The Anti-Feminism of Anti-Trans Feminism

Tudor, Alyosxa

Abstract

Trans-exclusionary feminists are using the trope of ‘protecting women’ as their main weapon while accusing trans-inclusive feminisms of misogyny. It is a rhetorical figure that we can call ‘the weaponization of accusations of violence’. And we witness it as a strategy cutting across many contexts, for example, blanket accusations of anti-Semitism against anti-Zionists, accusations of Hinduphobia to shut down resistance against Hindutva, and accusations of misogyny and sexual violence against transfeminism or trans-inclusive feminism. In this article, I discuss such accusations of violence together with examples that demonstrate that they often come with an absolute incapacity to conceive of the most basic intersectional analysis. I argue that trans-exclusionary feminism is getting the very paradigms of what misogyny is and what kind of intersectional, transnational feminisms are needed to fight it, completely wrong. With this, anti-trans feminism reveals itself to be inherently anti-feminist. We are currently witnessing a supernational unification of far right, centrist and leftist agents using anti-gender, anti-feminist and transphobic mobilisations, populist affects and strategic disinformation as accelerators for hateful and anti-democratic agendas. Ultimately, this leads to a consolidation of the global shift to the right.

Citation

Tudor, A. (2023). The Anti-Feminism of Anti-Trans Feminism. European Journal of Women's Studies, 30(2), 290-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505068231164217

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 22, 2023
• Publication Date: May 6, 2023
• Deposit Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 2, 2023
• Journal: European Journal of Women's Studies
• Print ISSN: 1350-5068
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7420
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 290-302
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/13505068231164217
• Keywords: transfeminism; queer feminism; lesbian feminism; abolition; intersectionality; anti-gender attacks; gender ideology; trans-exclusionary feminism; anti-feminism
• Publisher URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13505068231164217