this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
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Most people that get called TERFs aren't radical feminists, they're liberal feminists at best and plain old misogynists at worst. They don't believe that patriarchal society is responsible for women's oppression and they certainly don't believe that it must be changed by means of revolution.
Sure, but that's how they choose to label themselves. Like the same way Nazis weren't socialist but they stuck it in their name (and then persecuted the socialists). Being suspicious of people using the label "radfem" is normal since anyone who is actually radical about feminism in a non-transphobic way would use a different label to avoid association with TERFs.
Are you doing a terrible job of articulating that the specific term "radfem" (as opposed to the full radical feminist) is a dog whistle? Because it seems like you're saying socialists shouldn't call themselves socialists because the Nazis called themselves national socialists.
I think you are willfully misinterpreting me if you think I'm implying that. Radfem is specifically used by TERFs, yes. Terrible people appropriate neutral or positive terms to make themselves sound better all the time. Understanding specific contexts where those appropriations are used to signal bad faith usage is important so you don't end up platforming TERFs and Nazis, reasonable enough?
I'm not willfully misinterpreting you, you're just a bad communicator - I asked a clear and direct question with two distinct options, and you chose 'that'. I'm more confident you're just trying to say '"radfem" is a dogwhistle', but you're still dancing around the point for no apparent reason.