TERF glossary

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Spectra and binaries

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This TERF glossary documents the more common terms of art, dog whistles, neologisms, and memes used by trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs). Some of these terms have also been picked up by the broader transphobic elements of society.

Like the lexicon of the alt-right, their frequent collaborators, the language of TERFs includes many seemingly innocuous terms used in a deliberately hateful manner. This is a deliberate strategy, in part inspired by It's Okay to Be White and other campaigns by far-right trolls. Always listening to context, method of usage, and especially intent is therefore important.

#-E

41% / 40%

See the main article on this topic: Alt-right glossary § 41% / 40%

Weaponizing the attempted suicide rates of trans people against them as a tool of mockery. Exact percentage is often misleadingly given as 40 or higher. See the entry in the alt-right glossary for more information.

Activism nannies

TERFs complain about feminists being treated as "activism nannies" — i.e. they are expected to defend all other oppressed groups as well as women, which draws attention and resources away from their main cause. This sounds reasonable, but is used to mean that they think feminism should not advocate for trans women, who they see as men.

Actual woman

Self-description by TERFs, because they think they get to decide who's an actual woman and who isn't.

Adult human female

"Adult human female" is a slogan and self-identification commonly used by TERFs. The phrase, based on the most succinct dictionary definitions of the word "woman", is an example of the argumentum ad dictionarium fallacy. The implication is that biological sex is inherent to womanhood because some dictionary definitions of "woman" include the word "female."

Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull posing in her "adult human female" T-shirt.

The phrase was popularized by far-right activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull. Keen, who also goes by the pseudonym Posie Parker (not to be confused with actress Parker Posey), has sometimes been controversial even within TERF circles — Julie Bindel once called her "a thick feck who is a bigot and NOT a feminist." Keen infamously called for "men with guns" to patrol women's toilets to protect against the imagined threat of trans women. In September 2018, Keen had a billboard with the "adult human female" slogan put up in Liverpool, which was removed after a complaint pointing out the covert transphobic message. (She repeated this stunt in 2020 with a sign in Edinburgh bearing the seemingly innocuous phrase "I Love J.K. Rowling"). Keen also sells stickers and T-shirts with the slogan. Awesome Merchandise, the former manufacturer of Keen's T-shirts, banned her from using their services in May 2021, releasing a statement declaring they "wholeheartedly stand by the trans community."

Some have drawn parallels between the "adult human female" meme and the "It's Okay to Be White" campaign started by white supremacists on 4chan in 2017. The goal of that campaign, as described by the Anti-Defamation League, was to "choose an ostensibly innocuous and inoffensive slogan, put that slogan on fliers bereft of any other words or imagery, then place the fliers in public locations" under the assumption that "liberals" would "react negatively to such fliers and condemn them or take them down, thus 'proving' that liberals did not even think it was 'okay' to be white." In a similar fashion, TERFs have weaponized the negative reaction that "adult human female" campaigns have received from those aware of their transphobic nature, using it to frame themselves as victims of cancel culture and oversensitive SJWs offended by the word "woman." TERFs were enraged when UK police investigated stickers with the "adult human female" slogan as hate speech in 2019. Such backlash is frequently cited by TERFs as "proof" of their conspiracy theory that gender-inclusive language is somehow a trans lobby plot to "erase women."

"Adult human chicken" emerged as a parody of the slogan in late 2021 after a TERF sockpuppet tweeted that "'woman' means adult human female. Like 'hen' means adult human chicken."

AFAB trans woman

See also bio-trans.

An inconsistent set of terms used to:

• imply that transition and identity labels are meaningless,
• troll the concept of transness via sockpuppet "bio-trans" accounts,
• erode "trans woman" language away from trans women (who would be forced to go by "AMAB trans woman", if this concept gains traction).

A similar but distinct concept, the diva queen, predated this in drag subculture by many years; it was also controversial but eventually saw acceptance.

An unrelated phenomenon is the existence of transfeminine intersex people who were assigned female at birth and forcefully reassigned male at a later time. This is not to be conflated with transphobic dog whistles and is a legitimate intersex lived experience that should not he erased or attributed to TERFs.

Agender (as in atheist)

A dog-whistle sometimes used between TERFs. Not to be confused with non-binary or non-malicious uses of agender.

Aiden

This can have at least two related meanings:

• Derogatory term for a transgender man, based on the stereotype that "Aiden" (or similar sounding names e.g. Hayden, Jayden) is a popular choice of name among young trans men. This is sometimes joked about by trans people among themselves, but has been appropriated by TERFs.
• Derogatory term for trans men who fit a specific aesthetic: young, undercut hair, wispy beard, ear gauges and/or facial piercings, sometimes tattooed forearms (to cover up scarring where skin was taken for a phalloplasty).

Autoandrophilia ("AAP")

A pseudoscientific hypothesis that transgender men who aren't exclusively attracted to women transition because of a fetish for being viewed as males. It is less widespread than the idea of autogynephilia, and some advocates of the autogynephilia theory believe that there's no equivalent in trans men because they are "women", and women don't have fetishes! But some TERFs insist it does exist, therefore trans men aren't real. YouTuber Chase Ross (uppercasechase1) has been cited by TERFs as an autoandrophile because his channel focuses on reviewing sex toys, packers, underwear, etc.

Autogynephilia ("AGP")

See the main article on this topic: Autogynephilia

A pseudoscientific hypothesis that transgender women who aren't exclusively attracted to men are transitioning purely as a result of a fetish for being viewed as females. This theory, endorsed by J. Michael Bailey and most prevalent between the 1980s and early 2000s, has been recycled by TERFs to further their blatant transmisogyny. Since the 2010s, AGP theory has been used as a cudgel by TERFs and their allies indiscriminately against trans women with little regard for their sexual orientation, separating somewhat from the term's "clinical" roots for political convenience, with the line typically being that even the slightest validation of a trans woman's gender is tantamount to indulging a paraphilic sexual fantasy.

Autogynesmile

TERFs claim that trans women all have an identical smug grin caused by their "autogynephilia", thus it's called an autogynesmile (or "autogynephile smirk.")

Autohomoeroticism / AHE

A theory, based on the largely-debunked concept of autogynephilia, that trans people (especially trans men) who are attracted to the same gender transition because of a fetish for being viewed as gay people.

Be kind / be nice

A slogan TERFs invented for imaginary "TRAs" to shout at them when they feel like winning arguments with themselves. It emerged in the TERF-o-sphere around the middle of 2020, likely popularized by a Sinfest comic depicting a teeny little TERF facing down a mob of large, melee-weapon-wielding goons telling her to "just be kind."

The phrase appropriates legitimate feminist opposition to systemic pressure for women and girls to "be nice." Non-TERF feminists have highlighted how this mandate contributes to rape culture, domestic violence, pay inequality, and other forms of gendered violence and marginalization. As trans-inclusive feminist writer Lindy West has observed: "I think part of the way that we socialize girls to be nice and compliant and to be caregivers and to sort of put themselves second creates a lot of frustration, especially since I think women's anger is stigmatized. People respond very, very negatively to women's anger, and there are a lot of negative consequences for showing your anger."

TERFs insist that the trans-rights movement perpetuates the "be kind" mentality. They claim that cis women can no longer defend their right to single-sex spaces (usually this involves policing trans women's bodily functions) without being branded big transphobic meanies. One anonymous TERF went so far as to seriously compare respecting preferred pronouns to the date rape drug rohypnol. TERFs often seem to enjoy deliberately misgendering and deadnaming trans people while painting themselves as brave rebels against an imagined "trans orthodoxy." They aren't known for showing much consideration toward trans-inclusive cis women either.

In the UK, the slogan "be kind" was adopted after the suicide of TV presenter Caroline Flack, who was attacked on social media before her death. One of her final Instagram posts quoted the author Jennifer Dukes Lee: "In a world where you can be anything, be kind." #bekind trended on social media for a while, calling for an end to hateful comments online. However, it came to be criticised as performative and hypocritical and is thus referenced "ironically" by TERFs in the UK.

Bio-trans

See also AFAB trans woman.

Another fake identity created by 4chan or TERF Tumblr to mock trans people. A bio-trans woman is supposedly a cis woman who identifies as a trans woman. It is based on a comic in which a cis girl "transitions" by adopting transphobic stereotypes like shaving her head to mimic androgenic hair loss and dressing like an anime character. The meme spawned a false-flag operation on Twitter in January 2022, with transphobes creating an army of "bio-trans" sockpuppets, complete with bald female Picrew avatars.

Blanchard model

A theory, first posited by sexologist Ray Blanchard in the 1980s, that all trans women are either gay men who transition so they can attract straight men ("homosexual transsexuals"); or straight men who transition because of a sexual fetish ("autogynephiles"). Blanchard still insists today that this is the case, despite widespread criticism of his theories and work. TERFs adamantly defend the "Blanchard Model" even though it does not stand up to even the most basic scrutiny.

