“What Is a Woman? The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism”

Michelle Goldberg’s recent article for The New Yorker, “What Is a Woman? The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism,” is an account of the fight between certain radical feminists and transgender women over whether or not transgender women should be included in women-only spaces.  Goldberg’s tone is very fair and even-handed, but those familiar with the debate will detect a definite bias in favor of the radical feminist position. Readers interested in getting a fuller picture of the debate should also read the open letter to The New Yorker penned by transgender activist Julia Serano, which provides some necessary context for understanding Goldberg’s article.

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“What Is a Woman? The dispute between radical feminism and transgenderism” — 1 Comment

  1. Despite her rambling I think Serano is spot on with the thrust of her letter. TERF transphobia goes way beyond merely wishing to exclude transwomen from women-only spaces. It often amounts to outright vilification of transwomen, not least in ‘progressive’ media outlets such as The Guardian, which employs several TERF columnists.

    And as Serano points out, many TERFs extend their vilification of female minorities way beyond the transgender community to include bisexual women, ‘femmes’, Muslim women, sex workers and sex-positive feminists.

    However I dislike the term TERF (trans-exclusive radical feminists), not because I accept their own term for themselves (man-exclusive radical feminists) but because I think their bigotry is profoundly reactionary and refuse to dignify them with the appellation “radical”. If their ‘radicalism’ is the solution then I am definitely part of the (intersectional) problem and intend to remain so.

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