By David Futrelle
Some TERFs — trans-exclusionary radical feminists — seem nearly as obsessed with “trans crime” as Trump is with “immigrant crime,” and as Der Sturmer once was with “Jewish crime.”
And so, when the GenderCritical subreddit – Reddit’s main hangout for TERFs — discovered that one of the STEM School students who shot up a Colorado high school earlier this week is reportedly a trans boy, it’s not surprising that the discussion there quickly turned ugly. And more than a little weird.
TERFs favorite targets are trans women — whom they describe, in their own perverse jargon, as TIMs, or Trans-Identified Males. But it turns out that TERFs are nearly as happy to attack trans men and boys — or so-called “TIFs” — even though “TIFs” are, in the minds of the TERFs anyway, still “biological females.”
Some “GenderCritical” Redditors blamed the shootings in part on the testosterone injections and/or surgery they assumed that Alec McKinney, the alleged trans shooter, had gotten, although there’s no evidence so far showing that McKinney, a juvenile, has had any sort of hormone therapy much less gone under the knife.
“Yeah turns out doing irreparable [harm] to your body and turning up your aggression right away leads to instability,” wrote a commenter called norris528e.
Several commenters shared allegedly true stories of trans men they know who turned violent after starting their transition.
“This might … be anecdotal.” wrote someone calling themselves NecessarySpeed4,
but one of my sister friends was a lesbian whose girlfriend decided to transition to male. Pretty much right away, the new “boyfriend” started acting like an asshole.
My sisters friend was struggling with to support “his” decision to be a man and this “boyfriend” according to my sister displayed signs of male chauvinism making crude and sexual remarks towards other women and had started a habit of slapping women on their asses a few months later “he” left his girlfriend because she was a transphobe who didn’t fully support “him”
There was dark talk about the pernicious effects the “trans cult” — and/or the “kweer kult” — allegedly has on the psyche of “transdelusional” young people who, as TERFs see it, decide to become trans.
“Being in the thrall of a cult can and routinely DOES lead people to commit acts of violence,” declared GCMadamXX.
That’s what ISIS is, and the KKK and Boko Haram etc etc etc. Many cults have lured members into self harm or mass suicide. A horrific cult in Russia required women to cut off their breasts and men to be castrated. Sound familiar?
You seriously think a cult that encourages teens to castrate themselves is not a danger to wider society? Is not churning out sociopaths? Is not ATTRACTIVE to sociopaths?
We can give you a long list of violent acts committed by people in the thrall of the trans cult. A long and growing list.
Sosososhocking implied that the shooting was the inevitable result of violent rhetoric from trans activists.
Trans people: fuck terfs we should kill terfs
Also trans people: shoots up a school
Everyone but rad fems: surprisedpikachu.jpg
Some managed to convince themselves that the other alleged shooter, identified as 18-year-old Devon Erickson, might actually be a secret trans woman still living as male — based largely on his hair color and his not-exactly-macho aesthetic.
A commenter called libfem_decline posited that Erickson is “(potentially) a closeted TIM. At least, he’s got purple hair and furry tattoos.”
GCMadamXX similarly suggested that
The adult shooter is likely in the trans cult too. In March he posted on Instagram with the hashtags #tumblrgirl #aestheticgirl #cuteaesthetic #pastelgrunge #softgrunge #softaesthetic . Also he either wrote or tattooed an acronym on his arm that has to do with furries. Unfortunately he was definitely part of the rainbow kids crowd. There’s a selfie overlaid with the Pride flag.
This one could be a wild ride, ladies. Buckle up.
While few in the discussion seemed to have any trouble attacking trans men, there were some who couldn’t help reverting back to the primary TERF obsession, the alleged villainy of trans women — sorry, “Trans-Identified Males.”
“I’m actually surprised we don’t see more TiM mass shooters,” wrote Mountains_beyond, “as so many fit the “aggrieved narcissist” profile.”
While libfem_decline thinks trans women get too much “attention and validation and special snowflake fuzzies” to become alienated enough to shoot up a school. other Reddit TERFs are predicting a coming wave of trans women mass shooters.