Curiously, TERFs who advocate for this model can sometimes be seen wildly contradicting Blanchard's own positions, which although deeply flawed and quite transphobic, are not one-hundred percent aligned to current trends in trans-exclusionary ideology in all aspects. This can betray that TERFs simply like his idea that many transgender women are mere fetishists and couldn't care to read much further.

Blanchard believes that trans men are women, and women don't have paraphilias; therefore there is no version of the model for trans men. However, TERFs have proposed their own equivalent whereby all trans men are either lesbians who transition to escape homophobia, or straight women with autohomoeroticism ("AHE"; a fetish for wanting to be seen as gay men). An equivalent to the "autogynephilia" idea, and sometimes applied to trans men in this way is "autoandrophilia".

Black Pampers

An epithet intended to paint the trans-rights movement as simultaneously whiny babies and scary militants. "Black Pampers" is a blend of "Pampers," a brand of infant diapers, and "Black Panthers," an informal name for the Black Panther Party. It was originally directed at a group of black bloc-clad anti-fascist counterprotestors who showed up to an anti-trans Standing for Women rally staged by Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull in Manchester in May 2022. (TERFS seemingly weren't #StandingForWomen in the early 2010s when Pussy Riot made balaclavas an international symbol of feminist resistance.) At another KJK rally in London's Hyde Park two weeks later, a man wearing a black morph suit and an adult diaper put on a skit supposedly mocking "Black Pampers," a display that was widely condemned as reminiscent of a blackface minstrel show.

Boxer ceiling

Term used by gay male TERFs as an equivalent of Cotton ceiling, claiming that trans men are really straight women trying to pressure gay cis men into sex. This is often used to complain about trans men being present in gay bars, saunas, and on gay dating apps etc. even when the venue or service openly welcomes trans men.

Brave and stunning

Sarcastic phrase implying trans women are, or expect to be, showered with undue praise just for existing. Often used when a TERF is referring to reports of a trans woman allegedly committing violent or sexual offences e.g. "the BRAVE and STUNNING defendant pleaded guilty to three counts of public indecency." It is also used by the far-right. (It was popularized by a South Park episode where the media repeatedly used the phrase to describe Caitlyn Jenner even as she behaved crudely and ran over people with her car.)

Buffalo Bill

Offensive name for trans women, taken from the fictional Buffalo Bill (Jame Gumb) in Silence of the Lambs; a serial killer who murders women and wears their skins. In other words, implying that trans women are just dressing up as women and/or deliberately harming "real" (cis) women. The character is based on a number of real serial killers, particularly Ed Gein, and is portrayed as a cis man in the original 1988 novel. However, clumsy attempts were made in the famous 1991 movie adaptation to suggest that Bill/Gumb identifies as transgender.

In 1994, lesbian-feminist Leslie Feinberg suggested this was an accusation in a mirror:

“”The modern transgender movement is redrawing the boundaries of sex and gender oppression in this society, and fighting the very same foundations of sexism and bigotry and gender oppression in this society. So no wonder you get this Silence of the Lambs propaganda saying, "Aw, they’re all out to skin you and make bodies for themselves". But who is more likely to be the victims of serial murders than women and transgendered people? How many transgendered serial murderers can you remember in recent history? This is serious propaganda.

—Leslie Feinberg

🍒 (cherry emoji)

A dogwhistle used by Scottish TERFs on Twitter as a tribute to Joanna Cherry. Cherry, an SNP MP for Edinburgh South West, is known for her anti-trans activism, most notably her opposition to Gender Recognition Act reforms. The emoji is also widely used outside Scottish TERF circles, such as by the "horny on main" Cherry Emoji Twitter subculture.

🏁 (chequered flag emoji)

The chequered/racing flag emoji is a dog whistle often used by TERFs in their bios or names on Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media sites. It supposedly represents the idea that there are only two sexes, like a racing flag features only black and white checks. Emerged around the same time as "genderfree".

Choker

Refers to a stereotype of trans women wearing chokers (especially those that look like fetish wear) to cover a visible Adam's apple.

Clocking

"Being clocked" means being read as your assigned sex or as transgender, when trying to pass. TERFs like to use this term to claim that they can always tell if someone is trans — usually based on stereotypes (e.g. assuming trans women have five o'clock shadow and huge hands and feet, trans men are short with delicate facial features, etc.). It often falls into the remit of the toupee fallacy (i.e. trans people who do not pass easily as cis stand out more).

Clownfish

Clownfish

Clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites. This means that male-to-female sex changes are a natural part of their reproductive biology. Clownfish schools are led by a female. When this female dies, the dominant male changes sex and takes her place, becoming a fertile (i.e. egg-producing) female. TERF references to clownfish are intended to mock and otherize trans women, suggesting that the idea that humans can change sex is absurd because humans are not fish (which is clear, but highlighting analogues in other animals is a way to argue that being e.g. trans or gay can be "natural", as an internal refutation of anti-LGBT arguments that themselves utilize an appeal to nature). This also meshes with the Clown World dogwhistle.

COIN

Stands for "Co-Opting Intersex Narratives." This term was initially used in intersex communities to criticise others who falsely equate being trans with being intersex, or claim to be intersex when they have not been diagnosed. Subsequently, TERFs hijacked the "COIN" phrase and now use it to accuse all trans people of being liars and appropriating intersex people's struggles. The pro-intersex group interACT argues there are actually shared interests between trans and intersex communities due to overlapping support for such principles as informed consent and personal autonomy.

One medical academic to speculate that gender dysphoria may itself be an intersex condition was Milton Diamond, although he acknowledged as of 2013 he was "in the minority" with this viewpoint. (Indeed, though Diamond was a strident advocate for intersex people, he was not himself known to be intersex, so this should be viewed as a scientific proposal from outside the intersex community.)

Cotton ceiling

A term coined by activist/porn star Drew DeVeaux in ~2012. Refers to the phenomenon of trans women being accepted in lesbian/queer women's circles but then finding that the cis women in the group aren't interested in relationships with them because they have been implicitly "othered". DeVeaux intended it as a reference to the concept of the "glass ceiling" (invisible barriers that prevent women from advancing in the workplace), with the "cotton" referring to underwear. TERFs have taken and run with this idea to suggest that trans women all think they are entitled to demand sex with cis lesbians. Some of the earliest blog posts referring to the term highly suggest a more complex point than that. One post from 2012 by Savannah Garmon (herself an associate of DeVeaux), for instance, paints a somewhat different picture:

“”Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying that sex isn't available. I actually turn down many who aren't willing to share intimacy on terms that seem equitable to me. … I find myself in an unpleasant conundrum: de-sexed in polite lesbian society, yet hypersexualized at the margins (preferably behind closed doors, it would seem). Caught somewhere between untouchable and walking kink is a lonely place for any woman to live. … To be clear, our intentions in the workshop were not to question anyone's attraction. However, there is no question that social context and social conditioning inform sexual desire. And given the number of times that I have lost a cis woman's interest—which at times has been accompanied by outright disrespect—precisely at the moment that my status as a trans woman has been revealed betrays the fact that crude social anxieties often play a role (think 'how will my friends react,' or the particularly silly 'am I still lesbian if I sleep with her?')."

—

Later writing on the subject by trans women essentially articulate a simple wish for respect. A similar-though-distinct discourse exists about "sexual racism" towards non-white people in the dating world, with all the same attendant straw men. Non-heterosexual cisgender women (including lesbians) themselves, too, have sometimes been stereotyped by some straight women as unwanted pursuers (or even "predatory"). As regards the "cotton ceiling" phrase in particular, no reliable survey of the trans community themselves concerning the topic even exists. Somehow, it failed to appear among the priorities of respondents to the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey; "violence against transgender people", "poverty", "employment", and "homelessness" top the list instead. However secondary of a concern, among any who hold it, some may find value in the intersection of body positivity, and analysis about stereotyping/fetishization/objectification of transgender women (e.g. the stereotype that they all have a penis, or whatnot).

One notable incident (evidently alluded to above in Garmon's writing) of faux-outrage ensued over the fact that in 2012, a branch of Planned Parenthood in Toronto ran a workshop called "Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: Breaking Down Sexual Barriers for Queer Trans Women." TERFs like to point at this to suggest that trans women are actively being taught how to rape cis lesbians. In reality, seven people attended the workshop, which was primarily a discussion about self-esteem and body image. Considering the particular contours of feminist schisms about sex-positivity or BDSM, it is perhaps ironic that "sex-negative" radical feminists (of the TERF-overlap variety) of all the people spearheaded vehement objections to applying the principle that "the personal is political".

Dinosaur emojis (🦖🦕)

Yet another dogwhistle introduced by UK TERFs on Twitter. They co-opted the emojis to proudly proclaim their bigotry after Labour MP David Lammy denounced transphobes as "dinosaurs" who want to "hoard rights" at a September 2021 party event. This was a poorly-worded version of a common counterargument to the reactionary myth that granting increased rights to marginalized groups will mean less rights for non-marginalized groups. (Compare to MRA claims that feminism will somehow make second-class citizens of cis men). TERFs responded by misrepresenting Lammy's statement as a misogynist telling uppity women defending their "sex-based rights" to wheesht.

