op is a terf so I stole the post:
men’s loyalty to violence is disturbing. when women want a life free of abuse, assault, threat, & coercion, men’s first suggestion is “learn to fight back. learn to defend yourself”. i don’t want my life to be a fight. i don’t want to “prove myself” through inflicting pain & fear. i don’t find violence and physical conflict fulfilling or self-actualising. they’re exhausting & dehumanizing
And this is how TERF rhetoric spreads. You do realize that when a TERF says something like this, “men” = “trans women”, right?
Anyway, acting like violence is male exclusive is peak TERF, and a slap in the face to victims of female abusers like me.
So I don’t approve of calling people a “TERF”, I think that’s a negative label, I just refer to “people who believe in TERF ideology”, but…that said…
…I think this post illustrates how a lot of TERF ideology is inseperable from male-bashing and male-negativity, often to the point of erasing the possibility of women committing abuse and/or men being subjected to abuse.
I’m a nonbinary AMAB person, and I’ve been stalked, harassed, sexually assaulted, and emotionally abused by women. It happens. And it’s harmful.
The existence of cultural norms and beliefs that elevate men over women and/or elevate masculinity over femininity, don’t change the fact that it happens, and don’t change the fact that it’s harmful.
These things don’t need to be opposed. In fact, I think if you care about all people, it makes sense to care about both the issue of systematic oppression of women, sexism, and misogyny, and the victims of abuse or violence by women, including both male and non-male victims.
To me this is common sense. I care about all people and I want to stop all the bad things from happening.