucked away somewhere.

[velvetvexations]

These days people get so weird when you point out that TERFs do more than target trans women and it's as exhausting as it is confusing.

I've had people tell me it's wrong for me to bring up the fact that TERFs and radical feminists target bi women because it's wrong for me to not center trans women in literally *every single discussion* of TERFism despite the fact that it is well known by anyone paying attention that TERFs gleefully target other queer people too. TERFs openly admit that they use ace/aro exclusionism and transmedicalism as recruitment tactics because once you get a queer person to turn against one identity it's easier to get them to turn against another. And the first big wave of TERF ideology and radical feminism went so hard on getting bi women out of lesbian spaces that now people legit think butch/feme are lesbian exclusive terms when they never were. They intentionally destroyed all connection bisexuals had to their shared history and culture until basically everyone is parroting their words without realizing, and are still responsible for some of the most vile biphobia circulating today. Like hate to break it to the "bi women shouldn't bring their cishet bf to pride" types but idc how much you say you love trans people you are still walking and talking like a TERF and deserve to be called on it.

And ofc they absolutely target trans people of all genders, acknowledging they ways they harm trans men doesn't mean you think they don't target trans women.

This is legit why I'm always one of the first people to point out what TERFs and radfems actually believe and how their ideology works and what dogwhistles you need to look out for, because imo the current idea that trans women are legit the only queer people meaningfully harmed by TERFism is happening specifically because no one bothered to learn what a TERF actually is beyond "transphobe", which is also how we get entire movements of queer people parroting TERF, SWERF, and radfem talking points word for word and not seeing a problem because they aren't transphobic(or thinking all they need to do to fight TERFs is put a DNI banner up on their blog and talk about punching transphobes).

If people refuse to actually learn what TERFs are and why they believe what they do we will never be able to defeat them. They will always sneak in, every bar will turn into the proverbial nazi bar, you have to fully recognize them to weed them out before it's too late, and so many people are completely uninterested in doing that.

Love this ask anon. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 I didn't know that at all about butch/femme having been used by bi women as well, thank you for telling me about it.

[wildpeachfarm]

dragging the conversation back to earlier: people absolutely start veering towards radfem ideology during situations like this, in no small part because feeling hurt/betrayed/scared are big factors for getting radicalized. i've seen some people in this fandom say they've caught themselves slipping towards radfem rhetoric, and

1) i'm glad some of yall are catching it when it happens,

2) one of the best things you can do to inoculate yourself against that shit is reading up on feminist theory that explicitly includes men in the discussion. you should read bell hooks in general, but for this discussion in particular, "the will to change: men, masculinity, and love" is my top recommendation. black feminism in general has been having this discussion for decades

3) the other best thing you can do is seek out the experiences of marginalized men. listen to trans men, and men of colour, and disabled men, and queer men, and intersex men. remember that gender is not the only part of identity that impacts someone's lived experience. maybe go watch kimberle crenshaw speak about intersectionality to make sure you understand the term as she coined it, not as the internet has bastardized it until we ended up with the fucking blizzard overwatch diversity charts

4) oh yeah, actually go read up on radfem talking points and dogwhistles. not terf (although you should learn those as well), but radfem. most terfs know they aren't gonna get you into the 'trans exclusionary' bit right off the bat, but they can and will get you on the 'radical feminist' bit. dont give them that foot in the door.

4) to paraphrase someone else: every large enough group of women has men in it, and every large enough group of men has women in it, both because of multigender people, and binary trans people (closeted, egg uncracked, etc). if you want to fully, properly keep yourself away from terf and radfem rhetoric, you need to make peace with this.

good read for anyone who was interested in the convo earlier about harmful rhetoric being used by twitter users lately and how to combat it!

[animentality]

can u please explain why queer is a slur is a terf dogwhistle specifically. it absolutely makes sense but what is it dogwhistling specifically? /gen

[spacelazarwolf]

Do you think it’s possible that terfs started fanning the flames of transandrophobia in the hopes of converting trans men?

I’d wager it’s likely there are at least a couple who have, and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if it turns out some of the big “anti transandrophobia truthers” out there are, in fact, terfs.

absolutely yes. most of the aggressively “anti transandrophobia truthers” have “tme” in their bio, which has been a crypto te/rf dogwhistle for a couple years now.

i think there are a lot of crypto te/rfs online who are specifically seeking out other trans people to feed their rhetoric to to pit them against us, and then turning to us and going “look!!!!!! they hate you!!!!!!! only we can keep you safe!!!!!!!” and a lot of queer and trans people are falling hook line and sinker for it.

[anti-terf-posts]

I'm a little weirded out by the way Harry Potter is treated as a definitive sign that someone is evil/a terf, if I'm gonna be honest.

