Editing Radical feminism (section)

==Views on transgender topics==
{{further|Feminist views on transgender topics}}

Since the 1970s, there has been a debate among radical feminists about [[transgender]] identities.<ref name="newyorker">{{cite magazine|last1=Goldberg|first1=Michelle|title=What Is a Woman?|magazine=The New Yorker|date=August 4, 2014|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/woman-2|access-date=November 20, 2015}}</ref> Some radical feminists, such as [[Catharine MacKinnon]], [[John Stoltenberg]], [[Andrea Dworkin]], [[Monique Wittig]], and [[Finn Mackay]] have supported recognition of [[trans women]] as women, which they describe as ''trans-inclusive'' feminism,<ref name="Abeni">{{cite news |last1=Abeni |first1=Cleis |date=3 February 2016 |title=New History Project Unearths Radical Feminism's Trans-Affirming Roots |language=en |work=The Advocate |url=http://www.advocate.com/think-trans/2016/2/03/new-history-project-unearths-radical-feminisms-trans-affirming-roots |access-date=10 June 2017}}</ref><ref name="TransAdvocate">{{Cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Cristan |date=April 7, 2015 |title=Sex, Gender, and Sexuality: The TransAdvocate interviews Catharine A. MacKinnon |url=http://www.transadvocate.com/sex-gender-and-sexuality-the-transadvocate-interviews-catharine-a-mackinnon_n_15037.htm |access-date=14 January 2016 |website=TransAdvocate}}</ref><ref name="WilliamsTSQ">{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Cristan |date=May 2016 |title=Radical Inclusion: Recounting the Trans Inclusive History of Radical Feminism |journal=Transgender Studies Quarterly |volume=3 |issue=1–2 |doi=10.1215/23289252-3334463 |issn=2328-9252|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Andrea Dworkin Was a Trans Ally |url=https://bostonreview.net/articles/john-stoltenberg-andrew-dworkin-was-trans-ally/ |access-date=2022-07-08 |journal=Boston Review |date=8 April 2020 |language=en-US |last1=Stoltenberg |first1=John }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dworkin |first=Andrea |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/724386 |title=Woman hating |date=1974 |isbn=0-525-47423-4 |edition=First |location=New York |publisher=[[E. P. Dutton]] |pages=186 |oclc=724386}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Jolly |first1=Margaretta |title=Sisterhood and After: An Oral History of the UK Women's Liberation Movement, 1968-present |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-065884-7 |page=187 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=A7SmDwAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Courrier des idées. Ce qui fait débat dans le genre |url=https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/courrier-des-idees-ce-qui-fait-debat-dans-le-genre |work=[[Courrier International]] |date=2 January 2022 |access-date=21 September 2022 |language=fr |trans-title=Mail of ideas. What is debated in the genre}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author= Catharine A. MacKinnon|date=November 28, 2022|title=Exploring Transgender Law and Politics|url=https://signsjournal.org/exploring-transgender-law-and-politics/#_ftnref36 |access-date=2023-07-18 |website=Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society |language=en-US}}</ref> while others like [[Mary Daly]], [[Janice Raymond]], [[Robin Morgan]], [[Germaine Greer]], [[Sheila Jeffreys]], [[Julie Bindel]], and [[Robert W. Jensen|Robert Jensen]], have argued that the transgender movement perpetuates patriarchal gender norms and is incompatible with radical feminist ideology.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Daly |first1=Mary |url=https://archive.org/details/gynecologymetae000daly |title=Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism |date=1978 |publisher=[[Beacon Press]] |isbn=978-0807015100 |edition=1990 |location=Boston |lccn=78053790}}</ref><ref name="newyorker" /><ref name="Pomerleau">{{cite book |last1=Pomerleau |first1=Clark A. |title=Califia Women: Feminist Education against Sexism, Classism, and Racism |date=2013 |publisher=[[University of Texas Press]] |isbn=978-0292752948 |location=Austin, Texas |pages=28–29 |chapter=1}}</ref><ref name="Jensen2015">{{cite news |last1=Jensen |first1=Robert |date=June 5, 2015 |title=A transgender problem for diversity politics |work=The Dallas Morning News |url=http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20150605-robert-jensen-a-transgender-problem-for-diversity-politics.ece |access-date=November 20, 2015}}</ref>