The meme quickly spread off Twitter. On October 8, 2021, TERFs in inflatable T-rex costumes took to the streets in London to sing about other people's genitals. Someone wore a T-rex costume to the sad disco thrown at the LGB Alliance's inaugural conference in late October. T-rex costumes have since become a fixture at "gender-critical" protests.

Paleontologists and dinosaur enthusiasts on Twitter took notice and were predictably unamused. Courtney Milan, who submitted the proposal for dinosaur emojis to the Unicode Technical Committee in 2016, responded by jokingly declaring "these emoji dinosaurs 🦕🦖 are both trans."

By 2022, lots of Twitter users who are opposed to TERFs have put the emoji(s) in their names, thereby reclaiming it.

Dildo

TERFs refer to packers (a prosthetic penis) for trans men and NB people as a dildo, suggesting that the user is indulging a sexual fetish. A common TERF scare tactic is to point out that packers are produced for trans children to use, and then say "see? They're giving kids a sex toy!"

Dogs are TERFs

See the main article on this topic: Ideomotor effect

A phrase used to mock trans women, suggesting that dogs (or cats, horses, etc.) can always tell a trans woman, and a dog that doesn't like men will growl at or be scared of trans women. This is pretty much entirely based on unverified, anecdotal stories from social media. By the same token, it is possible to find numerous other anecdotes online telling the exact opposite story. One viral photo showed a "trans affirming misogynist parrot" and the light bite-mark he left on a trans woman's hand.

Studies on the related phenomenon of dogs being "racist" have shown that when a dog interacts aggressively to people of a certain race, it is a result of the dog imitating its owner's prejudices and biases as well as the dog not having been socialized with people of the other group. Thus, these anecdotes only reflect the bigotry of the dogs' owners.

#DropTheT / #LGBWithoutTheT

A movement to remove the 'T' from LGBTQ. This movement is not exclusively adopted by TERFs. There are members of the LGB(TQ)+ community who hate trans people and have made an entire movement called the LGB Alliance to reach that end result. However, much of the DropTheT/LGBWithoutTheT movement is fueled instead by the far right or religious right, a form of salami slicing tactics. There is a pattern of TERFs talking over LGB people who reject the DropTheT/LGBWithoutTheT movement (only 3% of cisgender LGB people in the United Kingdom prefer the "LGB" acronym, by one survey).

#DropTheL

Some lesbians have proposed separating themselves from the GBTQ community, known as lesbian separatism. Adherents may have prejudiced ideas against gay or bisexual men, or even bisexual women, in addition to negative views of transgender people. A related movement is political lesbianism.

This movement has formed into Get The L Out, an organisation that considers FtM transition a form of conversion therapy for lesbians, whilst considering MtF transition a method of preying on cis lesbians. They have conducted "research" into sexual pressure on cis lesbians by trans women, which was then published by the BBC. This research is a textbook example of selection bias, where the only lesbians polled were already members of Get The L Out, and as such were already opposed to trans women.

#DropTheB

See the main article on this topic: DropTheB

A (failed) attempt of the alt-right to promote intra-LGBT hatred by claiming that being bisexual is inherently transphobic.

Erasing women

Fair Play for Women graphic suggesting gender-inclusive language is like witch burnings and torture. The main "argument" is just visual-emotional association. Many of the terms are practically never used outside narrow (typically clinical) contexts. Even if they were, it would be awfully rich for TERFs to complain about emphasis on sex organs, wouldn't it? Also note the individual figures bizarely labelled "transmen" and "women".

A conspiracy theory invented by TERFs that is essentially their version of the "great replacement" myth. The idea, as expressed by Saint Rowling, is that the trans-rights movement is "seeking to erode 'woman' as a political and biological class." What this means is that TERFs really don't like gender-inclusive language because it acknowledges the existence of trans and gender-diverse people. They insist that recognising trans women as women will render the word "woman" meaningless, allowing "men" (trans women) to force their way into women's sports, women's shelters, women's spots on public boards, and women's award nominations. This will somehow enable (cis) women to be subjugated as they have since time immemorial, except now the oppression is of an exceedingly vague, unverifiable nature.

TERFs also object to language intended to be inclusive of trans men. Phrases like "people who menstruate" and "pregnant people" acknowledge that trans men and AFAB enbies also experience menstruation and pregnancy, and that neither of those things are universal experiences even among cis women. Many cis women of child-bearing age don't have periods regularly or at all due to health conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome and pretty much every cis women over the age of 50 no longer menstruates due to menopause. Defining womanhood by reproductive biology isn't helpful or all that feminist.

TERFs seem habitually disinclined to acknowledge the existence of trans men because doing so would weaken their transmisogynistic narratives. Trans men are the primary focus of inclusive language, but TERFs often insist that its champions are trans women, or more broadly, "trans activists". As TERFs have it, inclusive language is a Very Bad Thing, and an evil trans lobby plot. Fair Play for Women released a press statement ominously warning that the "very words we use to describe ourselves as a sex class are being erased." According to the group, phrases like "menstruator," "uterus-haver," and "people with a vagina" are a "dehumanising" affront to (cis) women, not a concise and practical way for media reports and health campaign literature to include trans and non-binary people. The alternative would be clunky wording like "cis women, trans men, and non-binary people with uteruses." Many of the phrases TERFs object to most vehemently aren't even used that much, if at all. No one refers to cis women as "cervix-owners" outside of narrow contexts like trying to educate people about the necessity of regular cervical cancer screenings. TERFs nonetheless complain that cis women are "losing the words we need to talk about our bodies, our needs and our rights." Nevermind what words trans people (who aren't really people after all /s) and many cis people might prefer to use to discuss their bodies, their needs, and their rights. Some of the more batshit, conspiracy-minded TERFs have even speculated that uterus transplants, artificial wombs, and other emerging reproductive technologies might allow "men" (a category which, in their bigoted minds, includes trans women) to somehow "erase women from existence completely."

F-L

Febfem

Stands for "female-exclusive bisexual female." Or, in other words, a bisexual woman who only dates women. Plenty of bi women who fit this description are not TERFs. However, the term is used almost exclusively in TERF spaces. The double use of "female" is an attempt to de-legitimize the womanhood of trans women. The implication is that a cis woman dating a trans woman is not in a female-female relationship.

GBTQI+

A term used by lesbian TERFs going their own way to disparage the mainstream LGBT(+) community. Closely related to DropTheL and similar terms.

Gender abolitionist

See also abolition of gender. Not to be confused with non-binary.

Often used as a dog whistle for TERFs. The reasoning is that gender is "just" a set of stereotypes, and that it shouldn't matter. Only sex that is assigned at birth should matter, therefore, it's fine to discriminate and stereotype based on the latter. Note that the expression is however sometimes used by well-meaning individuals as well. The term originally referred to a type of feminism that opposes "gender" in the sense of gender roles and having gender determine everything about an individual's selfhood, and believe a society moving beyond that would be better for everyone including trans people (some of whom support the actual philosophy). Ironically, TERFs tend to believe in gender essentialism, and strictly tying someone's identity to their birth sex, no matter what they claim on paper. In contrast, one of the very founders of radical feminism, Shulamith Firestone, went beyond "gender abolition" in a 1970 book advocating "elimination of the sex distinction itself", aided by technology.

Gender-critical feminism / GC

A euphemistic slang term invented by TERFs to refer to their hateful mindset. In fact, many TERFs falsely claim the term "TERF" is a misogynistic slur. This is not new or unique behavior, many white supremacists will insist that "anti-racist is a code word for anti-white" and insist on being called "race realist".

Technically, "gender-critical" means "critical of gender ideology", but even then both terms still are dog-whistles. The term "gender-critical" evolved out of "trans-critical", which was itself an attempted response to the term "TERF". But "trans-critical" is much less effective as a dog-whistle, so it was largely abandoned in favor of using "gender-critical" instead.

Gender fandom

A euphemism equating the trans rights movement with participation in fandom — i.e., support for something fictional, and with accompanying stereotypes of fans being entitled, irrational, and antisocial.

Gender ideology

See the main article on this topic: Gender ideology

Genderfree

A euphemism that TERFs have started using to describe themselves, implying that gender is a set of stereotypes, should not matter, and the only thing that matters is sex assigned at birth.

Genderist

A recent euphemism meaning a person who believes that gender is a spectrum and/or supportive of trans rights, though not always.

Gender socialization

The idea that everyone is raised in the gender role relating to their assigned sex at birth, and it is impossible to overcome this socialization as an adult. In other words trans women are socialized as males and will always act like men, and trans men are socialized as females and will always act like women. This apparently includes people who socially transition in early childhood. "Gender socialization" is a very popular concept among Russian TERFs, who talk about female gender socialization (Russian: женская гендерная социализация, ЖГС) and male gender socialization (Russian: мужская гендерная социализация, МГС).

