Why Being a TERF Is No JK
There is no perfect feminism. This movement continues to be a work-in-progress. But there’s one feminism that completely lost its magic — and caused a lot of pain, even an “Obliviate” could not easily eradicate.
By Mela Habijan (Marikina, Philippines)
March 8, 2022
HARRY POTTER wasn’t just a piece of pop culture in the 2000s. It was a cathartic experience, especially for Millennials like me who grew up alongside it. As Harry and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry became a part of us, we, too, wanted to get sorted into a House, learn the art of spells, charms, and potions — even play Quidditch! Potterheads all over the world were brought together by our yearning to belong in this spectacular world.
That’s the magic J.K. Rowling once had.
Looking back, Rowling’s Harry Potter series helped me find my own power and consequently, live my true self. I was Hermione, a “Mudblood”. Despite getting mocked for being a Muggle-born, she reclaimed the pride of her identity. After all, as declared by Dumbledore, “It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.”
As a proud trans woman and LGBTQIA+ advocate, Rowling’s words empowered and liberated me… until she became a TERF or Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist.
The TERFs’ Identity
Oxford Languages defines TERF as feminists who exclude transgender women from the women’s rights movement. To them, women like me aren’t women.
TERFs are Malfoys, whose pure-blood supremacy mindsets led to hating us, trans women, for our sex assigned at birth. They see us as men dressing up and pretending to be women.
TERFs treat us, trans women, like dementors – a big threat to the female-only spaces.
TERFs see us, trans women, as enemies to their womanhood. Not realizing that they have evolved into hateful Voldemorts — a character Rowling created who is “devoid of the normal human responses to other people's suffering”.
Outside the Potter series, Rowling even tried to project trans people as purveyors of violence. In her crime novel series, Cormoran Strike, JK created trans characters: (1) Pippa, a trans woman who stalked and attempted to stab Detective Strike, and (2) “Dennis Creed”, a “transvestite” serial killer.
And in her tweet on December 12, 2021, she wrote “The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.”
TERFs Beyond Cis
Shockingly, TERFs can also be trans women ourselves, and this is fueled by misconceptions and misunderstandings about the trans identity.
In the Philippines per se, there are trans-identifying individuals who have been discriminated for choosing not to transition, and keeping their masculine expression.
When Kael Mata, a trans-identifying person came out publicly, Mx. Mata was mocked by a few femme-expressing trans women, calling them as “crazy” and accusing them of “confusing the Filipino society”.
When Tiktok Superstar, Sassa Gurl, became the calendar girl of a local alcoholic beverage, a trans woman tagged her as a “drag queen” and shouldn’t be representing trans women. However, when I asked her about her gender identity, Sassa said that she proudly identifies as a trans woman.
What TERFs Don’t See
This is the painful reality in the women’s movement – an othering and exclusion of trans women. Sadly, they still limit womanhood in the backward and transphobic criteria dependent on the physical: that a woman must have a vagina, that a woman should “look like” a woman.
Contrary to Rowling’s notion that trans women do not recognize sex (assigned at birth), we actually do. That’s why, we are called transgender women (Trans- as a prefix).
What TERFs don’t see is we are affirming our identity that is not aligned with our sex assigned at birth.
In fact, the Oxford dictionary has even put meaning to the trans identity: “denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex.”
What TERFs don’t see is gender identity is not dependent on gender expression. Moreover, there are trans women who choose not to transition and express femininely because of financial limitations, health restrictions, and societal circumstances.
What TERFs don’t see is diversity in trans identity; we don’t have a singular face and image of trans women. Like any person, we are different in size, shape, color, and personal definition of what trans is.
What TERFs don’t see is we also experience discrimination and violence every single day – at home, in school, at the workplace, and in public spaces.
Gretchen Diez was violently treated for entering the female restroom. Veejay Floresca and Kaladkaren were refused to enter leisure spaces just because they are trans. Jennifer Laude got killed and her murderer got freed through a Presidential pardon after serving only 5 years of his 10-year sentence.
Every day, a trans woman is disowned by a family member, forced to cut her hair and wear a male’s uniform at school, bullied for being trans, and now, gets attacked by TERFs.
What TERFs don’t recognize is that womanhood is beyond the anatomy and the physical. Womanhood is, rather, a way of life. Womanhood is leadership and perseverance. Womanhood is the power of a woman to become and break barriers — a truth that I’m pretty sure any woman could relate to.
Because just like the battles and constraints transgender women deal with every single day, ALL WOMEN have fought (and continuously fight) for their right to vote, their right to wear pants instead of skirts, occupy a space in the boardroom, compete in sports events, free the nipple, own her sexuality and sensuality and not be shamed for it, defy unfair body standards, run for office and in Rowling’s case, succeed, express a strong voice, and tell a powerful story to the world — when once upon a time, women are not even allowed to speak their minds and take control of their fate.
Yet despite our common ground — our pains and struggles that should bring women together — TERFs refuse to transcend their prejudice and thus, they opt to deny that trans women are women.
Why Rowling – a TERF – isn’t a JK
The magic of Harry Potter lies in its core — to champion people who are different and are mocked for being different. And personally, I cannot fathom the reality that J.K. Rowling is a TERF. Her dissonance to the supposed wisdom of her books and the feminism movement is an insult to humanity.
As a trans woman fighting for my right to be, LGBTQIA+ activism taught me that women must empower fellow women, that the marginalized must understand each other’s pain, and that the oppressed shouldn’t become oppressors. Thus, I will still hold onto Dumbledore’s powerful words: "It is important to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated."
I pray Miss Rowling could take time to re-read Harry Potter again so she can be reminded of the words she once penned: "Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are."
And hopefully, after re-reading them, she chooses the light of the true, empowering, and magically diverse essence of womanhood.
