Writing in, Lena Wilson commented that she had seen the term "TERFy" used to refer to "anything that queer millennials deem uncool", such as "tampon ads, the word "female". Opposition to the wordįeminists described as TERFs generally object to the term and sometimes refer to themselves as gender critical. In 2017, British columnist Sarah Ditum wrote that "the bar to being called a 'terf' is remarkably low", citing PinkNews 's criticism of Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray and a Medium writer's blog entry about Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Some self-described gender critical feminists say they cannot accurately be described as trans-exclusionary, as they state their inclusion of transgender men. Often, these feminists gender trans men as women. Writing for Socialist Worker, American feminists Danelle Wylder and Corrie Westing stated that this position is "divisive and contradictory", and that it represented " transmisogynist ideology". In a 2015 article, American feminist scholar Bonnie J. Morris argued that TERF was initially a legitimate analytical term, but quickly developed into a defamatory word associated with sexist insults. She described the word as "emblematic of the unresolved tensions between our LGBT community's L and T factions" and called on scholars and journalists to stop using it. īritish journalist Catherine Bennett has described the word as "a bullying tool", which had "already succeeded in repressing speech – and maybe even research". In 2017, British feminist author Claire Heuchan argued that the word was often used alongside "violent rhetoric", and that this violent language was used to "dehumanise women who are critical of gender as part of a political system", often lesbians.