I mean, it's a bit of a red flag, but I'd want to actually look for more things first. Like... up until a few months ago, I had a HP insulated mug that I still had because I didn't really feel good about spending a bunch of money on a new one.

I just don't think it's a definitive sign of anything. You're welcome to disagree, and I would love to see why you do if so, as a conversation about this isn't very good if I don't listen to other sides of an argument.

(Part of this is also me taking anything other than absolute statements of bigotry from someone with a grain of salt unless there's a pattern. Good practice with so many dogwhistles being pretty innocent things.)

i agree 100%!! liking Harry Potter is not a definite tell tale sign someone is a terf/transphobe, it's just a red flag, like you said. Whenever I see someone put their Hogwarts house in their bio, I always check their blog for other signs. usually the first sign that they're ok is that I find is when they also have their pronouns in their bio. looking up "trans" or "radfem" is usually a good way to figure out what side they're on :]

[shu-of-the-wind]

bullet points cause i’m too fucking tired to do anything else: 

if you buy h0gwarts l3gacy you’re actively feeding a TERF. you’re giving her money. you’re helping her profit. full stop. idgaf if you rpf or consume or write hp fanfic--fuck, i write hp fanfic to try and make it what it could have been and to process my feelings about the foundational fucking series of my childhood being so absolutely grotesquely coopted and destroyed--but if you buy any fucking hp merch or have anything to do with it at this point monetarily we are fucking done. 

if you buy h0gwarts l3gacy you’re contributing to the active transformation of hp into antisemitic, transphobic, white supremacist dogwhistles. people are getting fucking death threats. this is not a fucking joke. this game was written by an antisemite and it is worse than even my worst nightmares. do not fucking touch it. 

if the two above points don’t convince you, fucking unfollow and block me. i can’t deal with this shit. i don’t know how to make it clearer that funding this game is funding TERF and antisemitic rhetoric in a way that will kill people. if you choose to do it anyway, i want nothing to do with you at all. 

[frownyalfred]

You're not the first person to not be aware that 'gender critical' is a Terf dogwhistle, but I'm glad you acknowledged that wasn't your intent

Ngl as a trans person who also enjoys Omegaverse content, it does make me feel a bit wary when I see people use those terms but I try to give them the benefit of the doubt before assuming the absolute worst

Glad the previous anon brought it up cause I was trying to figure out how to do the same

I’m so very sorry! I genuinely had no idea that was what it meant. I’m glad someone told me!

Thank you for sticking around as I fumble through this :) definitely don’t want to do anything for/adjacent to this fic that makes anyone uncomfortable.

[sleepynegress]

HELLO! I'm sorry you've been getting idiotic anonymous people being rude about Uhura. I saw your lovely post about her and it made me happy to see that people appreciate her! She is so much more than lots of fandom pretends. Also I high-key agree that Karl Urban absolutely nailed his performance of Bones. It was so dead on!!! Zoe's Uhura was lovely too but as you say, sharper around the edges, and personally I felt her relationship with Spock was very sweet but difficult initially for me because I really get stressed when one person doesn't get the emotional needs of another. So their really gentle scenes made me SO happy when they finally happened. The warmth and gentleness shone through and won me over entirely. Zoe played sharp with just enough warmth. But I still love Nichelle's too. Uhura is great! Anyway didnt have a huge point here just happy that you also love her and call people out LOL

The main issue is the misogynoir and perhaps TERF leanings against the most recent player in the part, Celia Rose Gooding. She is non-binary and goes by she/they pronouns. She also has a short close-cropped style which beautifully frames her face. The troll is hyper-fixated on attacking that, disparaging her presentation of femininity using coded language to imply aggression or masculinity. This is extra backward because, of the three players who took on Uhura, she has the darkest skin tone, has the fullest lips and a wide nose bridge, and her hair is the only one not in a straightened or processed style (which is fine for an option BTW). All of these things together are rare aesthetics for a Black woman, and appropriate, especially for an sub-Saharan African woman's character presentation, especially in a futuristic sci-fi mainstream iconic franchise, like Star Trek and so important for young people to see as normalized femininity. I think of Lupita Nyong'o talking about the effect Alek Wek had on her...just being there as this South Sudanese supermodel, with very dark skin and short natural hair...

Celia Rose is the particular target this troll has framed as their "fanhood", with thinly veiled insults and backhanded "compliments" that keep dogwhistling in their posts with various account names.

As for Zoe's Uhura, that professionalism and sharpness, when it came to her abilities and focus on her studies was an obvious intentional writing choice to stave off the very criticisms *she still got* because of the misogynoir of that era...

