Trans

Trans (pronounced trans or tranz)

(1) A person who identifies as transgender (though now the polite use seems to be as a modifier (trans-man, trans-woman, trans-gender and not always hyphenated), the prefix denoting “on the other side of,” referring to the misalignment of one’s gender identity with one's sex assigned at birth.

(2) As an offensive slur, a historic term for a transsexual (itself a now less common term) and often used as “trannie” (which tended to be non-offensive if used within the transsexual community).  As a slur, both trans and trannie are sometimes used (often technically incorrectly) as expressions of general disapprobation of anybody perceived as maintaining an identity outside traditionally constructed gender norms.

(3) In chemistry, in (or constituting, forming, or describing) a double bond in which the greater radical on both ends is on the opposite side of the bond.

(4) In chemistry, in (or constituting, forming, or describing) a coordination compound in which the two instances of a particular ligand are on opposite sides of the central atom (eg the trans effect is the labilization of ligands which are trans to certain other ligands).

(5) In cytology, of the side of the Golgi apparatus farther from the endoplasmic reticulum.

(6) In the slang of mechanics and certain mechanical engineers, a shorting of “transmission” (an intermediate input/output device between a power unit and its eventual delivery), sometimes also truncated as “tranny” (both dating back at least decades).

Mid-late twentieth century: Transsexual appears in the literature in 1953 but then it had the meaning "intense desire to change one's sexual status, including the anatomical structure" but as early as 1941 “transsexuality” was being used to describe both "homosexuality & bisexuality".  In the current sense it has existed since 1955 but for decades the older uses overlapped.  The prefix trans- is from the Latin trāns (adverb and preposition) (across, beyond, through) from the Proto-Italic trānts, from the primitive Indo-European tr̥h-n̥ts, from terh- (through, throughout, over).  It was cognate with the English through, the Scots throch (through), the West Frisian troch (through), the Dutch door (through), the German durch (through), the Gothic þairh (through), the Albanian tërthor (through, around) and the Welsh tra (through).  Trans is a noun and adjective, the noun plural historically was transes but as trans has become a notable component of identity politics, trans is now often used, especially collectively.  The noun transness is a recent coining and although they’re still non-standard forms, (sometimes jocular) creations such as transbionic & transnessness) have and will continue to be created but it doesn’t seem that transitivity (either (1) the rule in formal grammar which defines the degree in which any one verb can take/govern objects or (2) in mathematics and formal logic, the property of being transitive) has yet in this context been re-purposed. 

The prefix trans- most occurs in loanwords from the Latin (transcend; transfix) and the model imparts meanings related to “across,” “beyond,” “through,” “changing thoroughly,” “transverse,” in combination with elements of any origin: transubstantiation; trans-Siberian; transempirical etc.  In chemistry, the prefix indicating that a chemical compound has a molecular structure in which two groups or atoms are on opposite sides of a double bond trans-butadiene and there does seem to be a widely followed convention in chemistry that trans is written in italics.  In astronomy the prefix denotes something farther from the sun (than a given planet), thus the terms trans-Martian; trans-Neptunian etc.  In genetics, it refers to having two genes, each carrying a mutation, located on opposite chromosomes of a homologous pair.  Transylvania (literally "beyond the forest) was from the Medieval Latin, the construct being trans- + sylva (the geographical area referenced); it was so-called in reference to the wooded mountains that surround it.  The pop-culture associations with vampires make the place famous.  The title of Giuseppe Verdi's (1813–1901) 1853 Opera La traviata (literally “the woman led astray”) but usually translated as “The Fallen Woman” is from traviata ("to lead beyond the way”) from tra- (across, beyond), from the Latin trāns.  English has many words either influenced by or which trans is a part including Trans-Atlantic, trans-oceanic, transnational, transsexual, translocation, transpontine, transliteration, transept, transect, transducer, transmit, transfer, transit, transmute, translucent, transform, transverse, transfuse, transitive, transcribe, transubstantiation, transplant, transcend, transfigure, transgress, transfix, transact, transmutation, transpire, transient, transfusion, transparent, transport, travesty, transpose, transgression, translate, transmigration, transaction & trajectory.

The state commonly called Jordan (الأردن in the the Arabic (Al-ʾUrdunn)) is officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  In one of the classic colonial fixes at which the British (through long practice) used to be really good, the Emirate of Transjordan was created in 1921 as a British protectorate, independence granted in 1946 as the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan, renamed in 1949 to its present name to celebrate the capture of the West Bank during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, held as annexed territory until lost in the six-day war in 1967, the claim not renounced until 1988 as part of a peace treaty with the state of Israel.  The name of Jordan is from the Jordan River which forms much of its northwestern border, the name though derived from the Hebrew ירד (Yarad) (one who descends), a reference to the waterway’s physical geography.  The name “Transjordan” wasn’t actually an invention of the British Colonial Office but an adoption of a geographical expression in use for centuries meaning “across the Jordan” and used, historically, to denote the lands east of the river.

The trans wars

The terms transgender and trans (in this context) are technically interchangeable but so fraught are the politics of identity that some may have objections to either and the general rule is to conform to whichever preference is expressed.  The developments have been so rapid in the early twenty-first century that trans has attracted the interest of the linguistics community and its been noted there are transgender people who prefer writing trans compounds as two words (ie trans man, trans woman, trans person), and when used as an open compound with a space, trans functions as an adjective modifying a noun.  Although to many it may seem a fine distinction, spelling these words as closed or hyphenated compounds (transmale, trans-woman etc) loses the distinction between trans as a descriptive adjective and man, woman, or person as a human being and on that basis cis male and cis female would be preferred although there’s no evidence of concern from the CIS community except those who assert the concept is unnecessary and add nothing to male & female.