Those who exclude trans women from womanhood or women's spaces commonly refer to themselves as ''gender critical''<ref name="Goldberg 2015">{{cite magazine |last1=Goldberg |first1=Michelle |title=The Trans Women Who Say That Trans Women Aren't Women |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/12/gender-critical-trans-women-the-apostates-of-the-trans-rights-movement.html |access-date=12 April 2019 |magazine=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |date=9 December 2015}}</ref><ref name="Flaherty 2018">{{cite web |last1=Flaherty |first1=Colleen |title='TERF' War |url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/29/philosophers-object-journals-publication-terf-reference-some-feminists-it-really |access-date=12 April 2019 |website=[[Inside Higher Ed]] |date=29 August 2018}}</ref> and are referred to by others as trans-exclusionary.<ref name="Compton">{{cite news |last1=Compton |first1=Julie |title='Pro-lesbian' or 'trans-exclusionary'? Old animosities boil into public view |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/pro-lesbian-or-trans-exclusionary-old-animosities-boil-public-view-n958456 |access-date=12 April 2019 |publisher=[[NBC News]] |date=14 January 2019}}</ref> Radical feminists who hold gender-critical views are often referred to as "[[trans-exclusionary radical feminists]]" or "[[TERF (acronym)|TERF]]s",<ref name="Flaherty 2018" /><ref name="Goldberg 2015" /><ref name="Compton" /><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Williams |first1=Cristan |date=2016-05-01 |title=Radical Inclusion Recounting the Trans Inclusive History of Radical Feminism |journal=[[Transgender Studies Quarterly]] |language=en |volume=3 |issue=1–2 |pages=254–258 |doi=10.1215/23289252-3334463 |issn=2328-9252|doi-access=free }}</ref> an acronym to which they object,<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/02/are-you-now-or-have-you-ever-been-terf|title=Are you now or have you ever been a TERF? |last1=MacDonald |first1=Terry |date=16 February 2015 |magazine=[[New Statesman|New Statesman America]]}}</ref> say is inaccurate (citing, for example, their inclusion of [[trans men]] as women),<ref name="Flaherty 2018" /> and argue is a [[pejorative|slur]] or even [[hate speech]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Goldberg |first1=Michelle |title=What Is a Woman? |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |date=4 August 2014 |url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/04/woman-2 |access-date=November 20, 2015 |quote=TERF stands for "trans-exclusionary radical feminist". The term can be useful for making a distinction with radical feminists who do not share the same position, but those at whom it is directed consider it a slur.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.feministcurrent.com/2017/09/21/terf-isnt-slur-hate-speech/ |title='TERF' isn't just a slur, it's hate speech |last1=Murphy |first1=Meghan E. |publisher=Feminist Current |date=September 21, 2017 |quote=If "TERF" were a term that conveyed something purposeful, accurate, or useful, beyond simply smearing, silencing, insulting, discriminating against, or inciting violence, it could perhaps be considered neutral or harmless. But because the term itself is politically dishonest and misrepresentative, and because its intent is to vilify, disparage, and intimidate, as well as to incite and justify violence against women, it is dangerous and indeed qualifies as a form of hate speech. While women have tried to point out that this would be the end result of "TERF" before, they were, as usual, dismissed. We now have undeniable proof that painting women with this brush leads to real, physical violence. If you didn't believe us before, you now have no excuse.}}</ref>

[[Gender-critical]] or trans-exclusionary radical feminists in particular say that the difference in behavior between men and women is the result of [[socialization]], and the idea that someone would have an inborn sense of [[femininity]] or [[masculinity]] runs contrary to the theory of gender socialization. [[Lierre Keith]] describes femininity as "a set of behaviors that are, in essence, ritualized submission",<ref name="newyorker" /> and hence, gender is not an identity but a caste position, and the philosophies of [[gender identity]] (specifically the feminine essence philosophy) are an obstacle to the [[Postgenderism|abolition of gender]] and a reversion to a sex-based society.<ref name="newyorker" /> [[Julie Bindel]] argued in 2008 that Iran carries out the highest number of sex-change operations in the world, because "surgery is an attempt to keep [[gender stereotypes]] intact", and that "it is precisely this idea that certain distinct behaviours are appropriate for males and females that underlies feminist criticism of the phenomenon of 'transgenderism'."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20171201082357/https://idgeofreason.wordpress.com/2013/09/12/2008-statement-from-julie-bindel/ "2008 Statement from Julie Bindel"], courtesy of idgeofreason.wordpress.com.</ref><ref name="CSOTP">{{Cite news|last1=Grew |first1=Tony |title=Celebs split over trans protest at Stonewall Awards |url=http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9523.html |work=[[PinkNews]] |date=7 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629093225/http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-9523.html |archive-date=June 29, 2011 |url-status=dead}}</ref> According to the BBC in 2014, there are no reliable figures regarding gender reassignment operations in Iran.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hamedani|first1=Ali|title=The gay people pushed to change their gender|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29832690|work=BBC News|date=5 November 2014|quote=There is no reliable information on the number of gender reassignment operations carried out in Iran.}}</ref>

In 1978, the [[Lesbian Organization of Toronto]] voted to become [[womyn-born womyn]] only and wrote:

<blockquote>A woman's voice was almost never heard as a woman's voice—it was always filtered through men's voices. So here a guy comes along saying, "I'm going to be a girl now and speak for girls." And we thought, "No you're not." A person cannot just join the oppressed by fiat.<ref name="ross1995">Ross, Becki (1995). ''The House that Jill Built: A Lesbian Nation in Formation.'' University of Toronto Press, {{ISBN|978-0-8020-7479-9}}.</ref></blockquote>