People were accusing her of coercing Spock into her ship assignment and even assaulting him(!).

That mess never makes sense, but hating Black women for existing or having what we are perceived as not "deserving" is sadly an old tradition (see those who make a hobby out of hating Megan Markle). And now, I see people praising the OG Uhura, Nichelle, for aspects of her character that were actually forms of limitations on her because of production bigotry...i.e. the forced interracial kiss, that people constantly cite as some forward thing w/o the context that it was forced because the implication was that no one in her crew would willingly kiss a Black person. IOW, aliens assaulting them for their entertainment was the lesser evil and more palatable to white audiences than someone choosing to love on Uhura (and I would add *especially* someone white, because even showing Black affection and love in that time was a rare thing, and her episode showing some yearning towards an old love showed no physical affection between them either). Anyway, all that to bring it right back around to ALL the Uhuras are great. And the weird microaggressions, macroaggressions, hatred, and attempts to shove them into a particular box are misogynoir; a microcosm of the kind of bullshit too many Black women go through on the regular just for existing.

Celia is a Rose and I hope she shines, gets loved on, has friends (including some Black ones) who are genuinely concerned for her well-being and actually help her when she's in need.

P.S. I missed this reading way too fast before but this bit is sus IMO Zoe's Uhura was lovely too but as you say, sharper around the edges, and personally I felt her relationship with Spock was very sweet but difficult initially for me because I really get stressed when one person doesn't get the emotional needs of another. If you meant Spock not reading Uhura? Then yeah, I agree. If you mean Uhura not reading Spock?? I can't walk with you there because Spock literally almost hindered Uhura's career and got her on an exploded ship(!) because of his emotional bias and almost killed Kirk on the bridge because he was not managing his emotions well. Meanwhile Uhura read him well enough to provide some comfort after the loss of his mother.

[sophieinwonderland]

this is absolutely random but ( takes a rl breath )

what is with some people who insist tulpa is cultural appropriation insists it shouldn't be used ya know the whole mess

who also insist the definition of fujoshi is fetishist of gay people and actively fight that 'it doesn't matter that it is a japanese word actively still used there and that isn't it means in japanese that's what it means in english', ignores the history, uses it as an insult, sometimes even using it in the anti-trans dogwhistle way, etc etc

tulpa isn't even the same word as any actively used, barely has a history inside the language compared to outside it yet gets so much more defense that it to be dropped

it's actually way too common at least on my part of tumblr and discord

I don't know how many times I've walked into a server or got recommended posts of anti-tulpa term users bastardizing fujoshi i heavily block and it still happens so often

are you defending languages or only doing what's useful to you

could that subset of anti-tulpa be any more obvious?

I totally get if you neeeever post this because even mentioning fujoshi brings up a whole new can of hate that I'd understand wanting to avoid. I mean that's why I'm even sending this as an ask to someone instead of posting myself the last thing I need is the combined hate wave

just kinda wanted to scream it to someone who might get it that it get so shallow so fast because today was another heavy anti-tulpa anti-fujo day

Ah, tumblr. Always introducing me to brand new drama to get myself involved in!

I had a hard time parsing this originally just because I had no idea what a Fujoshi was.

Having gotten caught up a bit, let me see if I'm getting all of this right...

Fujoshi was coined as an insult to Japanese girls and women who consumed yaoi content...

It was reclaimed by that same community and became a self-identifier.

The term spread to the West and was used by yaoi fans the same way as the reclaimed version.

Anti-shippers started saying the word referred to "straight women who fetishize gay men."

Anti-shippers started spreading the narrative that the Fujoshi community was homophobic and using Fujoshi as an insult.

TERFs and transphobes also were involved in popularizing this use?

Japanese people have called out the word being twisted by antis in this way.

Yeah, that's incredibly problematic.

Anyway, since I'm dipping into this discourse, I might as well take the full plunge and say that anti-Fujoshi and anti-yaoi movements are actively harmful and dangerous to the LGBTQ community.

More works featuring LGBTQ content is a good thing. People consuming that content helps support it and ensure that more content of that nature will be created in the future. Maybe you don't like that most of the content is being made by straight people, but the content made by straight people will normalize it for queer creators as well.

A rising tide raises all ships. And the reverse is also true.

When your rhetoric results in queer people asking if it's morally acceptable to consume queer content, you are actively harming the LGBTQ community.

[queercorewhore]

today on "tumblr cares more about protecting terfs than protecting trans people"

some absolute asshat blazed a transphobic dogwhistle post. I commented on it saying (paraphrased) "why is there transphobic shit BLAZED on my dash" (yeah i know don't feed the trolls but I was FURIOUS) AND also reported the post.

tumblr staff deleted my comment for hate speech but left the post.