It is worth noting that the fact that people tend to be raised in particular ways corresponding to how their parents perceive their gender as children is a well-documented sociological phenomenon, so not everyone referring to such "socialization" is necessary a TERF. However, real gender socialization is far from universal, varying between different cultures and subcultures and impacted by a host of other factors (for instance, how progressive or conservative one's family's political attitudes are, or race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic class) and it is not something that one is totally unable to overcome in adulthood, in the same way that being raised in a religious family does not doom one to be that religion for life. Non-transphobes' discussion of gender socialization tend to allow for these nuances.

Genderspecial

Mocking term for anyone who uses neopronouns, or identifies as a gender other than male or female. Compare: "snowflake"

#GenderWooWoo

A term that gained traction in mid-to-late 2020. It mocks the concepts of gender identity and gender dysphoria by calling them forms of pseudoscientific woo. You may find that the same people behind this hashtag would be overjoyed to provide their less-than-factual ideas about rapid-onset gender dysphoria, pseudo-bisexuality, or horse piss for you. Because apparently, promoting anti-scientific attitudes and conspiracy theories is only bad if trans people and their allies are (allegedly) doing it.

"Genital preferences are transphobic"

A real-world false flag sticker campaign by TERFs that took place in 2020 and perhaps beyond which consisted of placing stickers with this phrase in public places. The stickers consisted of a variant of the progress pride flag, itself a variant of the rainbow flag; text superimposed on the stickers simply said in all capital letters "GENITAL PREFERENCES ARE TRANSPHOBIC". The stickers were frequently placed not-so-subtly right next to other stickers with known transphobic dog whistles on them. After placing the stickers, photos of them would be posted by anti-trans social media accounts feigning outrage. This gambit was condemned by, of all the people, the LGB Alliance. See also: cotton ceiling.

Get your 'gina off of Grindr / Get your muff off of Scruff

Slogans coined by gay male TERFs to argue that trans men and non-binary people with vaginas should not be allowed to use the M4M dating apps Grindr and Scruff. The latter is especially stupid since Scruff explicitly advertises as open to trans men and other transmasc people.

Goody [name]

"Goody" was the short form of "Goodwife," an archaic honorific used to address women in England, Scotland, and the United States up until the 19^th century. It was roughly equivalent to the modern "Ms." or "Mrs." since it was usually (but not always) applied to married women.

TERFs often use it before their surnames or account names (e.g., "Goody Rowling") as a reference to Goody Ann Glover, who, in 1688, was hanged as a witch in Boston, the last person to suffer such a fate in the city. The insinuation is that TERFs are also innocent women being persecuted by trans women in exceedingly vague and unverifiable ways.

Gynandromorphophilia (GAMP)

A supposed sexual fetish whereby a cis man is attracted to trans women or transvestites. In reality, it's a pseudoscientific theory related to the concept of autogynephilia. The term is pretty much exclusively used by transphobes, and is often used to suggest that cis men who date trans women cannot possibly be straight. Non-transphobes would just call it being a chaser.

Handmaid / Handmaiden

TERFs have started calling Margaret Atwood a "handmaiden" for supporting trans rights.

A cisgender woman who supports transgender rights. Also used by SWERFs to describe women who support sex workers. Taken from the Margaret Atwood novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985), in which handmaids are fertile women forced to bear children for powerful men in the Republic of Gilead, a patriarchal, totalitarian Christian theocracy.

Ironically, Margaret Atwood is a "handmaid" in the eyes of TERFs (and has actually been called one), given that she acknowledges that trans women are women, and believes they have a right to use women's restrooms. She might also be labelled a "handmaid" by SWERFs for the apparent disdain for anti-porn feminists shown in the The Handmaid's Tale. In the novel, feminists campaign against porn because they view it as a threat to women, a thing that some feminists were actually doing in the 1980s. This unwittingly helps lay the groundwork for a cultural shift that allows religious extremists to overthrow the U. S. government and turn the country into a brutal theocracy.

The insult makes zero sense to anyone who has read the novel or even just a summary of it. Handmaids in the novel are the victims of patriarchy rather than its agents. They don't want to be broodmares for an oppressive state. It's a job they've been forcibly recruited into upon penalty of death. A more relevant insult would be "Aunt", after the women who volunteer to train and police handmaids in the novel, and in return are afforded a limited amount of power and freedom within Gilead. As Alex von Tunzelmann, a screenwriter and historian, quipped, "[Transphobic feminists] can't even get their literary references right."

It's also particularly ridiculous given how gay men and lesbians are executed as "gender traitors" in Gilead. The novel doesn't reveal the fate of transgender people. However, in a Twitter discussion in which a TERF suggested that trans women could simply "choose to be men and run Gilead," Atwood personally responded to clarify that, yes, trans people would be branded "gender traitors" in Gilead and executed along with anyone who didn't fit into the "ordained boxes." Atwood's choice of "gender traitor" rather than "sex traitor" has long been understood to be deliberate. The oppression faced by women in Gilead involves female sex characteristics, but its basis is that there are proper gender roles that must be adhered to, willingly or not. The kind of biological essentialism advocated by #SexNotGender TERFs has historically lead to policies that oppress women (notably abortion and contraception bans).

Healthy tissue

A dog whistle used to argue against gender-confirming surgery, saying that it removes "healthy tissue" thus is unethical and there's no medical need for it. Gender dysphoria isn't counted as a medical need; most TERFs either do not believe it exists, or think that it can be cured through drugs and talking therapies.

Homosexual transsexual ("HSTS")

See the parent entry in this glossary: TERF glossary § Blanchard model.

The other half of Ray Blanchard's taxonomy of transgender women, alongside autogynephilia. Despite the term "homosexual" in the label, it refers to trans women who are solely attracted to men. Blanchard claims that they transition not because they are gender dysphoric, but because they want to have sex with straight men. Just like Blanchard's idea of autogynephilia, this erroneously ascribes intensely sexual intention to the very act of gender transitioning based solely on one's sexual orientation.

However, it's a lot less complicated of a proposal than autogynephilia, so there's a lot less to really discuss. It can at least perhaps be said that the "homosexual transsexual" concept is somewhat homophobic, since it raises a "gay panic" type specter of gay men trying to "trick" straight men into having sex with them (compare: transgender glossary § trap).

Horse piss

Derogatory term for hormone replacement therapy (HRT) taken by transgender women, since in the past estrogen drugs were often solid pills derived from pregnant mare urine. These are called "conjugated estrogens". Today, a different sort of hormones derived from materials like diosgenin or stigmasterol found in plants such as wild yams, cacti, or soybeans are much more commonly used. The most common recipients of conjugated estrogens as a hormone supplement have always been menopausal cisgender women — Premarin was actually at one point the most common brand-name prescription drug in the United States. As a prescription for transgender women, conjugated estrogens declined in usage by the early 2000s, and major guidelines for transgender medicine have, since at least 2022, stated that their use by transgender women is non-preferred when estradiol is available.

Hygienic

A dog whistle used by TERFs on Tumblr as a replacement for "cis", usually in coded phrases like "hygienic female," "extremely hygienic," etc. The implication is that cis women are cleaner than trans women, playing on the stereotype that men have worse personal hygiene than women. TERFs of course view trans women as men. It's also based on a pathologization of transfeminine bottom surgery. TERFs are morbidly fixated on a form of vaginoplasty sometimes used in gender-confirmation surgery. This procedure involves colon tissue grafts, as this allows the vagina to be self-lubricating. TERFs are convinced that all trans women undergo this procedure, and thus that their vaginas must be smelly and gross. It's also been noted that the term "hygienic" has an extremely problematic history.

Guests at a #JKRLadiesLunch wearing cut-out masks of J.K. Rowling's face. This is a totally normal activity in no way indicative of a weird cult of personality built around demonising a minority group.

#JKRLadiesLunch

A bunch of TERFs having a picnic as if this is somehow doing feminism. The trend began after J.K. Rowling invited her TERF friends (an assemblage of nearly every prominent UK TERF, including Allison Bailey, Julie Bindel, Maya Forstater, and Kathleen Stock) for lunch at a fancy London restaurant in April 2022. This gathering took place as thousands marched on Downing Street against an announcement that a long-promised ban on conversion therapy would not include trans people. The protest received minimal coverage in the mainstream UK press, while many papers, from the The Times to the Daily Fail, ran fawning pieces on J.K's lunch date.

I Love J.K. Rowling

"I Love J.K. Rowling" was once a sentiment shared by millions of Harry Potter fans. However, Rowling dropped the mask and revealed herself to be a TERF in late 2019, confirming years of speculation based on dodgy Twitter likes and follows. The phrase has since become a coded way for transphobes to propagate their views while seemingly expressing simple fondness of a popular author. Billboards and signs featuring the phrase have been commissioned by transphobes such as Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull. A cottage industry of stickers, shirts, and other junk featuring the phrase has sprung up. Now TERFs are more likely to enthusiastically proclaim their love of J.K. Rowling than Harry Potter fans. The variant "I Stand With Rowling" is also commonly used.

