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Terfs are fond of the Suffragettes, and often talk about the good old days of feminism. So I went on a bit of a search into how women's suffrage movements were painted. And it's the clear parallels between anti-suffrage and anti-trans discourse are eye-opening.
A thread. 1/
A thread. 1/
A warning: this thread is going to discuss extreme misogyny and extreme transphobia, because it's important to see how symbolic and emotional violence were and continue to be wielded against liberation struggles. But please don't read on if that might be upsetting for you. 2/
Terfs regularly paint trans women as any combination of aggressive, male, or sexual deviants. Trans people or 'trans rights activists' (as they call us) are seen as an irrational, vocal, violent minority who want to be the centre of attention. We are also a threat to children. 3/
What's interesting is that women who fought for the vote were depicted in pretty much ALL of these ways: masculine, irrational, violent, sexual deviants, attention-seeking, a threat to children, and not representative of most women. Unconvinced? Let's take a look. 4/
Anti-women's suffrage propaganda focuses on both suffragettes and a hypothetical world where women have the vote. In both of these, women are consistently depicted as masculine, or as men. Take a look at these. Note the explicit reference to the 'masculine woman'. 5/
Anti-women's suffrage propaganda paints women as men to express a deep fear that women's rights will a) imply an attack on men, and b) lead to the end of the sexes, which must be protected at all costs. Sound familiar? Note the use of 'epicene' and 'unsexing' here. 6/
This fear of the dissolution of the sexes, and of gender roles, comes through in depictions of men being emasculated. And crucially, those depictions tend to express emasculation by painting women as violent, and using their new rights to be violent to men. 7/
It's not just in their homes and relationships that women are shown to be violent. They also regularly feature as a violent mob, as criminal - attacking the police and defacing buildings - and as enacting wanton destruction. Check out how 'militant suffragettes' are described. 8/
Showing wanton destruction is about presenting women as not only violent, but also irrational. A big part of anti-women's suffrage propaganda was about showing that women don't have the mental capacity to vote, or that those who want to vote are delusional. 9/
Suffragettes are shown time and time again as childlike and hot-headed. They are often painted as wanting to vote because they haven't received enough attention from men, or just generally as attention-seekers who are fabricating an issue for attention. Ring any bells? 10/
Another common trope found in anti-suffrage propaganda is the idea that women's suffrage will normalise sexual deviancy: lesbianism, adultery, 'loose' women. Women are depicted as sexual deviants to spread fear, and to delegitimise their claims to rights. 11/
All of these things come together in one of the main anti-suffrage claims: that women's rights are incompatible with the family, with having children, and with social stability. Many of the images feature broken homes, and men left alone to look after the home and children. 12/
Many of these images work emotively to tap into a deep societal fear that children are going to be harmed. The message is clear: women's liberation is a danger to children. They weaponise children's well-being against a liberation struggle. Where have we seen that before? 13/
Of course, this isn't the only struggle where these kinds of images and arguments have been used to undermine liberation. It's not my place to share racist imagery, but here's some anti-gay propaganda. 'Boys Beware' is a 1955 educational film that shows gay men as predators. 14/
I've focused on women here because: a) it's who terfs claim to fight for, b) they often use suffragette imagery, and c) terf ideology and its proponents are often homophobic and racist. Unfortunately, parallels with anti-gay or racist propaganda won't be as effective. 15/
What I've tried to show is that terfs are using the exact same arguments and imagery against trans people as were used against women who fought for liberation. They're tapping into the exact same societal fears. The *exact* same. And that's food for thought. 16/
The common factor here is power. People in power have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Terfs are cisgender women, and so hold power over trans people. They reproduce the same ideas found in anti-suffrage propaganda because they too want to retain their power. 17/
We shouldn't have to invest our time and energy in order to dismantle the arguments used to undermine our struggle for liberation. But we do, and I have here, so I'd appreciate it if you could share this, especially with anyone who believes these myths about trans people.
End.
End.
An addendum: I forgot to show how often the argument that suffragettes only represent a tiny proportion of women is wielded against them. The narrative that there is a tiny but vocal minority making trouble against the will of them majority will sound familiar to trans people.