The second "A" in LGBTQQIAAOP refers to "allies" (straight people who accept and support those anywhere in the LGBTQQIAAOP range(s)).  What allies do is actively support or advocate for the non-straight community; it does not apply to those who merely "don't oppose".  In supporting the queer participation in film, Ms Logan is an ally.

There is also trans+, dating from 2003, which doesn’t as such add a new category to gender fluidity but instead acts (mostly adjectively) as an expression of inclusiveness, an all-encompassing blanket term covering all specific gender identities which are not cisgender and (more controversially), is used by some even to include "allies" (in the sense of the second "A" in LGBTQQIAAOP) from the among the CIS.  The emergence of the concept of trans+ may have been political, a desire to avoid the internal divisions which have been documented between the LGBTQQIAAOP factions although the extent to which another constructed (and by some perhaps imposed) label can be effective in limiting the fissiparousness which may to some extent have been at least encouraged by the dictatorial implications of the label LGBTQQIAAOP is debatable.

What trans+ does is add to the (narrowly defined ) trans community (the range of gender identities including transgender, genderqueer, gender-fluid etc) the genderless, the agender, the subgender, the postgender, the bigender, the varigender and (presumably) whatever other flavors may emerge from the seemingly expanding spectrum(s) among the non-cisgender.  Another intriguing innovation, noted first in 2017 was the appending of the asterisk, presumably as a wildcard as used (since circa 1969) when handling the searching of computer file systems but linguistically, trans*, trans+* & trans*+ don’t appear in any way to change the meaning of trans+ and should probably be thought of as a strengthening of the denotation of inclusiveness.  That said, within any community (however defined), there will always be those who long for (an exclusionary) exclusivity for their faction so it’s not impossible that trans+ may yet fracture.  Transgender Day of Visibility is celebrated every 31 March, the day set aside to advocate for and celebrate the accomplishments of transgender persons, one right wing US politician who made no secret of their transphobia opining that if it has to exist, it should be moved to 29 February.

TERF but not teal: The photogenic Katherine Deves for whom green is green and  blue is blue and never the twain shall meet.

Unexpectedly, transphobia emerged as an issue in the 2022 Australian general election.  Ms Katherine Deves (b 1978; lawyer and candidate (Liberal) for the division of Warringah (NSW)), the personal selection (“captain’s pick” in the sporting parlance borrowed by politics) as candidate by Prime Minister Scott Morrison (b 1968; prime-minister since 2018) excited controversy firstly by expressing a view that trans-women should not be allowed to compete in sporting competition against cis-women because of the advantages in strength she said their origins as cis-men inherently conferred, regardless of any subsequent treatment.  That was enough to excite a reaction on twitter but things really erupted when historic social media posts were leaked, including “half of all males with trans identities are sex offenders”, referring to (gay) surrogacy as “prostitution”, suggesting a link between “transvestism and serial killers”, claiming trans teenagers were “surgically mutilated” and describing a gay magazine as “… just a mouthpiece for misogynists and the Rainbow Reich.”  Given comparing anything to the Nazis is best left to consenting historians behind closed doors, that might have been expected to trigger another twitterstorm but reaction was untypically subdued, the issue of transphobia seemingly drowning out everything else.  The US president had also caught her eye.  Disturbed by his pro-trans position, she posted that she didn't "...believe Biden is capable of thinking much at all, he’s clearly showing signs of dementia’’ although she refused to accept his views were sincere and he was forced by political necessity to pander to the “very powerful and incredibly dangerous” transgender activists within the Democratic Party.

Demonstration in the Warringah electorate by the Community Action for Rainbow Rights to protest the Liberal Party’s endorsement of Ms Deves as their candidate.

Ms Deves, a self-described TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist) issued a statement in which she acknowledged that “…trying to prosecute arguments about complex, nuanced and difficult subjects ... should not take place on a platform that propagates offence and division and hurt.” “Going forward…” she added, “I will be conducting myself in a dignified and respectful fashion”, noting that twitter “…was not the appropriate platform to do so.”  “I have removed myself from that platform, and I will not be going back there again.”  “With this issue, we have a collision of rights and thus far the voices of women and girls have not been heard. And when we have a collision of rights in liberal democracies, we debate them in a reasonable, measured fashion – that's what should have taken place here.”

It wasn’t a difficult statement to deconstruct, Ms Deves, who previously had also condemned surrogacy as a “human rights violation” not retreating from or recanting her expressed opinions, just saying they’d no longer appear on twitter.  Mr Morrison, not previously noted for any contribution to feminist thought, seemed grateful finally to have stumbled on such a champion of women’s rights and declared “She is a woman standing up for women and girls and their access to fair sport in this country”, adding “I am not going to allow her to be silenced.”

Nor it seems, shortly, will twitter.  Ms Deves may be joyful about libertarian Elon Musk's (b 1971) plans to overthrow the censorious ancien régime at twitter and may yet return to the platform but it may be a moot point whether her advocacy in the matter of women’s sport is anyway an example of transphobia.  That discussion is solely about participation in sporting competitions restricted to “women”, there being no debate about the right of trans-persons to enter events restricted to “men”.  The issue therefore is not one of a generalized transphobia but rather "transwomanphobia" although that does seem no less objectionable.  However, regardless of the syntax, it’s not something which is going to go away soon because the medical and legal devices adopted by sporting codes and the anti-doping agencies have not satisfied everybody and it may be no such solution exists.  The dispute remains afoot.

