Ovarit

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Part of a series on
Gender
Icon gender.svg
Spectra and binaries

Ovarit is an invitation-only,[1] self-described link aggregator "feminist" echo chamber dedicated to hating trans people, especially trans women.[2] It serves as a refuge for the TERF movement, as well as other transphobic discourse. Despite it being a self-described "platform for women-centered communities", transphobia remains its primary export, and actual women-centered communities are non-existent.

Unsurprisingly, Ovarit was founded by former moderators of /r/GenderCritical on Reddit, which was banned in June 2020 for its virulent transphobic discourse.[1] Fun fact: its GenderCritical forum is the most popular one on the website, for obvious reasons.

Needless to say, the website is Not Safe For Life. The posters range from thoroughly insane to so thoroughly insane your brain will melt into bubbling goo if you so much as glance at the front page. You have been warned. To give a taster of the insanity, they have been known[3] to share recipes with their own period blood for occult rituals. This is a rare case where accusations of witchcraft may actually be justified.

The name "Ovarit" directly references ovaries, the anatomical female gonads; the use of this name implies an exclusion (what a surprise!) of, in addition to trans women, any woman who may have had an oophorectomy or who was born without ovaries. It also includes trans men and non-binary people who have ovaries.

History[edit]

Ovarit's history began on July 29, 2020, exactly one month following /r/GenderCritical being banished from Reddit.[4] Some of its users flocked to alternative Reddit-like "free speech" platforms, such as Saidit (a QAnon hub), following its ban. However, some other users felt that a "true feminist" alternative to Reddit was necessary; as such, former GenderCritical Reddit users, with the "help" of "feminist" developers from Spinster and the hate group Women's Human Rights Campaign, created Ovarit.[5][6][7] A little organization on Discord also took place during this process, unsurprisingly enough.[8]

Ovarit's original mandate was to create a "safe space" not only to "protect" themselves and "carry on as before," but "to become even bigger."[8] This form of creating private communities is common in right-wing extremist groups.

The platform[edit]

Ovarit is a link aggregator and runs a forked[9] instance of Throat[10] (a clone of the now-defunct Reddit clone Voat[8]). Its individual forums, named "circles", all generally revolve around trans-exclusionary ideologies in some way. Examples include:

  • "Activism", for activism… against trans women
  • "Cancelled", which attempts to denounce attempts made by rational persons to silence transphobes
  • "GenderCritical", because why not?
  • "Radfemmery", which is for memes that ridicule trans women
  • "TransLogic", which attempts to baselessly criticize what trans activists (or as they call them, TRAs) do
  • "Women", presumably for advocating for women's somehow-sex-based rights

Ovarit puts up some rules to "limit" transphobia, as in forbidding the slurs "tranny" and "troon", but still permits common TERF lingo, such as "TRA" for trans activists and "TIM" ("trans-identified male") for trans women.[2]

Invite code system[edit]

Ovarit, being a closed forum, requires the use of invite codes in order to register and participate on its website; non-registered users are still able to read through Ovarit's blatant lies, but are unable to participate, similarly to Reddit. These codes are spread by its established members and Ovarit's administrators themselves, effectively creating a referral system limiting anyone's ability to join, with the sole exception of people who share its anti-trans worldview. Codes are shared both in external TERF forums and websites, Ovarit's external social media channels, as well as in an /r/Ovarit_Codes community on Reddit (now banned). Ovarit's forums have been described as "insular and defensive" and as an echo chamber, since unlike Reddit's /r/GenderCritical, its gatekeeping allows only the "good humans" (bigots) in.[8] Fortunately, this invite code system means that its forums are of a significantly smaller size than Reddit, limiting its outreach and keeping it confined to that corner of the Internet.

Transphobia[edit]

Ovarit's transphobia can only be described as extremist, and as absolutely virulent. Its /r/GenderCritical forum is filled with people ranging from J.K. Rowling defenders to "kill all transgenders" terrorists. Many of its posts attempt to justify instances of transphobia which have been reported in the media, and celebrate "victories" obtained by transphobes attempting to justify and/or legalize transphobia. Lots of complaints on "censorship" against anti-trans views are also present on various forums.

Enbyphobia is also present on its forums, as well as transmisandry, but both are significantly less common than transmisogyny, simply because trans men and non-binary people do not exist in the TERF mindset. Well, unless a given TERF falls into the Abigail Shrier camp of transphobes.

Ovarit's breed of transphobia seems to not be of the religious right's "family values" kind at first glance, but a clear undertone of religious bigotry is present within some of its members. This puts it in line with other British and European transphobic organizations, which aren't religious themselves but often collaborate with the religious right for extra points.

Pissed at us[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Pissed at us

Unsurprisingly, just like other hate forums and in a similar line to FeministWiki, Ovarit hates us.

The entire page (and website) is crying about the poor TIMs[note 1] that they almost forgot to paperclip the token females in their group. The "transmisandry" is pretty funny, because they love to tell TIFs to shut up, as they are "strait white men" now, and bringing up sexism is transphobic because that would admit that biological sex and sex based oppression exists.
—MenHaveItEasy on Ovarit, referring to RationalWiki[11]
Lmfao at them using a doctored screenshot to demonstrate our “insanity.” Also, where are the receipts for the “kill all transgenders terrorists” and the “clear undertone of religious bigotry in some of its members?” Oh right, there are none because the page just makes shit up and passes it off as fact. And since people are stupid and incurious online, they’ll read it and believe it without any fact checking involved. Also, the usual phony right wing accusations are being leveled at us once again. Yawn. Boring. Predictable.
—Coffiefiend on Ovarit, referring to the Ovarit article[11]
Men cant resist the urge to take credit for everything. Its likely that the TIM who wrote his name in the snow, so to speak, also wrote that fetishistic period blood line (why would a real woman, menstruating or not, need or want this?), because TIMs are the epitome of toxic masculinity and grossness.
—MenHaveItEasy on Ovarit, referring to User:Celeste[11]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. "TIM", short for "trans-identified male", is a term used exclusively by TERFs and other transphobes to misgender trans women while denying their transness (by using the turned-into-dogwhistle "identify as" expression). Read TERF glossary for more information on TERF lingo, e.g. what "TIMs" and "TIFs" mean.

References[edit]