I Stand With Russia

Closely related to "I Love J. K. Rowling", the statement "I Stand With Russia" is a way for TERFs to signal their support for Vlad the Shirtless's manly stance on the whole LGBT thing, as well as his attacks on "gender ideology" and transphobic policies/rhetoric in particular. The expression is also popular among the far right.^{[citation needed]}

It's okay to be bi

A phrase suggesting that gay cis people who date / are open to dating trans people of the same gender are not really gay (because trans people aren't "real" men or "real" women), and should instead acknowledge themselves as bisexual.

Kiwifruit emoji (🥝)

Used especially on German-speaking twitter as an identifier among TERFS. Like the chequered flag emoji, it is a dogwhistle meaning to symbolize the concept of only two sexes existing. Originated in a cancelled lecture by German TERF Marie-Louise "The mainstream media is spreading dangeorous trans ideology" Vollbrecht. A version of the talk that used the kiwi plant (which is not even a singular species) as an example of a plant with supposedly only two sexes was published on YouTube. Not related to Kiwi Farms.

Kweer

A misspelling of queer used by TERFs and exclusionists to mock queer and non-binary people. A censored "q*eer" is also sometimes a signal that you're dealing with TERFs and exclusionists.

Ladydique

Sarcastic misspelling of "lady dick", used to suggest that "real" women do not have penises.

LARP

LARPing (Live Action Role Playing) is a hobby where, as the name suggests, people dress up and act out roleplay scenarios. TERFs use it to suggest that trans people, especially trans women, are basically just play-acting because they'll never be "real" men/women.

Lesbian erasure

See also Erasing women

A term usually used to refer to a real phenomenon, but co-opted and repurposed by TERFs to instead refer to an anti-trans conspiracy theory. It smears the trans-rights movement as a nefarious plot to systemically "erase" lesbians. Its proponents insist that granting legal recognition and protection to trans people will somehow force cis lesbians to date "men" (i.e., trans women) and thus nullify the existence of lesbians, or because lesbians are somehow being convinced to become trans men. This conspiracy has been propagated by mainstream newspapers in the UK. Survey lesbians themselves and one finds that they don't tend to be too concerned about such a thing.

Lesbophobia

While discrimination and fear of lesbians do exist, this term is more often used by TERFs as a dog whistle against male-to-female transgender people, and it is also often used to gatekeep trans women from women's spaces. As with other terms here, it has, of course, made it harder for non-transphobic lesbians to talk about legitimate discrimination against lesbians, and to describe how it differs from homophobia against gay men. Among non-TERFs the more inclusive, gender-neutral term homophobia is preferred in most cases when not referring to the intersection of misogyny and homophobia proper, whereas TERFs often use the term lesbophobia specifically to attack trans people and the broader LGBT community.

LGB

See also #DropTheT / #LGBWithoutTheT

The term "LGB" is used by mostly lesbian TERFs to deliberately exclude trans people from the LGBT community. Any organization calling itself "LGB" nowadays, such as the LGB Alliance, is usually a TERF group exclusively focused on the struggle against trans people.

Lily

A TERF stereotype of a trans woman who is loud and demanding, speaks over "actual women", and dresses like a caricature with heavy, poorly-applied makeup. May be a reference to British activist Lily Madigan, a trans woman who drew the ire of TERFs in 2017, when she was elected as the Labour Party Women's Officer for Rochester and Strood. Alternatively, it could be a co-opting of the trans community meme that Lily is a common name chosen by trans women and girls.

🦎 (lizard emoji)

The salamander has become a "positive symbol" for a subset of the detrans community due to its ability to regenerate lost limbs and organs. These detransitioners are mostly cis women who identified as trans men for a time and now regret receiving HRT, top surgery, or hysterectomies. They have stated that, although certain aspects of medical transition cannot be reversed, they wish to "feel emotionally and psychologically complete."

Not all detransitioners are TERFs. However, the lizard emoji is often seen as a TERF dogwhistle. Psychologist and author Devon Price has cautioned that one should be "very skeptical and on alert" if they see someone with a "lizard in their bio" on social media commenting on "gender, sexuality, 'protecting children,' feminism, or trans issues." Price has written about his own brief experience with detransition. Ky Schevers, another prominent retransitioner and ex-TERF, has linked the lizard emoji's symbolism to TERF erasure of trans men: "Autotomy is when some animals, like lizards & sea cucumbers, shed a body part in order to escape from a predator & then later regrow the lost part. The idea was that detrans women had shed their femaleness to try to escape the dangers of patriarchy but were now regrowing it." TERFs frequently argue that cis women transition in an attempt to escape misogyny or lesbophobia.

M-S

Male-Exclusionary Radical Feminist / MERF

A TERF way to describe themselves as radical feminists. This also goes under the TERF mindset that "trans women are men."

Male violence

A transphobic dog whistle that is used to include trans women as part of crimes that male criminals committed. Oddly, this excludes trans men, if they even remember that they exist.

Mixed sex

"Mixed sex" can have at least two different meanings:

• Any environment that accommodates both trans and cis women, since TERFs see trans women as men.
• A term used in place of "unisex" or "gender neutral" when referring to bathrooms anyone can use. TERFs think that this makes it sound worse, and will make others realize that cis women should only ever have to share facilities with other cis women, no one else.

MtT / FtT (Male to Transsexual / Female to Transsexual)

Terms used to deny that there's any real change at all, refusing to call trans women women and trans men men. These terms later evolved into TIM and TIF.

Munchausen syndrome by proxy

For more information, see: factitious disorder § false accusations

Munchausen syndrome by proxy is the former clinical name of a rare disorder now known as FDIA (Factitious Disorder Imposed on Another). People with this disorder (usually a mother) try to get attention or sympathy by lying that someone they are caring for (usually their young child) is sick. The person with FDIA may resort to harming the child in order to make the story plausible. TERFs like to claim that parents of transgender children have this disorder, and are deliberately causing harm by allowing their child to transition. Often with highly insensitive references to Dee Dee Blanchard — a woman with FDIA who was murdered by her now-adult daughter she had abused.

Mutilation

What TERFs call any kind of medical transition (especially bottom surgery), in an attempt to sound reasonable when they argue no one should be allowed to transition.

My sex is not a costume

A phrase claiming that trans women are just "dressing up" as women and it's a "costume" they can take off whenever convenient. Taken from a campaign that began as an anti-racism initiative in colleges, asking students not to wear Halloween costumes based on ethnic stereotypes: "We're a culture, not a costume." It later used the slogan "My identity is not a costume" and expanded to include other marginalised groups, with one poster showing a trans woman objecting to a crude costume based on Caitlyn Jenner. At this point the slogan and concept were hijacked by TERFs.

Non-affirming therapist

A code name for a conversion therapy practitioner, who reject the scientific consensus on gender-affirming therapy and make it seem bad. May refer to their methodology as "gender exploratory therapy". Often, they are "digging" for underlying issues, despite absolutely no evidence that there are issues underlying gender dysphoria.

#NotOurCrimes

A transphobic hashtag that frames trans women as violent sexual predators through obvious cherry-picked crimes to draw a false equivalency. It gained traction in the early 2020s and arch-transphobe J. K. Rowling infamously used this hashtag.

A subplot within this campaign is its use of a conspiracy theory that most particularly objectionable crimes committed by women are secretly committed by trans women. This can spur adherents to transvestigate women suspected of committing a crime.

Peak trans

The equivalent of the red pill for TERFs and other transphobes. It is the moment that TERFs claim they "woke up" to the purported menace of trans-rights activism and adopted their anti-trans views. An attempt was made by trans people to repurpose/steal the hashtag, but it did not gain significant traction in the long term.

By 2022, this had developed into the verb to "peak", meaning to transform into a TERF, e.g. “I peaked when my son came out as a TIM”. It's not clear if TERFs notice its resemblance to other meanings of peaking, such as the time a psychedelic is at its most powerful or when you're about to shit yourself. Arch-transphobe Graham Linehan claims "I peak several times a day", which is unsurprising given the volume of his Twitter usage.

Penis-Exclusionary Radical Feminist / PERF

A TERF way to describe themselves as radical feminists — claiming they don't exclude all trans people from feminism, only trans women (who they see as men). A variant of Male-Exclusionary Radical Feminist / MERF.

Pornsick

A snarl word invented by anti-porn radical feminists in the mid-2000s. First documented on the radfem blog I Blame the Patriarchy in late 2005 and early 2006. Radfems generally oppose pornography as inherently exploitative, believing it contributes to a culture of abuse, misogyny, and rape. "Pornsickness" can refer to any supposed ill blamed on the influence of pornography: porn addiction, sexual promiscuity, BDSM and kink culture, etc. In general, it refers to cisgender men having a persistent, pathological need to consume pornography, particularly when this addiction leads them to seek out increasingly extreme content. Julie Bindel has accused modern sex-positive feminism of luring young women into indulging the whims of "porn-sick men" by selling them "a version of sexual liberation that is merely eroticised sexual violence." Julie Burchill railed against the evils of "our porn-sick society" in a 2021 jeremiad in The Spectator.