The Warringah electorate has existed in essentially its present form since a 1922 redistribution (re-districting) and has been associated with some notable characters in political history.  The member (as an independent and for the Liberal Party and its predecessors) between 1937-1951 was Sir Percy Spender (1897–1985; foreign minister 1949-1951; Ambassador to the United States 1951–1958; member of the International Court of Justice 1958–1967 (president 1964-1967)).  Sir Percy was the grandfather of Allegra Spender (b 1978), a Sydney business identity & heiress who is standing as one of the so-called “teal independents” (teal presumably the idea of mixing a “blue-blood” establishment background with a “green” environmental consciousness) targeting those Liberal-held seats thought vulnerable because the voters’ profile tends to a more progressive agenda.  Throughout his career at the bar, in politics and on the bench, Sir Percy was noted, though not always praised, for his independence of mind and one suspects he might have approved of his grand-daughter’s designs on his old seat.

Sunday at Clontarf Beach (1979), oil on canvas, by Salvatore Zofrea (b 1946).

Edward (Ted) St John (1916-1994; a practicing QC) (confusingly pronounced sin-gin in one of the historic quirks of Anglo-French) held the seat for three turbulent years between 1966-1969, during which he managed to upset two prime-ministers and not a few others repelled by his moralizing although, despite his prudish and puritanical reputation, he was a doughty defender of free speech and appeared for the defense in the Oz and Thurunka obscenity cases (which saw him, bizarrely, labeled "a pornographer") and would later in his legal chambers hang Salvatore Zofrea’s Sunday at Clontarf Beach, something a little more explicit than what usually adored the walls of the Sydney bar.  His memoir (A Time to Speak (1969)) was uncompromising but well-written.

Less impressive was the tenure of Michael MacKellar (1938–2015) who kept the plum seat in his grasp between 1969-1994.  Due more to the effluxion of time than any obvious talent, he served as an undistinguished member of the Fraser government (1975-1983) but is now remembered only for an attempt to evade duty on imported goods, an event blamed, as is traditional, on a mistake by a member of staff apparently employed by the taxpayer also to attend to the minister’s personal paperwork.  In an example of how cover-ups tend to be worse than the original indiscretions, a fellow Minister, John Moore (b 1936; MP 1975-2001, minister in the Fraser and Howard governments), attempted a cover-up, the consequence being they both were compelled to resign their offices.  Whatever might be the criticisms of Malcolm Fraser (1930–2015; prime-minister 1975-1983), he did maintain high standards of ministerial propriety which have for some time, essentially ceased to exist and the decline in the enforcement of those standards does mean subsequently there have been plenty of second and third acts in Australian politics.  Although he never again held office, Mr Mackellar did return to serve on the opposition front bench and thrice unsuccessfully sought the deputy leadership of the Liberal Party.

Mr Moore’s story was even more amusing.  In opposition between 1983-1996, he served in the shadow cabinet while also making a few unsuccessful attempts to become deputy leader but his most notable contribution was as one of a triumvirate of malcontents who (quite competently it must be admitted) in 1989 arranged the knifing in the back of John Howard’s (b 1939; prime-minister 1996-2007) leadership and the re-installation of (the previously and subsequently) unsuccessful Andrew Peacock (1939–2021; leader of the opposition 1983–1985 & 1989–1990).  Mr Howard proved remarkably forgiving (or just desperate to afforce his team with some experience, none except him, Moore and one other ever having served in a cabinet), appointing Mr Moore to cabinet in 1996 and even (in a sign of the declining standards which have since further been eroded) not sacking him when he was found to have breached the ministerial code of conduct.  His usefulness to Mr Howard over by 2001, he was dropped from cabinet and Mr Moore resigned his seat at a point when the party’s fortunes were at a low ebb, the subsequent by-election delivering to the Labor Party what had hitherto been a safe Liberal seat.  In 2015, in what came to be known as the “snouts in the trough” case, Mr Moore and three other former MPs took to the High Court the claim that some (slight) limits placed on some taxpayer-funded allowances (to which they claimed they were for life entitled) were unconstitutional.  They lost.

MacKellar’s successor was Tony Abbott (b 1957; prime-minister 2013-2015) who held Warringah between 1994-2019, always for the Liberal Party although his views seemed more often to reflect those of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP or "Vatican down-under" as it's better understood) which many assumed was his true spiritual home.  Mr Abbott, in what may prove either an aberration or emblematic of something of a shift in political alignments, in 2019 lost the seat to Zali Steggall (b 1974; lawyer and former Winter Olympian) who stood as an independent on a platform which focused on the matter of climate change (the scientific validity of which Mr Abbott once famously dismissed as "crap").  Ms Steggal will in the 2022 poll be re-contesting Warringah, joining Ms Spender as one of the “teal independents”.

The Trans-Am

Trans-Am racing 1969: Porsche 911Rs and Alfa-Romeo GTA.

The Trans-Am Series is a motorsport competition in North America (thus the name trans- (across) + America(s)).  Sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).  It was first held in 1966, its classic years between 1966-1970, an era in which many of the US manufacturers provided factory backing to the participating teams and there was a symbiotic relationship with the SCCA which came to adjust the rules to suit the available machinery, a reversal of the original model in which the regulations were laid down and the cars were required to conform.

Trans-Am racing 1969: Chevrolet Camaro Z/28s and Ford Boss Mustangs.

Popular from the start, the rules were designed to attract the interest of the baby boomers who were buying versions of the cars raced, and it was originally a series for FIA Group 2 Touring Cars, (slightly) modified standard production vehicles within certain size constraints and built in a certain volume in two capacity classes (122 cubic inches (2.0 litre) and 305 cubic inches (5.0 litre)), both running together on the track.  As intended, it attracted the entries of the US "pony cars" (Plymouth Barracuda, Ford Mustang and their imitators) and the high-performance versions of the European machinery sold in the US.  Bizarrely as it now sounds, the latter class included the then two-litre Porsche 911 because the Germans had prevailed on the SCCA to classify it as a "sedan" but it was then a different sort of vehicle and, cognizant of its evolution, it was later re-classified as a "sports car".  The two litre class was interesting and fiercely contested but it was the noise and fury of the V8 powered pony cars which attracted sponsorship and crowds.