“[J]ust wait,” warned coppershrike.
Many of the more insane TIMs will go out shooting as they age and reality starts becoming something they cannot deny.
Jelliknight agreed:
Imagine when society wakes up and all their documents are set back to MALE and they’re banned from womens spaces and no longer have the right to sue for being called a man. That’s when we’ll start to see a lot more TIM shooters.
You almost get the impresstion that Jelliknight is looking forward to the coming age of “TIM” violence — much in the way that misogynistic Men Going Their Own Way look forward to the the social collapse they think feminism is about to bring about, because in the ensuing chaos, MGTOWs think, men will be able to put women back in their place.
Jelliknight seems similarly eager to put trans people “back in their place,” no matter how painful and messy this process could get.
That’s a rather disquieting response to news of a school shooting.
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@Cyborgette.
I’m sorry, but what is a antiandrogens?
A gentle reminder for everyone, since it’s sadly often necessary: awful people being women never gives us licence to use misogyny against them. Ever.
@Lainy
Drugs that suppress the production or effects of testosterone. The first line one in the US is spironolactone, which would be a pretty awful thing for an athlete to be on – it’s also a potassium sparing diuretic and a weak corticosteroid, so it can cause dehydration, electrolyte balance issues, and for a few lucky people, Cushingoid effects and withdrawal symptoms.
Cindy:
You are correct. Mondegreen usually hangs out at Butterflies & Wheels, the blog of the TERF Ophelia Benson who left freethoughtblogs in anger after her bigotry was exposed.
(looks up after spending 1/2 hour with google, wikipedia and web-md…)
I LOVE this place!
@ Cindy:
Lady Mondegreen, a blogger, or ??? I googled, couldn’t find anything other than misheard song lyrics (… sweet dreams are made of cheese… who am I to diss a brie….)
@Weird Eddie
Lady Mondegreen was a former member of the commentariat here, until she started spouting TERF talking points some months back and got banned.
I mean if course they’re surprised there aren’t more trans shooters: these are the same people who were physiognomically convinced Nasim Aghdam was trans. Because it turns out TERFs are also racists.
Ugh. Just when you think it can’t get worse
Also, small point of clarification: the STEM School isn’t a high school but a k-12 institution. Source: I live up the road from it.
These two articles, back to back, are a clear indication that incels and TERFs are two sides of the same vile sexist coin.
@ Catalpa, Cindy:
Researched Lady M, after reminder, I remember the “beating sexbots” thread, and… so, yeah….
Something I have learned in my travels here and in other ether-feminist spaces is, I do not get to voice an opinion on the lived experience of those whose experience I have not lived. For me, that’s literally every oppressed person except McWasp males… we are oppressed (/s), but our oppression is minimal and really not worthy of discussion here
I dunno if this is acceptable or not. One of the points Mme. Mondegreen attempted to make was:
I disagree. Actually, I see the sum total of all human rights as resulting in the right to be seen as one wishes to be seen.
Back when I was on Twitter, I think I remember one of the trans women I was following there mentioning taking spironolactone. The side-effects sounded vile.
The racial component of the Caster Semenya case can’t be emphasised enough– it was only when it was explicitly pointed out to me did it occur how many (all?) of the athletes targeted by these allegations are women of colour…
Giving this some more thought I have encountered many ‘extreme’ feminists, and those on this branch do tend to be pretty awful to women as well.
Crip Dyke reminded me there was also a ‘Wages Due Lesbians’ group associated with the Wages Due Housework. They truly were fringe dwellers. I Don’t know for sure but I think that they would have been TERF too.
But I am defo not suggesting that ⚢ are more likely to be TERF. I ran a lesbian group years ago and we had a large majority vote to welcome trans women.
TERFs: This trans person who I refuse to admit is a man shot up a school because of all the extra testosterone in [his] system!
Also TERFs: I’m surprised that trans people who I refuse to admit are women don’t shoot things up more!
How much testosterone is in someone’s body matters when the person was AFAB but not when they were AMAB apparently?