Anti-trans radfems (a.k.a TERFs) also use "pornsick" as a dogwhistle for autogynephilia. This widely discredited theory posits that trans women are actually cisgender men with a sexual fetish for cross-dressing and fantasising about being women. TERFs use the term to invoke a causal relationship between transfeminine identities and over-consumption of porn. Some view simply existing as a trans woman in public as a form of exhibitionism because they assume all trans women are "AGP fetishists." Joolz Denby defended reposting selfies for transphobic mockery because trans women supposedly "inflict their porn sick fetish on women in women's spaces."

Pseudo-bisexuality

For more information, see: Bisexual erasure

An idea derived from the Blanchard model that says all bisexual trans women are secretly faking any given attraction to men, and are instead only attracted to women. This is based on the highly dubious "logic" that trans women are really sexist straight men, who are attracted to women but also believe that a woman's value is measured by how much sexual attention she gets from men. They therefore have to date men in order to feel validated, or to look more convincing as women. Why anyone would go to this kind of effort is at best questionable; but at least it's consistent with TERF beliefs that men will go through a lengthy and expensive transition process just to maybe be able to use a women's bathroom.

🟪⬜🟩 (purple, white, green square emojis)

The genderqueer flag (left) and the terfragette flag (right). TERFs have started appropriating the former in order to confuse and muddy the waters, in a similar way to what they've done with non-binary vs "genderfree"

Another emoji-based dog whistle used by TERFS on social media. Used primarily by UK-based TERFs, it seems to have emerged in the first half of 2021, and has largely replaced the chequered flag and red square. The colour scheme is based on the historical tri-color used by the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), an organization that campaigned for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom from 1903 to 1918. This is yet another example of TERFs trying to cast themselves as the political successors of suffragettes.

It also co-opts the colour scheme used in the genderqueer pride flag designed by Marilyn Roxie in 2010. Roxie has been accused of appropriating the WSPU's tri-color since 2013. They explained that, as an American, they were unaware of the color scheme's historical use by UK suffragists until 2012. They also explained that their symbolism differs from that of the WSPU tri-color: lavender was chosen for "its association as a queer color", dark green as lavender's "inverse", and white to "represent agender or neutral gender." This contrasts to the symbolism of the WSPU tri-color as described by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence: "Purple, as everyone knows is the royal colour, it stands for the royal blood that flows in the veins of every suffragette, the instinct of freedom and dignity… white stands for purity in private and public life… green is the colour of hope and the emblem of spring."

She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named tweeting the "💜🤍💚" variant with the message "And together, we will win."

A variation using three heart emojis (💜🤍💚) is also sometimes used, as well as variations without the white (e.g. 🟪🟩🟪🟩). Some people use different emojis with similar colors to refer to the same thing, instead of explicitly using square or heart emojis. TERFs in North America sometimes use purple/white/yellow variants (e.g. 💜🤍💛). This is the color scheme historically used by the American suffragette movement. Gold became a color favored by American suffragettes after they took the sunflower as a symbol when Kansas ("The Sunflower State") became the first U.S. state to hold a referendum on women's suffrage in 1867. The use of hearts to communicate TERF sympathies is ironic given that transphobia is as far from love and inclusion as humanly possible.

Quesadilla test / Quesadilla meme

A "test" proposed by a TERF on Tumblr, who claimed she could tell her brother's girlfriend was trans because the trans woman did not know how to make quesadillas - apparently a skill all cis women have from birth. For the most part, it turned into a joke by trans people and LGBT allies making fun of some of the ridiculous ways TERFs think they can tell if someone is trans. However, it remained a talking point with TERFs for a while who adopted the general idea that trans women are entitled and not expected to cook or do household chores like cis women are.

Rapid onset gender dysphoria (ROGD)

See the main article on this topic: Littman 2018 ROGD Study

Rapid onset gender dysphoria is, essentially, the idea that Tumblr, Reddit and similar sites are turning teens (especially girls) trans, teens who had not previously displayed any signs of being transgender. Naturally, this became a favourite among TERFs and other transphobes, who saw it as "proof" that the Trans Agenda™ is turning kids trans. All academic evidence for the existence of ROGD is one hilariously bad study which, among other things, didn't include the kids it was studying.

🟥 (red square emoji)

Another dog whistle used by TERFs in their bios and names on Twitter. It indicates that the user opposes letting trans women use women's washrooms and shelters, co-opting the "no means no" slogan used for decades by anti-rape campaigners.

#RespectMySex (if you want my X)

TERF hashtag that emerged in 2022. Used to signal opposition to the inclusion of trans women in women's spaces.

Safeguarding

In the United Kingdom and Ireland, "safeguarding" refers to measures designed to protect children, youth, and vulnerable adults from abuse and neglect. TERFs in the UK have co-opted the term as a euphemism for their crusade against young people's access to transition care. In December 2020, they succeeded in effectively banning transition care for people under 16 in the country (in the later-overturned Bell v Tavistock), and immediately switched to calling for limiting adults' access.

Save women's sports

"Save women's sports" – including its variants, "save girls' sports", "protect women's sports", etc. – is a transphobic trope often promoted by TERFs. Similar to the "bathroom scare", the intent of the trope is to baselessly portray trans women as a grave threat to cis women and to whip up a moral panic around the trope to harm trans women and their well-being. The trope is primarily used to ridicule all trans people, and hysterical articles about "save women's sports" are frequently illustrated with carefully selected, non-flattering pictures of masculine-looking trans women who are not very representative of trans women. Very few trans women are in fact taking any part in competitive women's sports at all, and many trans women are afraid of coming into contact with that kind of arena. Yet this spurious trope of very limited relevance gets disproportionate attention in transphobic discourse even in mainstream media outlets. The trope conveniently ignores that many cis men and women have significant biological and other advantages compared to other people of the same cis gender. True to the TERF ideology's simplistic worldview, it also ignores the more nuanced philosophical discussion of what is "fair".

Norway's main sports organization, the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, has robustly rejected this transphobic trope, and said that "the real problem concerning trans women and sports is that trans people participate far less in sports than cis women and cis men. We want to make it easier for trans people to participate in sports."

SCAM

Slur used against trans women and that stands for "Surgically and Chemically Altered Male". This term is falling out of use; a lot of TERFs now want to argue that trans women would rather not medically transition, and are therefore a threat to "real" (cis) women.

✂️ (scissors emoji)

An emoji dogwhistle that was reportedly started by Norwegian TERFs on Twitter. It's a coded reference to a tweet from Norwegian TERF Danielle Brogden vowing to "never enter female-only space [sic] without a pair of scissors." The tweet was part of the furor over trans comedienne Jordan Gray stripping naked during a performance on a UK variety programme. Brodgen's implication seems to be that cis women are justified in using the threat of violent assault and maiming to enforce how and where they feel trans women should be allowed to exist. (Nevermind the fact that 1. television studios are not "female-only spaces", 2. the studio audience would've been warned what to expect, and 3. the show aired post-watershed with a content advisory.)

Trans-rights supporters responded by adding the rock emoji (🪨) to their bios and names. This was meant to reference the hand game rock, paper, scissors, in which the gesture for "rock" beats that of "scissors." TERFs unironically accused trans-rights supporters of advocating violence.

Sex-based rights

TERFs and other transphobes often insist that they are fighting for women's sex-based rights (alternatively shortened to sex-based rights) as a framing tactic. And yet, when pressed, they struggle to name any rights actually granted on the basis of sex. For example, the legal right to access to contraception and abortion isn't founded on the idea that having a uterus should confer certain rights, but on the idea that people who can get pregnant (most of whom are women) should have the same right to privacy and bodily autonomy as those who cannot. TERFs wouldn't want to live in the kind of society most likely to emerge from the philosophy that sex should determine rights and opportunities.

Legal scholar and human rights expert Sandra Duffy described the concept of "sex-based rights" as "a fiction with the pretense of legality," noting that "international human rights law is not static or originalist." Despite that, the term has been used in many different circumstances, including the Women's Declaration International (formerly Women's Human Rights Campaign)'s "declaration on women's sex-based rights", appropriating the concept of human rights to perpetrate hate.

It is also worth noting that there are no documented references to "sex-based rights" on Twitter before 2015 despite TERFs' insistence they are a foundational feminist concept. This means that this term has been clearly invented by TERFs, for TERFs.

The concept of "sex-based rights" is also a dog whistle, since it can easily be passed off as "women's rights" when it in fact refers to something completely different.

Sex is real

A strawman of transgender opposition, as TERFs equate "you can transition from a man to a woman" as "sex isn't real". If you see someone using "sex is real" as a talking point, they are almost certainly a TERF. Note the similarity to "race is real".

#SexNotGender

A hashtag that is an exclusionary dog whistle that they reject gender science in favor of sex.

🕸️ (spiderweb emoji)

Another dog whistle used by TERFs in their bios or names on Twitter, Tumblr, and other social media sites. It specifically indicates that the user is a member of Spinster.xyz, a "woman-centred social media platform" better understood as the TERF version of Gab. The spiderweb was selected by Spinster users as a reference to the act of "spinning." The platform's name derives from spinster, an arguably dated term for "unmarried woman" that emerged in the 1600s, as spinning wool was historically the primary occupation of such women.