Trans-Am racing 1970: Ford Boss Mustang and Plymouth T/A Cuda.

The series is remembered for the competition between pony cars such as the Ford Mustang, Mercury Cougar, Chevrolet Camaro, Pontiac Firebird, Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Barracuda & AMC Javelin but it didn't long last as something for the typical cars bought from showrooms in the tens of thousands.  The victory of the Mustang in the first two years of the championship had done much for Ford's image and in response, with a pot of money in one hand and a copy of the SCCA rule-book in the other, Chevrolet built a special version of their new pony car, the Camaro Z/28 which featured a unique 302 cubic inch version of the small-block V8 which, highly strung and noisy, obviously wasn’t intended for anywhere but a race track.  To this, Ford responded.  They had enlarged their mainstream small-block V8 to 302 cubic inches but it wasn't race-ready like the Z/28 so what was concocted was one of the wilder power-plants of the era, the tunnel-port 302 although, despite the company's assurances, it was never produced in sufficient numbers to conform with the SCCA's rules but of greater concern was the way it was prone to blowing up.  What Ford had done was to take a technique which had proved successful on the bigger FE engine, which in 427 cubic inch (7.0 litre) form had been reliable enough twice to win the Le Mans twenty-four classic, solving a problem inherent to pushrod engines; the limitations imposed on intake port size by the need to provide a passage for the pushrod tube.  A tunnel-port was, as the name implied, a tunnel for the pushrod which passed directly through the port which could now be made as large as possible.  Surprisingly, the tubular tunnels proved to have no adverse effect on gas flow, the tunnel-port 302s producing prodigious power and, satisfied what they'd seen on the dynamometer was indicative of a race-winning engine, Ford went racing.  Unfortunately, those big ports which guaranteed the stunning top-end power actually inhibited low and mid-range torque and that was what was required on the twisty road courses and street circuits where the Trans-Am cars ran and the high-revving tunnel ports, away from the static environment of the dynamometer test rig, generated much stress and components began frequently to break.  Chevrolet won the next two Trans-Am titles.  Ford came up with a better idea the next year, the Boss 302 sacrificing some of the tunnel-port's intoxicating high range response but delivering its power over a range actually usable by race drivers and Ford duly won the 1970 championship.

Trans-Am racing 1968: Pontiac Firebird.

The writing however was on the wall for the practice of putting race-engines in road cars.  The world was changing and the manufacturers were being forced to divert resources away from motorsport to more prosaic pursuits like safety and emission control, racing budgets shrinking or evaporating.  In response, the SCCA changed the rules so that it was no longer necessary for manufacturers to produce and sell a specified number of the sometimes cantankerous race-bred mills, instead allowing them to modify just what was used in the race-cars, even increasing or reducing capacity as required.  Thus the exotic 302s (and Pontiac's stillborn 303) were retired and Chrysler was encouraged to enter the fray, the race teams de-stroking their LA 340 cubic inch (5.5 litre) V8 to meet the limit.  The pragmatic approach sustained interest for another couple of years but by 1973 the manufacturers had withdrawn support to concentrate on things more essential and the first oil shock that year guaranteed the corporate gaze would remain averted from the circuits.  The Trans-Am series however, under a variety of names, continued and is still run although it's never again captured the imagination the way it did in that first half-decade.

The Pontiac Trans Am

1969 Pontiac Trans Am.

Over four generations, the Pontiac Firebird was produced between 1967-2002 but is best remembered for the Trans Am versions, introduced in 1969.  The original intention had been that like Chevrolet’s Camaro Z/28, the Firebird Trans Am would be a genuine race-ready package, the centrepiece of which would be a short-stroke, 303 cubic inch V8.  Unfortunately, development of the 303 was delayed and by the time a reputed twenty-five odd had been installed in pre-production vehicles, the SCCA had changed the rules and the special race engines were no longer required but, having invested so much already in the other parts, Pontiac decided anyway to proceed which meant (1) the true Trans Am never actually took part in the series after which it was named and (2) the production version was really just a Firebird which looked like a racing car.  Fortunately, it transpired that was exactly what the market really wanted and for decades the Trans Am was usually Pontiac’s most profitable range, the bottom like dented only slightly by the US$5.00 per unit paid to the SCCA as a licensing fee for the use of the name (although Pontiac deleted the hyphen).

1973 Pontiac Trans Am SD-455.

Perhaps the most famous of the Trans Ams were those produced in 1973-1974 and fitted with the SD-455 engine (455 cubic inches (7.5 litre)), an unexpected throwback to high-performance in an era when outputs were in decline and it was thought both the industry and buyers had lost interest in such things.  Resurrecting the SD (Super-Duty) moniker which Pontiac had used as a high-performance designator in the early 1960s, the SD-455 is infamous for the trick with which Pontiac tried to fool the EPA’s (Environmental Protection Agency) inspectors, a primitive version of dieselgate which in the twenty-first century would cost Volkswagen and others (all also guilty as sin) billions.  Pontiac’s engineers had studied the parameters of the EPA’s tailpipe-emission test cycle and, noting it ran for fifty seconds, devised an ingenious system which after 53 seconds deactivated the critical anti-emission plumbing.  Under this regime, the SD-455 was able to produce the 310 horsepower which was by then the top rating in the industry while still receiving the vital EPA certification required legally to sell the thing.  Unfortunately, the EPA’s engineers turned out to be just as clever and detected the ruse, a more impressive performance than that of the later eurocrats who “caught” Volkswagen only because Mercedes-Benz snitched on them in exchange for immunity from prosecution.  Those were more forgiving times and instead of being pursued through the courts, Pontiac was required only to follow the rules and although the SD-455 had to be detuned a little, the resulting 290 horsepower was still more than anyone else could manage in those years.

