Not TERFs, but TERFism: Marxism Against Radical Feminism

It is become common practice among those committed to the great task of combatting all oppression to refer to transphobic feminist icons, such as Germaine Greer, and their less well-known followers as TERFs (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) in order to contrast them with Marxists and other feminists who acknowledge the existence of transgender and non-binary individuals and strive for their liberation. However, although speaking in terms of TERFs is undoubtedly useful in terms of identifying specifically transphobic individuals and  groups (such as Greer or the supporters of the Feminist Current website), it is ultimately both insufficient and misleading. The question at issue is not one of a handful of radical feminists succumbing to the transphobia inherent in the hegemonic ideology, as discussions of TERFs would seem to indicate and as could happen to individual supporters of even the most anti-oppressive philosophy, but of transphobia being necessarily woven into the theoretical structure of radical feminism itself. Discussion of trans-exclusionary radical feminists falls into the same category as discussion of female-exclusionary sexists or black-exclusionary KKK members; just as there are no and can be no sexists or racists who are inclusive to the concerns of women or oppressed ethnic groups, there are no and can be no radical feminists who are not, in the end, transphobic. Someone who lays claim to the mantle of radical feminism while being too polite, politically savvy, or intellectually inconsistent to express transphobic sentiments in the same terms as the Feminist Current website or Cathy Brennan find themselves in company with KKK members who fervently deny being racists or those who insist Donald Trump loves Mexicans. The question, then, must immediately be asked: precisely what is is about radical feminist theory at necessitates and sustains transphobic conclusions?

 

The answer comes in terms of the basic analytical framework radical feminism uses to explain the world. It has always been the contention that the world is inflexibly divided into two categories- men and women- one of which, men, oppresses the other, women. For the consistent radical feminist this oppression is not founded on, sustained by, or created by any other external condition, such as material-economic relations as Marxists argue, but exists as a thing-for-itself and with reference to itself. That is to say the oppressive relation between men and women, which undoubtedly exists, can only be explained with in terms of men and women themselves- their physical relations, ideas, and norms of behavior- if radical feminism is held to be true. Furthermore, this oppressive relationship is asserted to be foundational to all other oppressions. Radical feminists are necessarily unable to frame this argument in strictly materialist terms, as that would result in concluding that the oppression of women is both natural and immutable, and have therefore resorted to using idealist philosophical concepts to frame concepts of women’s oppression (referring, for instance, to the invention of rape as a concrete historical moment- as if ancient hunter-gathers sat around their campfires discussing whether such a thing was possible and if it could be practically carried out).

 

This idealist, binary, and immutable framework excludes the existence of non-binary individuals and, at best, problematizes the transition from man to woman or vice versa. The most simplistic and consistent position for radical feminists to take is that both transgender and non-binary individuals do not exist, that ‘men’ who claim to be women are engaging in an oppressive exercise of power, and that ‘women’ who claim to be men are cowards and traitors willing to sacrifice other women for their own selfish ends. Marxism, of course, opposes all this. It has always been the Marxian thesis that oppression must be analyzed in materialist terms, that the starting point of any attempt to examine social organization must begin with the underlying relations of production and consumption  and must rigorously build up from that. Marxists acknowledge the dynamic nature of society, examining the transitions from one form of society to another and revolutionary impulses that give rise to those changes. Oppressive relationships are neither immutable nor self-referential, but come into being and fade away in accordance with changes in the material world. The oppression and existence of transgender and non-binary people can then be recognized and struggle against. Marxism is not only scientifically valuable, but necessary for taking a consistent anti-opressive stance.