The spider emoji (🕷️) is not a TERF dog whistle. It is used as a tribute to UK judge Brenda Hale, who once famously wore a very large spider brooch. However, since transphobia is extremely pervasive in the UK, there is significant overlap between those who use the two emojis.

The Staniland Question

A loaded question posed by Helen Staniland in early 2021 shortly before her Twitter suspension: "Do you believe that male-bodied people with a penis should have the right to undress in front of women and young girls?"

No one in the trans-rights movement has actually advocated exposing kids to naked adults. But TERFs have started routinely demanding that they answer the "Staniland Question". The question is a blatant example of the age-old demonization of LGBT people as dangerous predators. It also assumes that trans-rights supporters might not object to communal changing spaces for different reasons (e.g. privacy and body shaming).

Steroids

A term used for hormone therapy taken by trans people (since steroids feminize a male body and vice versa), to make it sound like trans people are drug abusers and / or cheating in sports.

Stonewall Law

A snarl word for a QAnonesque conspiracy theory holding that the UK LGBT-rights charity Stonewall has a nefarious and outsize influence on everything from UK equality law to academia. Basically, "Stonewall Law" is anything that the organisation does to advance the cause of trans rights, a remit which it has only followed since 2015 despite being founded in 1989.

In particular, TERFs like to point the finger at Stonewall's "Diversity Champions" programme, a list of businesses and institutions that meet its standards of inclusion. Thirty academics headed by Kathleen Stock sent a letter to The Times in 2019 urging British universities to "sever their ties" with Stonewall. They alleged that the "membership requirements" of the Diversity Champions programme create "tension with academic freedom" for participating universities, since "requir[ing] staff to undergo 'trans awareness training'" apparently means forcing free-thinking mavericks into an Orwellian re-education scheme whereby "tendentious and anti-scientific claims are presented to academics as objective fact, without the opportunity for scrutiny."

The term "Stonewall Law" has also been applied to the understanding that the UK's Equality Act 2010 protects trans people under the category of "gender reassignment." In 2020, barrister Allison Bailey launched an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit against Stonewall, alleging that her former employer's participation in the Diversity Champions scheme lead to her unlawful termination. In a press release, Bailey argued that Stonewall was seeking to impose "Stonewall Law" on British society through the programme, claiming that "without most of the public realising it, a large swathe of British employers have signed up to the Stonewall value system."

Conspiracy thinking about Stonewall had permeated the UK government by late 2023. While speaking at a summit held by a Jordan Peterson-founded right-wing think tank in October, Kemi Badenoch, Minister for Women and Equalities, decried Stonewall as having been overtaken by a "leftist point of view" that lead it to "tell government […] what to do" on matters of "gender idealogy." In December, during a speech in the House of Commons, Badenoch declared "Stonewall does not decide the law in this country." This speech was given in defence of a Tory plan to impose the UK's gender-recognition requirements on foreign nationals visiting from countries deemed to have insufficiently "rigorous systems." In other words, Kemi doesn't like UK lobby groups lobbying the UK government, but is fine with government policy dictating how other countries should treat trans people.

Swedish study

An informal name used by TERFs to refer to a study they falsely claim shows that trans women "retain male-pattern criminality" and have higher suicide rates even after transitioning. The paper, published in 2011 in the journal PLoS One, looked at the offending rates of post-operative trans women in Sweden from 1973 to 2003.

What the study actually found was that only the older cohort of trans women (1973 to 1988) exhibited a rate of criminal conviction comparable to that of cisgender men. This pattern was not observed in the study's second cohort (1989 to 2003), with Cecilia Dhejne, the lead author, noting in an interview with TransAdocate that "differences in mortality, suicide attempts, and crime disappear" for this group. In Dhejne's conclusion, the study's younger cohort likely had better outcomes due to having "accessed more mental health care" than previous generations, while the poorer outcomes of the older cohort "likely reflects a time when trans health and psychological care was less effective and social stigma was far worse."

Dhejne has called the widespread misrepresentation of her research "very frustrating." She has stated that she has "seen professors use my work to support ridiculous claims," and has personally tried to combat the spread of misinformation by "commenting on articles, speaking with journalists, and talking about this problem at conferences."

Super (prefix)

“”I'm a #superbi #superfeminist and I'm here for all my #superstraight and #Superlesbian sisters!

—Self-described TERF

In TERF circles combinations including the word "super" such as "super straight", "super woman", "super lesbian" and "super feminist", with the standalone word "super" as shorthand, all refer to the Super Straight meme that was popularised by neo-Nazi agitators on 4chan to invalidate and mock trans people's gender identities and justify blatant transphobia. In light of both its origin and use among transphobic people it is an extremely transphobic term.

Surgical wound

Offensive TERF term for a trans woman's neovagina.

T-Z

TEHM

Stands for "Trans-Exclusionary Homosexual Male". Some gay male TERFs use this term for themselves and use it to justify excluding trans men.

TERF is a slur

For more information, see: TERF as a slur

"TERF is a slur" is a spurious claim made by TERFs and usually their standard reply when they are criticized for their hateful ideology. Anyone claiming "TERF is a slur" is quite certainly a TERF.

TERF Island

Half-sarcastic term for the United Kingdom. Originally and continually used by detractors, some TERFs use it to compliment the UK instead. See: Transgender glossary § TERF Island

Terfragette

An attempt to reclaim the term TERF while pretending they're equivalent to the suffragettes who campaigned for votes for women. Used as self-identification by TERFs.

Terven

A group of TERFs. Used "ironically" by TERFs in an attempt to reclaim the word TERF, e.g. "oh no, we're the evil terven!"

#TheyCallMeTerf

A new hashtag that spawned sometime in 2019 as a way for TERFs to fight back after being called out for being transphobic.

TIM / TIF (Trans Identified Male/Female)

Terms used to misgender trans women (TIM) and men (TIF), while at the same time also denying that they are trans (which is not a real thing, according to TERFs), through the now turned-into-dogwhistle "identify as" expression.

They are also used because they don't contain the letters of the elective gender (unlike mtF, ftM), and because they are typically masculine (Tim/Timothy) or feminine (Tiffany) names.

Tiny minority of men

A way TERFs describe trans women, in order to claim that they are being silenced by a "fraction of the patriarchy".

Tranorexia

Refers to a belief among TERFs that being trans is similar to anorexia, and should be treated by encouraging the person to accept themselves as cis, rather than by offering medical transition ("we don't offer anorexics weight loss surgery!") The term is also used to suggest that being trans is a fad or phase among teenagers, and that young trans men in their teens or early 20s would have been anorexic girls if they'd grown up in the 1990s or 2000s. "Tranorexia" is a form of support for conversion therapy. Ironically enough, transgender people do have higher rates of disordered eating, but research indicates that transphobia and lack of gender transition care are two major contributors to it.

Transage

A small number of people wish to be recognized as "transage" i.e., feeling that they are a specific age other than than their chronological age. The concept is sometimes referenced by TERFs and other right-wing trolls who argue that since the law does not recognize transage people, it should not permit changing one's gender identity. This was popularized in TERF circles by a blog post positing a hypothetical scenario where two 45-year-olds want to legally change their ages so they can receive benefits they otherwise wouldn't be entitled to (such as a senior citizen's travel pass), implying this is also why transgender people transition. This term may also be used by pedophiles to justify their attraction to minors.

Trans cult

A conspiracy theory that accuses transgender people of being a cult. After looking at warning signs of a potentially destructive cult, in fact, the opposite is true: it's TERFs themselves who are the cult.

Trans agenda / Gender theory / Gender ideology

See the main article on this topic: Gender ideology

For more information, see: Homosexual agenda

According to TERFs and alt-righters, trans people have an agenda and/or ideology to:

• Confuse, trick, and make cis people uncomfortable
• Invade cis people's bathrooms
• Feminize men
• Erase the meaning of "woman" by letting trans women use the term "woman"
• Turn cis lesbians into straight women (or trans men) and then replace lesbians with "fake" trans lesbians
• Destroy lesbianism by pushing young AFAB individuals into calling themselves "non-binary", "trans men", "queer", "pansexual" instead of the classical "lesbian"
• Cause a genocide of homosexual people, by pressuring them to transition, such as in Iran

It's as full of shit as it sounds. Meanwhile, trans people's real agenda is to lower the suicide rate for trans people, and reduce gatekeeping; better known as "human rights".

Trans industry

See Trans lobby, below.

Transing

Used instead of "transitioning" by TERFs who do not believe it is possible to transition from male to female, or vice versa. "Transing" suggests that transitioning is something trans people deliberately do for attention ("I broke up with my ex after she transed herself") or a form of harm done to them ("parents transing their children.")