Hi-Performance Cars magazine, April 1973.

SD-455 production numbers were low, 295 in 1973 (252 in Trans Ams & 43 in Firebird Formulas) and 1001 in 1974 (943 Trans Ams & 58 Formulas) and after the troubles with the EPA, plans to offer the engine in other models were abandoned although not until after some pre-production (310 horsepower) Trans Ams and one GTO (a larger, four-seat coupé) had been given to the press for testing and publicity.  The SD-455 Trans Am’s reputation is thus probably a little inflated because many of the performance numbers quoted come from the early tests of the machines with the anti-EPA cheat gear attached but more embarrassing was that Hi-Performance Cars magazine, impressed with the SD-455 GTO they'd tested, announced it as the winner of their 1973 Car of The Year Award, the magazine hitting the news-stands just the decision was taken not to produce the thing.  As the "last of the original muscle cars", the SD-455 Trans Am went on to become a collectable and fine examples typically now attract US$125-150,000 although in 2023 one exceptional specimen at auction realized US$200,000; pristine copies of the April 1973 edition of Hi-Performance Cars have been advertised for over US$50.    

TERF & Terf

TERF & Terf (pronounced turf)

(1) The acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist (trans-exclusionary radical feminism), a fork of radical feminism which maintains a trans woman’s gender identity is not legitimate and rejects the inclusion of trans people and the gender-diverse in the feminist movement.

(2) In genetics as (1) TERF 1 (Telomeric repeat-binding factor 1), a protein which in  humans is encoded by the TERF1 gene & (2) TERF 2 (Telomeric repeat-binding factor 2), a protein present at telomeres throughout the cell cycle. 

2008: Coined by Australian feminist writer Viv Smythe (@vivsmythe (fka @tigtog, @hoydenabouttown & @GFIComedy) although Ms Smythe suggests the acronym may previously have been in use but her blog entry is the oldest instance extant, hence the credit.  By virtue of use, TERF has become a word and thus the noun terf (and its variants is correct.  The use in genetics dates from the 1990s , the definitions written as part of the project which decoded the human genome (the complete results of which weren't released until March 2022).   

TERF was said first to have been coined as a “deliberately neutral” descriptor of a certain intellectual position among certain feminists, CISgender women who self-identify as feminist but who oppose including transgender women in spaces (physical, virtual & philosophical) which their construct of feminism reserves for those assigned female at birth.  Implicit in this is the denial that trans women (or anyone anywhere on the trans gender spectrum) are women; they regard them as men and because, by definition, men cannot coexist with their feminist construct, they must be excluded.  However, though TERF was of the feminists, by a feminist, for the feminists, once in the wild it is public property and TERF didn’t long stay neutral, soon used as a slur, applied as a term of disparagement by those sympathetic to trans rights and just as quickly embraced by some TERFs in an act of reclamation (a la slut, the notorious n-word etc).  In use online since at least 2008, TERF has different connotations (depending on who is using it and for what purpose) but even when applied as something purely descriptive, feminists who have been labeled TERF have called the term a slur because it has come to be associated with violence and hatred.  It is a loaded term.

Sainte Jeanne d'Arc (Saint Joan of Arc) (1903) by Albert Lynch (1860–1950).  Joan of Arc with proto TERF bangs: latter day TERFs arouse such hatred there may have been whisperings what was required was a few burnings at the stake.

The coining of TERF inspired some neologisms.  TERF bangs (existing only in the plural and noted since 2013 although use didn't trend until 2014) is a sardonic reference to a woman's hairstyle with short, straight, blunt-edged bangs (historically called baby bangs and a variation of what's known by some hairdressers as the "Joan of Arc" fringe), especially when paired with a bob and claimed to be associated with TERFs, the link impressionistic and possibly an example of a gaboso (generalized association based on single-observation).  The link is thought to be part of the opposition to transphobia, the TERF bangs noted for their relationship to the Karen (speak to the manager) bob and all Karens are assumed to be transphobic.  TERFdom is either (1) the holding (and expression) of trans-exclusionary feminist views or (2) being in some way present in the on-line TERF ecosystem.  TERFism is the abstract noun denoting variously the action, practice, state, condition, principle, doctrine, usage, characteristic, devotion or adherence to TERFDom.  TERfturf is an expression variously of the physical, virtual or philosophical space occupied by TERFdom.  TERFy, TERFish & TERFic are adjectives (usually applied disparagingly) which suggest someone or something may be tending towards, characteristic of, or related to trans-exclusionary feminism or those who hold such views.  Strangely, TERFesque seems not to have been used and it's tempting to ponder TERFery, TERFed & TERFistic and the use to which they might be put but there's scant evidence of use.  TERF also provided the model for the backronym SWERF (sex worker exclusionary radical feminist), describing the position of those radical feminists opposed to the sex industry (including pornography), regarding all aspects of the business as exploitative and that women who participate are victims of coercion, any assertion of agency or willing participation a form of false consciousness.

TERF, TWERF and others

Whatever the life TERF subsequently took, Ms Smythe’s original piece was a critique of the undercurrent of transphobia in the UK British media, something hardly difficult to detect nor restricted to the most squalid of the tabloids.  However, as she noted, regardless of her purpose or the context of the text, TERF has became a weaponized device of the culture wars which, in the way of the battle, assumed its identities at the extremes of the trans-inclusion & trans-exclusion positions and it could hardly have followed a different course, the notion, however applied, hardly one amenable to subtle nuances (although some have tried).  That it had the effect of being an inherently schismatic force in radical feminism seemed especially to disturb Ms Smythe and later she would suggest a more accurate (or certainly less divisive) acronym would have been “…TES, with the “S” standing for separatists”, adding that many “…of the positions that are presented seem far too essentialist to be adequately described as feminist, let alone radical feminist.”  Of course, that view was in itself exclusivist and a kind of assertion of ownership of both “radical” and “feminist” but that’s entirely in the tradition of political philosophy including the strains which long pre-date modern feminism, gatekeepers rarely hesitant in lowering the intellectual portcullis, intruders rarely welcome.