Sure signs of Trans status. [/snark]
Nope, can’t deal with this nonsense today. Just waiting for the work day to be over so I can get to High Park to see the blooming Sakura trees. Granted, it’ll likely be a zoo, but it wouldn’t be High Park without it.
Speaking of, I find myself going to historical sites just to remind myself just that there is a normal to be found out there and that not every bit of history has been rewritten and gaslit by bad-faith actors. It is interesting that there is a through-line of class conflict between the various city museum sites. For instance, John Howard who built Colborne Lodge was a patron of the Family Compact (read: the 1%), while his rival David Gibson of the Gibson House was a supporter of William Lyon Mackenzie (of Mackenzie House), who opposed the Family Compact at every turn. So some of these museums belonged to Reformers (Gibson and Mackenzie) and some to supporters of the British Crown (Howard and Montgomery).
As an aside for Toronto locals, the Sakura trees at High Park reached peak bloom this morning. They’ll only be around for 3-10 days, so check it out while they last!
TERFs are mostly just bitter old baby boomer hags desperate for attention. Also, why is it that TERFs fit the “ugly feminist” stereotype so well, eh? ?
Not dismissing David for calling them out on their bullshit, but sometimes I wonder if they are using this kind of notoriety to their advantage.
As for their tacit alliance with right-wing extremists, that suggests a lot of sexual frustration and daddy issues(they desperately want to get nailed by strong, dominant, alpha males and crave for a trad lifestyle but are in denial about this).
@Nowherepants
Fuck off with your misogyny please. I’m also one of those “ugly feminists”, and my sisters are the ones who take the backlash every time some pompous bro does what you’re doing.
Go read my last post. And then read it again.
Why do you fit the disgusting misogynist stereotype so well?
Please leave your gross fantasies about women’s sexual desires out of this. I don’t want to defend TERFs or anything but absolutely nothing points to this and it’s just a way for you to wedge sex into a discussion where it doesn’t belong.
P.S. TERFs are misogynists. They are NOT feminists.
Nowherepants
You crossed the line so far your 4 miles away from it. that entire post with misogynistic and disgusting. Not to mention inappropriate. You can disagree and denounce TERFS without going into misogynists tropes. I don’t want to defend TERFS either but just like with a lot of women just because you don’t like them means you can be misogynistic about it. Just like it wouldn’t be right for a black man to threaten to rape a woman because she is racist.
sigh
TBH this is a thing that I see happen almost every time TERFism gets discussed in a public space, and I am very, very tired of it. No dudebros, I won’t give you ally cookies for being sexist creeps towards TERFs or anyone else. Not in my name. Get gone.
Most of population, whatever their gender, doesn’t meet conventional standards of beauty. You could call pretty much any group of people you don’t like ugly and be right according to rigid beauty standards. So, the way people in any particular group look means absolutely nothing.
Also, isn’t NowherePants one of the people who revealed himself as a troll by sympathizing with incels who are supposedly not enough for all the evil shallow women? Gotta love the double standard.
@WWTH
Yup, I’m pretty sure he is.
And I’m starting to wonder how many of the bros who do this are bad faith actors. I mean, if I were a reactionary who wanted to sow some chaos and make trans folk and their allies look bad…
Opsec: always worth thinking about.
@ nowhere:
To echo the comments of others, gee that was refreshing, I hope you can the same insightful analysis on other topics as well…. (/s)
I’ve been seeing commentary lately that TERFs are nascent-to-actual white supremacists, whose pathway to white supremacy is transphobia rather than racism, immigration, or antisemitism.
I’m not sure if that’s actually true, since few if any of them would take well to the idea of being reduced to breeding stock… unless that’s mostly just Andrew Anglin, and mainstream white supremacy somehow became moderately “white feminist” without my noticing. Still, there do seem to be similarities. The real question here being whether there’s an actual connection, or if it’s just shared traits and hatreds common to many groups of bigots.
Nowherepants, please gowearpants somewhere far, far away from here.
Thanks.
TERFs are awful due to their philosophy, not their physical attributes.
Thanks, but no thanks; that list is probably 99% bullshit anyway. I’d prefer that you FARTs just go fuck yourselves. Preferably someplace where there is no internet to observe you in the act.