TERF Month

I had been thinking of this section of the reading as TERF month and counter-programming, except that seems to focus on the worst part of it. Splitting it up into the most logical division, there are two consecutive weeks of it that are frustrating. 

Even the terminology is frustrating: I am not sure that and of the authors involved are radical feminists by the most strict definition. For one definition I read, it seems like a Radical Feminist should not even be able to be Trans-Exclusive. Perhaps it was that conflict that led to the TERF acronym.

Probably a better overall term is transphobe.

Regardless, as transphobes became more aggressive over the past few years, I would find out that the authors of various books that I intended to read were transphobic. That made me more reluctant to read the books, but I did not feel quite right letting them go either. 

There were a total of five books that were in this category. I ended up (with some inspiration that I will go into later) deciding to put them together with some other books that were more pro-transgender in an attempt to maintain balance.

That was the counter-programming, and it ended up exceeding expectations. I started out with two books in mind and found some really strong additions. That number is at more like 11 now, though there are some books that it could be questionable to count... we'll go over all of that.

For this post, here are three books by authors that appear to be transphobic:

Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Pérez

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose by Alice Walker

They are really good, each in their own individual way.

Invisible Women aggregates important patterns in bias that relate to health and safety and the overall well-being of not just women but society in general.

We Should All Be Feminists is brief but covers some important ground in terms of how so many times people try to define feminism into something different, probably because it is too hard and ugly to fight what feminism actually is.

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens has a quote I saved that seems to relate to my life now. That probably makes it the one that touched me the most, though as a collection of essays the impact of each individual one varied. However, just the reminder that there was a time, even in my lifetime (though early) that Zora Neale Hurston was practically unknown, and Their Eyes Were Watching God was not even in print... there has been progress. Alice Walker is a part of that progress and it matters.

I just also wish they would get over their prejudices. 

I understand them to some extent; in many ways they are reflecting society. 

I can also imagine that for Criado Pérez -- where so much of her focus relates to general differences between male and female bodies -- that I suppose it could lead to being more gender-essentialist. Looking a bit deeper, though, those standards surely do not fit all male bodies. We can open up more in general, considering other differences without losing sight of gender bias. 

I believe we can do multiple things. 

That leaves this remaining frustration; why can't you be better? 

Which is a fair question for anyone. However, when you have managed to see the problems with gender bias, and often also racial and class bias, anti-immigrant bias... you've come so far!

Please let's work on this next step.