Still, it wasn’t as if feminism had been immune from the fissiparousness which so often afflicted movements (secular and otherwise), the devolution into into competing doctrinal orthodoxies of course creating heretics and heroes and to think of the accepted structure of the history (first wave, second wave etc) as lineal is misleading.  Nor was the process organic and it has been claimed there are TERFs (notably some of the self-described) for whom the identification with feminism became attractive only when it seemed to offer a intellectual cloak under which push transphobia, an accusation leveled at members of the US organization GIW (Gender Identity Watch).   Described variously as a “hate group” and the “Republican party in sensible shoes”, GIW’s best known activities include lobbying and monitoring legislatures and courts to try to ensure those who are transgender are not granted either the status of women or whatever rights may accrue from that.  Their basis was simply definitional, those DMaB (designated male at birth) can never be anything beyond MiD (men in disguise) and thus have no place in women’s spaces.

T-shirts are available.  In the modern age, if there's not a T-shirt, it's probably not a cause. 

There seems little to suggest bangs are a reliable marker of TERFdom and those wishing to assert where they stand on TERFness should probably don an appropriate T-shirt.  Not only do designer colors seem rare in TERF clothing but the combos mostly are black and white which may be subliminal messaging, this being a polarized debate in which there are few gray areas.  Predictably, trans-friendly T-shirts are more colorful.

Other theorists developed their own form of exclusivism.  The idea behind the back-formation TWERF (Trans Women Exclusionary Radical Feminist) was that it was "pure womanism", the needs of trans women being not only different from “real” women but irrelevant too, again by definition because trans women are still men and even if in some way defined as not, were still not “real” women.  The distinctions drawn by the TWERFs was certainly a particular strain of radical feminism because they raised no objection to the presence of trans men, the agender and even some other non-binary people into at least some of their women-only spaces although the rationale offered to support this position did seem sometimes contradictory.  Some however seemed well to understand the meaning and they were the transsexual separatists, apparently a cause without rebels, support for the view apparently close to zero.  The transsexual separatists argue that they need to be treated, for the purposes of defined rights, as a separate category, a concept which received little attention until the Fina(Fédération internationale de notation, the International Swimming Federation) in June 2022 announced a ban on the participation of transgender women from elite female competition if they have experienced “…any part of male puberty beyond Tanner Stage 2 or before age 12, whichever is later."  As something a workaround designed somehow to combine inclusion and exclusion in the one policy, Fina undertook to create a working group to design an “open” category for trans women in “some events” as part of its new policy; when in doubt, form a committee.  The transsexual separatists may not have expected Fina to be the first mainstream organization to offer a supporting gesture but what the federation has done may stimulate discussion, even if the work-around proves unworkable.

Discursiveness is however in the nature of feminist thought, the essence of the phases of renewal which characterized progress, formalized (if sometimes misleadingly) as waves and it’s unrealistic to imagine trans-related issues will be resolved until generational change allows a new orthodoxy to coalesce.  It really wasn’t until the high-water mark of second wave of feminism in the early 1980s that some of the early radical feminists began to attempt to distance the movement from the issues pertaining to trans people, reflecting the view the implications of what was characterized as the transgender agenda would only reinforce sexual stereotyping and the gender binary.  Even then, the position taken by radical feminists was not monolithic but it was the exclusionists who attracted most interest, inevitable perhaps given they offered the media a conflictual lens through which to view the then somewhat novel matter of trans rights, until then rarely discussed.  Third wave feminism was a product of the environment in which it emerged and thus reflected the wider acceptance of transgender rights and few would argue this has not continued during the fourth wave, the attention given to TERF (and its forks and variations) an indication of the interest in the culture wars and the lure of conflict in media content (whether tabloid or twitter) rather than any indication a generalized hardening of opposition among feminists.

TERF must not be confused with the homophone “turf”

Lindsay Lohan winning on the JCB's turf: On 1 October, 2023, four-year old mare Lindsay Lohan (by Emcee out of Requebra) won the Grande Prêmio Costa Ferraz over 1,000 metres, her fourth win in ten starts; Jockey Club Brasileiro, Praça Santos Dumont, Gávea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The word turf pre-dates 900 and was from the Middle English terf & torf (turves sometimes was used as plural but wholly un-related to the phrase “topsy-turvy”), from the Old English turf & tyrf (turf, sod, slab of soil, roots cut from the earth, piece of grass-covered earth, greensward), from the Proto-West Germanic turb (turf, peat), from the Proto-Germanic turbz (turf, lawn), linked possibly to the primitive Indo-European derbh- (to wind, to compress).  It was cognate with the Dutch turf, the Old Norse torf, the Middle Low German torf (peat, turf), (from which German & German Low German gained Torf) the Danish tørv, the Swedish torv, the Norwegian torv, the Icelandic torf, the Russian трава (trava) (grass), the Old Frisian turf, and the Old High German zurba; it was akin to the Sanskrit दर्भ (darbhá) (a kind of grass) & दूर्वा (dū́rvā) (bent grass).  Turf in its original sense developed as a part of the agrarian economy, describing the top layer of soil in which seeds were planted and roots (hopefully) took hold.  Use (apparently rapidly) expanded to encompass concepts in some way related to the upper layer of the ground or what sprouted from it including sods, slabs of soil with the root systems preserved (ie a piece of grass covered earth) and expanses of grassed surfaces.  To this day, the general literal understanding of “turf” is the grassed, top layer of soil.  The use as a synecdoche for (especially thoroughbred) horse racing (as “the turf”) dates from 1755, that use emerging from the original technical use by those maintaining the grassed surface over which the horses galloped.  From this evolved the modern occupational euphemisms: (1) turf accountant (a bookmaker (bookie) with whom one places bets) and (2) turf advisor (one who for a fee provides “tips” suggesting the horse(s) on which bets should be placed).