In ''[[The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male]]'' (1979), the lesbian radical feminist [[Janice Raymond]] argued that "All transsexuals rape women's bodies by reducing
the real female form to an artifact, appropriating this body for themselves. However, the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist violates women's sexuality and spirit, as well. Rape, although it is usually done by force, can also be accomplished by deception. It is significant that in the case of the transsexually constructed lesbian-feminist, often he is able to gain entrance and a dominant position in women's spaces because the women involved do not know he is a transsexual and he just does not happen to mention it."<ref>{{cite book|last1=Raymond |first1=Janice G. |title=The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male |date=1994 |edition=Revised |page=104 |publisher=[[Teachers College Press]] |location=New York |isbn=0807762725}}</ref> In ''The Whole Woman'' (1999), [[Germaine Greer]] wrote that largely male governments "recognise as women men who believe that they are women&nbsp;... because [those governments] see women not as another sex but as a non-sex"; she continued that if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were a mandatory part of sex-change operations, the latter "would disappear overnight".<ref name="Greer2009">{{cite book|title=The Whole Woman|author=Germaine Greer|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|year=1999|isbn=978-0-307-56113-8|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ymJArTm2CAIC&pg=PT101 101]}}</ref> A 2021 survey of trans women found that 90% believed a uterus transplant would improve their quality of life, and 88% believed the ability to menstruate would enhance their perception of their femininity. Barring technical obstacles, this casts very significant doubt on the claim that sex reasignment surgery would stop if uterus-and-ovaries transplants were necessary for it.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Benjamin P. |first2=Abirami |last2=Rajamanoharan |first3=Saaliha |last3=Vali |title=Perceptions and Motivations for Uterus Transplant in Transgender Women |journal=JAMA Network |date=20 January 2021 |volume=33 |issue=3 |page=182 |doi=10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.34561 |url=https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2775302 |pmc=7818101 }}</ref>

[[Sheila Jeffreys]] argued in 1997 that "the vast majority of transsexuals still subscribe to the traditional [[stereotype]] of women" and that by [[transitioning (transgender)|transitioning]] they are "constructing a conservative fantasy of what women should be&nbsp;... an essence of womanhood which is deeply insulting and restrictive."<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Jeffreys|first1=Sheila|year=1997|title=Transgender Activism: A Lesbian Feminist Perspective|url=http://www.rapereliefshelter.bc.ca/sites/default/files/imce/Transgender%20Activism%20A%20Lesbian%20Feminist%20Perspective%20by%20Sheila%20Jeffreys%2C%20Journal%20of%20Lesbian%20Studies%201997%5B1%5D.pdf|journal=The Journal of Lesbian Studies|doi=10.1300/J155v01n03_03}}</ref> In ''Gender Hurts'' (2014), she referred to [[sex reassignment surgery]] as "self-mutilation",{{sfn|Jeffreys|2014|pp=68–71}} and used pronouns that refer to sex assigned at birth. Jeffreys argued that feminists need to know "the biological sex of those who claim to be women and promote prejudicial versions of what constitutes womanhood", and that the "use by men of feminine pronouns conceals the masculine privilege bestowed upon them by virtue of having been placed in and brought up in the male sex caste".{{sfn|Jeffreys|2014|p=9}}<ref name="newyorker" />

By contrast, trans-inclusive radical feminists claim that a biology-based or sex-essentialist ideology itself upholds patriarchal constructions of womanhood. Others assert that trans women also contributed to the feminist movement, and [[Susan Stryker]] stated that "transsexual women were active in the radical feminist movement of the late 1960s, but were almost entirely erased from its history after 1973" due to pushback from gender-critical feminists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stryker |first=Susan |date=2008-09-15 |title=Stray Thoughts on Transgender Feminism and the Barnard Conference on Women |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10714420802306726 |journal=The Communication Review |volume=11 |issue=3 |pages=217–218 |doi=10.1080/10714420802306726 |s2cid=145011138 |issn=1071-4421}}</ref> Andrea Dworkin argued as early as 1974 that transgender people and gender identity research have the potential to radically undermine patriarchal sex essentialism:

<blockquote>...work with transsexuals, and studies of formation of gender identity in children provide basic information which challenges the notion that there are two discrete biological sexes. That information threatens to transform the traditional biology of sex difference into the radical biology of sex similarity. That is not to say that there is one sex, but that there are many. The evidence which is germane here is simple. The words "male" and "female", "man" and "woman", are used only because as yet there are no others.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Dworkin|first1=Andrea|title=Woman Hating|date=1974|pages=175–176|chapter=Androgyny: Androgyny, Fucking, and Community|publisher=[[E. P. Dutton]]|location=New York|isbn=0-525-47423-4|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/womanhating00dwor/page/175}}</ref></blockquote>

In the late 2010s, interest in the issue of trans-inclusive feminism rose as trans acceptance gained headway. In 2015, radical feminist Catharine MacKinnon said:

<blockquote>Male dominant society has defined women as a discrete biological group forever. If this was going to produce liberation, we'd be free&nbsp;... To me, women is a political group. I never had much occasion to say that, or work with it, until the last few years when there has been a lot of discussion about whether trans women are women&nbsp;... I always thought I don't care how someone becomes a woman or a man; it does not matter to me. It is just part of their specificity, their uniqueness, like everyone else's. Anybody who identifies as a woman, wants to be a woman, is going around being a woman, as far as I'm concerned, is a woman.<ref name="TransAdvocate" /></blockquote>