Week 6
terfs and swerfs
Key Questions
What is trans-exclusionary radical feminism and sex-worker-exclusionary radical feminism? How do these ideologies overlap and interact?
What are ways in which feminists seek to police and criminalize trans people and sex workers? How are these measures harmful?
How can TERFS and SWERFs be situated within a broader fascist alliance? How does their rhetoric and actions support fascism?
Required Materials:
Alison Phipps, Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism, “Feminists and the Far Right”
Sophie Lewis, “SERF ‘n’ TERF”
Jude Ellison Doyle, “How the Far-Right Is Turning Feminists Into Fascists”
Supplementary Materials:
Elizabeth Bernstein, Brokered Subjects: Sex, Trafficking, and the Politics of Freedom, “The Sexual Politics of Carceral Feminism”
Crystal Jackson, Jennifer Reed, and Barbara Brents, Feminism, Prostitution, and the State: The Politics of Neo-Abolitionism, “Strange Confluences: Radical Feminism and Evangelical Christianity as Drivers of US Neo-Abolitionism”
Robyn Maynard, “Carceral Feminism: The Failure of Sex Work Prohibition”
Juno Mac and Holly Smith, Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers’ Rights, “Borders”
Elizabeth Nolan Brown, "The New Campaign for a Sex-Free Internet"
Katelyn Burns, “The Rise of Anti-Trans ‘Radical’ Feminists, Explained”
Katelyn Burns, "Why Republicans Are Suddenly In a Rush to Regulate Every Trans Kid's Puberty"
Katie Baker, "The Road to Terfdom"
Judith Butler, "Why Is the Idea of 'Gender' Provoking Backlash the World Over?"
Melissa Gira Grant, “Republicans Are Already Trying to Pass as Many Anti-Trans Bills as Possible in 2022”
Melissa Gira Grant, "Texas's Attorney General Is Laying the Groundwork to Separate Trans Kids From Their Families"
Roxanna Asgarian, "She Supported Her Child Being Trans. So the State Separated Them."
Shon Faye, The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice, “The Ugly Sister: Trans People in Feminsm”
Dean Spade, Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, “Administrating Gender”