Lindsay Lohan enjoying the turf: Lindsay Lohan in The Birdcage (right), Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne, Victoria (Spring Carnival Derby Day), 2 November, 2019. The outfit paired a Leo & Lin Venus Asymmetric Scarf Skirt with a Morgan & Taylor Leya Boater Hat.  This is a figurative use of “turf”, used as a reference to “horse racing”.

The word Astroturf dates from 1966 when it was released as a commercial product, a synthetic grass for use in sports arenas.  The use of “astroturf” as a slang term meaning “to fake the appearance of popular support for something, such as a cause or product” emerged in the last days of the 1990s although the origin of the use of the word in this context has been traced to 1985 when then Senator (Democratic, Texas) Lloyd Bentsen (1921–2006; US Secretary of the Treasury 1993-1994) used the word to distinguish between “real mail from real people” and the “mountain of cards and letters” sent to his office in a campaign organized by the insurance industry: “…a fellow from Texas can tell the difference between grass roots and AstroTurf... this is generated mail.”  Lloyd Bentsen is remembered also for the most memorable retort (which probably was rehearsed) from the 1988 presidential election in which he was the Democratic Party’s nominee for VPOTUS.  In a debate with the Republican’s Dan Quayle (b 1947; VPOTUS 1989-1993), he responded to Mr Quayle comparing himself to John Kennedy (JFK, 1917–1963; POTUS 1961-1963) by saying: “Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy.  I knew Jack Kennedy.  Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine.  Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.”  The other coincidental link between the two candidates was that in the 1970 mid-term congressional elections, Bentsen defeated George H.W. Bush (George XLI, 1924-2018; VPOTUS 1981-1989 & POTUS 1989-1993) for a Texas senate seat and it was Dan Quayle Bush choose as a running mate in his successful 1988 presidential campaign.  Mr Qualye's other contribution to US political history was being filmed visiting a school in New Jersey school where he “corrected” a student’s spelling of “potato” by adding a final “e”.  That a man aspiring to be elected to an office “a heartbeat away from the presidency” and thus the authority to launch nuclear missiles didn’t know how to spell “potato” was disturbing enough but what made it really funny (at least in one sense) was he read the incorrect spelling from flashcards prepared in advance, confirming the public’s perception politicians obediently parrot whatever is fed to them by the party machine.

Lindsay Lohan on some turf: Lindsay Lohan standing on one of the Flemington Racecourse lawns.  This is a literal use of “turf”, used as a reference to “grass” but, had she been standing on the race track proper, the word would have been used in both senses.

As a general term for the “street or sidewalk (footpath)” in cityscapes, turf had entered slang use by at least the 1880s.  The phrase “comes with the turf” means one must “take the rough with the smooth” and accept less pleasant aspects of a chosen profession, location etc.  In figurative use the “turf war” was a demarcation dispute between parties over territory which can be literal physical space or something more abstract.  The idea of “our turf” in the sense of “streets or parts of a suburb in which a gang had an exclusive right to conduct criminal activities” must be old but the use of “turf” to describe the concept seems not to have been recorded prior to 1953.  On a gang’s turf, “civilians” might well stroll un-molested but it’d be dangerous for members of other gangs to trespass.  The term “turf war” is said to have come into use only in 1962 but the notion of “one’s turf” to which one had an exclusivity of possession or right was documented from at least the mid nineteenth century when it was almost formalized as a set of boundaries in the streets on which prostitutes plied their trade, the unmarked borders administered both by the sex workers and police officers who (usually with the extraction of some sort of fee in cash or kind) “enforced the rules”.

Cisgender

Cisgender (pronounced sis-jen-der)

(1) Noting or relating to a person whose gender identity corresponds with that person’s biological sex assigned at birth (also as cisgendered in this context) and the prefix cis- is used variously as a modifier (ciswoman, cismale, ‎cisnormativity etc) where the practices of chemistry are followed when forming names of chemical compounds in which two atoms or groups are situated on the same side of some plane of symmetry passing through the compound.

(2) A person who is cisgender.

1994:  A compound word, modeled on the earlier transgender, the construct being cis- + gender.  Cis is from the English preposition cis (on this side of) and the earliest known gender-related use of the prefix in any language was in a 1914 German language book on sexology.  In English, the first use of the prefix in the context of gender dates from 1994.  In English, cis was an abbreviation, presumably from either cosine and sine and the number i or translingual cos, i, and sin.  Latin gained the word from the primitive Indo-European ḱe (here) and it was cognate with ce-dō, hi-c, ec-ce, the Ancient Greek ἐκεῖνος (ekeînos) the Old Irish cē (here) and the Gothic himma (to this).  Gender is from the Middle English (where it at times co-existed with gendre), from the Middle French gendre from the Latin genus (kind, sort) and is a doublet of genre, genus, and kin.  The verb developed after the noun.

The Cisgender List

The word cisgender became a technical necessity when, in the late twentieth century, gender ceased to be a binary with a meaning essentially synonymous with sex; as expressions of gender fluidity became increasingly common, cisgender emerged as the preferred term to describe what gender used to be.  With gender being re-defined from a binary to a spectrum, linguistic politics became important and the imperative was to create a category for those for whom the sex identity assigned at birth continued later in life to align with their perceived gender-identity.  If it wasn’t just another point on the spectrum, there was concern cisgender would become normative, the implication being those elsewhere on the spectrum being defined as abnormal or sub-normal.  Cisgender is distinct from but interacts both with the LGBTQQIAAOP spectrum and the pronoun wars.