Trans lobby

TERFs often refer to the "trans lobby", a conspiracy theory with far-right origins that is closely related to the "gay lobby" conspiracy theory. In practice the "trans lobby" refers to everyone who espouses progressive and LGBT-tolerant views; for instance Norwegian TERFs consider Norway's conservative health minister Bent Høie, who has no personal involvement with trans issues, to be part of the "trans lobby" due to his reasonably progressive policies as health minister.

Trans rights are men's rights

This term is used to smear transgender women and activists as men's rights activists. It also serves to smear trans women as "men". It is a play on the term "trans rights are human rights." In reality, men's rights activists tend to share the transphobia of TERFs, and there are many examples of TERF-leaning transphobes and MRAs making common cause.

Trans-rights activist (TRA)

A person who supports the transgender rights movement. TERFs pretty much use this term indiscriminately. In TERF logic, one is a "TRA" whether one occasionally expresses support for trans rights or whether one has devoted one's life and/or social media presence to the cause. The acronym was deliberately chosen to sound like "MRA" in an attempt to draw a false equivalence between trans-rights activism and the genuinely misogynistic and anti-feminist men's rights movement.

Transvestigators

See the main article on this topic: Transvestigation

Proponents of a conspiracy theory that almost everybody famous is actually trans. They study photographs of celebrities and famous people, measuring ratios and angles, claiming to prove (amongst other genuine transvestigator claims) that Elon Musk and Ryan Gosling were AFAB, and Anne Frank and JK Rowling were/are actually trans. When they get bored of that, they turn on each other and claim other prominent transvestigators are trans. Transvestigators became more well-known after the highly publicised case of a British man arrested in Singapore for breaking mask laws; he was discovered to be a transvestigator who believes Elton John is AFAB and gave birth to Princes William and Harry.

Trans widow

Sometimes written "transwidow". A cis woman who ended her marriage because her spouse came out as trans, usually as a trans woman. Many TERF-oriented websites about "trans widows" exist, often full of anonymous anecdotes about the trans spouse suddenly becoming abusive, "narcissistic", or excessively perverted while the "widow" was socially ostracised for not supporting the transition. In response to criticism that this term is insensitive to real widows, TERFs claim it's no worse than saying "golf widow" (general slang for a woman whose partner would rather play golf than spend time with her). Not to be confused with actual widows who happen to be trans.

Troon

A slur originating from the Something Awful forums, where users referred to themselves as "goons." Trans users began jokingly referring to themselves as "troons." The term was later appropriated by users on KiwiFarms, a site dedicated to the coordinated harassment of trans people and neurodivergent people online. "Troon" is now used interchangeably with other transphobic slurs, and is often used to refer to nerdy and/or neurodivergent trans women in particular.

Trooning Out

A transphobic expression used to describe when someone is transitioning or coming out as transgender.

TWAW / TMAM

Initialisms of "trans women are women" and "trans men are men" used nigh exclusively by TERFs and other transphobes.

Ultra / non-ultra

These terms emerged in early 2024 due to in-fighting among anti-trans ideologues over respecting trans people's pronouns and chosen names. "Ultras" are absolutist transphobes who make a point of deliberately, consistently, and often cruelly misgendering and deadnaming trans people on principle. The word seems to be based on the use of "ultra" as an informal synonym for "extremist" (itself a shortening of terms such as ultranationalist).

Ultras insist they are brave truth-speakers rejecting what they view as the empty posturing and tone policing of the #BeKind brigade. The schism began with Janice Turner using she/her pronouns in a February 3 profile of "transsexual apostate" Debbie Hayton in The Times. Meanwhile, multiple anti-trans figures have positioned themselves as "non-ultras," or the "moderate" voices of "reason" in the room. Andrew Doyle, who interviewed Hayton on his GB News programme the day after Turner's profile hit newsstands, wrote a piece for UnHerd about being hounded off Twitter by "a mass pile-on" as a result of the "gender-critical civil war." Doyle stressed that he "use[s] pronouns to denote biological sex" but has "occasionally adopted" the pronouns of his trans friends to "avoid needless distress," the way he might lower his "head for a prayer at a friend's family meal, even if [he] didn't believe in their particular god." Bev Jackson warned ultras that they risk "alienat[ing] the general public" if they are "fierce" about pronouns. Jane Clare Jones deemed "the ultra position" to be "a type of tribalism" that allows its adherents to dismiss criticism and dissent. Some ultras have predictably deemed the term to be a slur on par with "TERF."

Urinary leash

The "urinary leash" refers to the problem of women's public toilets not being available, thus limiting what they can do outside the home. It is typically used in a historical context, or in discussions of public facilities closing because of budget cuts. TERFs like to use the term to claim that, if trans women are allowed to use women's bathrooms, cis women will be forced to stay at home and this is misogynistic. As if there's no difference between the absence of a women's toilet, versus stubbornly choosing not to use it because you don't like trans women. Hypocritically ignores how trans people (especially trans women) face just such a "leash" when they cannot use public restrooms due to threats of legal persecution and/or physical violence.

Uterus-haver

"Uterus-haver" has at least two different meanings:

• A term used by TERFs on social media to suggest that trans women are not women because they don't have a uterus. Bafflingly, this term also suggests that cis women who have had a hysterectomy are not women either.
• Alternately, the term can be used to claim that trans women are really sexist men who want to steal the word "woman" for themselves, and re-brand cis women as "uterus-havers" or other terms that reduce them to their reproductive organs.

Variants of the term such as "vagina haver" and "front holer" also exist.

Vegan cat

A TERF meme along the lines of "a trans child is like a vegan cat: we know who made that decision, and it wasn't the cat." Implying that trans children have actually just been brainwashed by their parents, and allowing a child to transition is harmful/a form of abuse (just like trying to force a cat to eat a vegan diet, which their bodies aren't designed for.) Variants of this have also been used by non-TERFs.

Was/Were

Same meaning as 41%. Originally used as a joke term by the trans community to mean "kill", for example "If you don't respect my pronouns, yours will be was/were", appropriated and popularized by the alt-right in reference to trans and non-binary suicide rates.

Womanface

An attempt to equate the existence of trans women to blackface; claiming that they treat womanhood as a "costume" while ignoring the oppression of "actual women".

#WomenWontWheesht

A hashtag that first emerged among Scottish TERFs before spreading throughout the UK and beyond. "Wheesht" is Scottish slang meaning "shush" or "be quiet."

The hashtag was started in 2021 after it was reported that Scottish TERF Marion Millar had been charged with malicious communications over a December 2020 tweet revealing she had left a suffragette ribbon outside of a Glasgow television studio (the ribbon was seen as a noose due to the photo being low-res and taken at night). Another tweet posted by Millar an hour after the ribbon tweet featured a photo of a woman standing by a banner tied to the studio's fence. Both tweets named River City star David Paisley, with one including a hashtag stating he "hates women." Paisley, who worked at the studio at the time, is known for his trans-rights advocacy. Millar is also alleged to have spread personally-identifying information of a police officer involved in her case. Prosecutors eventually chose not to pursue the charges against her.

Paisley has had to leave Scotland due to the volume of threats and harassment he has received for supporting trans rights.

Womyn / Wombyn

Alternative spellings of "woman"/"women" used to avoid ending the word with "-man". Historically, these terms have been used in wider feminist discourse. However, they are now used mostly by TERFs (since the 2010s). The term "wombyn" deliberately puts more emphasis on the uterus (primary organ involved in pregnancy); it is purposefully trans-exclusionary and used by TERFs since trans women are unable to become pregnant even post-transition. To avoid this association, the term womxn was created, which that term was accused in 2021 for being transphobic for othering trans women.^{[citation needed]}

WORIADS (Worthy of respect in a democratic society)

AKA "Not as bad as Nazism". Another hashtag coming out of the Maya Forstater case, TERFs like to characterise their beliefs as "worthy of respect in a democratic society". The 2010 Equality Act in the UK prevents discrimination against someone for a "philosophical belief" they hold, as long as it's somehow vaguely worthy of respect. Great, so TERFery is worthy of respect? It must be right! Not really. Finding in favour of Forstatter, tribunal president Choudhury decided a "philosophical belief would only be excluded ... if it was the kind of belief the expression of which would be akin to Nazism or totalitarianism." A lower judge had said, yup, bad as a Nazi, but was overruled on appeal, so officially TERFs are not as bad as Nazis. Example on Twitter: "Trans identifying men are not real women #WORIADS".

XX

Represents the female chromosomes. TERFs will put the female chromosomes (XX) in their social media profiles to denote that they exclude trans and nonbinary people who identify as female or femme. Ironically, this term also excludes certain cis women who may happen to have XY chromosomes, and includes certain cis men and trans women who may happen to also have XX chromosomes.

YWNBAW (You will never be a woman)

A phrase used to target and demean trans women. Its first use dates back to 2011. Originally invented on 4chan's /a/ (anime) board, the phrase was popularized in 2020 following the creation of a similarly titled copypasta. Its current use is primarily centered on anti-trans and other manosphere websites and forums.

See also

• Transgender glossary
• Feminist glossary
• LGBTQ orientation glossary
• MRA glossary
• Alt-right glossary