Possible Cisgender Pride Flags: The practice of identity politics is the staking of a claim (or the digging of a trench depending on one's view) in the battlefield of the culture wars and one aspect of this is the flying of the "pride flag" of one's group.  There have been a few proposed but none seems yet to have emerged as the accepted version.  Displaying one might be considered a hate crime so it should be unfurled with caution.   

The spectrum evolved as quite a democratic construct, something which may have been at least partially technologically deterministic in that the proliferation of points on the spectrum was driven not by medicine or the social sciences but by interaction on social media platforms.  While the users might have felt validated or empowered (and on the social, empowerment is good) by being able to adopt or invent their own self-identities, the platforms liked it because it added another filter for their ad-targeting, very handy for delivering the product (the users) to the consumers (the advertisers).  Some social media sites now offer dozens of options but there is much overlap and many are micro-variations; there appear to be about a dozen definable categories:

Agender/Neutrois: These terms are used by people who don't identify with any gender at all — they tend to either feel they have no gender or a neutral gender. Some use surgery and/or hormones to make their bodies conform to this gender neutrality.

Androgyne/Androgynous: Androgynes have both male and female gender characteristics and identify as a separate, third gender.

Bigender: Someone who is bigender identifies as male and female at different times. Whereas an androgyne has a single gender blending male and female, a bigender switches between the two.

Cis/Cisgender: Cisgender is essentially the opposite of transgender (cis from the Latin meaning "on this side of" versus the Latin trans meaning "on the other side"). People who identify as cisgender are males or females whose gender aligns with their birth sex.

Female to Male/FTM or Male to Female/MTF: Someone who is transitioning FTM or MTF, either physically (transsexual) or in terms of gender identity; probably most closely related to the earlier transvestism, a word now unfashionable, objections to its use being associative rather than linguistic.

Gender Fluid: Like the bigender, the gender-fluid feel free to express both masculine and feminine characteristics at different times.  The category can be misleading because of the use of the term gender fluidity generally to describe these matters.

Gender Nonconforming/Variant: This is a broad category for people who don't act or behave according to the societal expectation for their sex. It includes cross-dressers and tomboys as well as the transgender; again overlaps with other categories probably exist.

Gender Questioning: This category is for people who are still trying to figure out where they fit on the axes of sex and gender.

Genderqueer: This is an umbrella term for all nonconforming gender identities. Most of the other identities in this list fall into the genderqueer category.

Intersex: This term refers to a person who was born with sexual anatomy, organs, or chromosomes that aren't entirely male or female.  Outside of medicine, intersex has largely replaced the term "hermaphrodite" for humans although it continues to be used in zoology.

Neither:  Used by those who probably could be accommodated in other categories but prefer the ambiguity, indifference or imprecision of “nothing”.

Non-binary: People who identify as non-binary disregard the idea of a male and female dichotomy, or even a male-to-female continuum with androgyny in the middle. For them, gender is not a lineal spectrum but a concept better illustrated in three or more dimensions.

Other: Probably the same as "neither" but an important thing about gender fluidity is the primacy of self-identity.

Objectum: Those attracted to inanimate (non-living) objects.

Pangender: Pangender is similar to androgyny, in that the person identifies as a third gender with some combination of both male and female aspects, but it's a little more fluid.  It can also be used as an inclusive term to signify "all genders".

Trans/Transgender: Transgender is a broad category that encompasses people who feel their gender is different than the sex they were born (gender dysphoria).  Technically, it’s probably most useful as a blanket term but the historical association of the trans-prefix make it a popular choice.  The term "assigned at birth" is now popular but misleading in that it applies some arbitrariness in the habits of the nurses ticking the boxes.  The transvestites (those (mostly men) who wear women's outerwear) are at least in some cases a subset of the transgender spectrum although the term is no longer in wide use. 

Transsexual: Transsexual refers to transgender people who outwardly identify as their experienced gender rather than their birth sex. Many, but not all, transsexuals are transitioning (or have transitioned) from male to female or female to male through hormone therapy and/or gender reassignment surgery.

Two-spirit: This began life as a US-specific term which refers to gender-variant Native Americans.  In more than 150 Native American tribes, people with "two spirits" (a 1990s term coined to replace "berdache") were part of a widely accepted, often respected, category of gender-ambiguous men and women.  Whether the term comes to be adopted by other defined ethnicities (especially indigenous tribes) or such use is proscribed as cultural appropriation, remains unclear.

Elon Musk FRS.  Mr Musk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2018.

Not all are pleased with the linguistic progress.  Twitter owner Elon Musk (b 1971) in June 2023 declared the use of “cis” or “cisgender” on Twitter were “slurs” which constituted “harassment” and transgressors were subject to suspension from the platform, adding that what constituted harassment would have to be “repeated & targeted”.  Presumably that implies the terms can still be used on twitter but not as weapons.  At this time, Twitter’s guidelines define slurs and tropes as language which “intends to degrade or reinforce negative or harmful stereotypes about a protected category”.  The notion of a “protected category” is from US law and refers to a specific group of individuals who are afforded legal protections against discrimination based on certain characteristics or attributes.  These categories typically include characteristics such as race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, and other similar attributes that are protected by anti-discrimination laws in various jurisdictions.  The categories are indicative rate than absolute.  The blind and infants for example can’t claim they are being discriminated against because the state refuses to permit them to hold drivers licenses and the race protections have tended to offer the most protection to minority groups.  As Mr Musk would have anticipated, his comments were quickly responded to by those recalling his asserting after assuming control of the platform the Twitter “believes in free speech” and that earlier in 2023 he’d quietly dropped from the hateful content policy the rule protecting trans people from dead-naming (the act of referring to a transgender person by their birth name, or the name they used prior to their gender transition) and mis-gendering.