ive been working on a Discourse Thought about terfs lately, and here it goes:
you know that super precious, stifling, ‘women are so important and precious and vulnerable’ rhetoric that gets used about white women to rile up racists? i feel like that exact sentiment is what terfs are using to rile up transphobes, and they’re getting young lesbians all caught up with them in it. there’s this very smothering, matronly sort of attitude that older women can have towards younger women, and towards the whole concept of female sexuality, and it’s all about fear and control and hatred.
it says, ‘as a woman, you are vulnerable. you are physically vulnerable, you are mentally vulnerable, and you’re definitely sexually vulnerable. you are vulnerable to corruption and to predators and to violence and to sin. you must be kept safe and pure from Bad Men, of which there are many, all of them extremely eager to abuse you physically and emotionally and sexually. you must also be insulated from harmful media, which can corrupt you utterly and lead you right to all those Bad Men, or perhaps even make you Bad too, like the Bad Men. and of course you must be trained to recognize the terrible danger you are in! all the Bad things and ways that could destroy you! you should be scared at all times, and listen to us, your elders, your sisters and mothers, who know all the horrible dangers of the world, and will keep you safe from it, and pure, and good, right on this clean little pedestal where we can keep an eye on you, and you must never get off.’
this isn’t a very good kind of feminism. it’s hard to see it as feminist at all, in any possible light, because it’s note-for-note just regular old sexually repressive bigotry, but now with an invitation for lesbians to come join their straight sisters in this Safe Space that’s definitely-for-sure-we-promise not a cage.
feminism should be empowering. it shouldn’t be one more shot of poison in the ear of girls who are already scared enough. because women are people, not things. they are valuable, and, yeah, they’re vulnerable. but they’re also capable of strength and bravery, and they deserve the scary and dangerous freedom of being allowed to live in the world on their own terms, not the safety of a cloister.
terf rhetoric won’t make you safe. it’ll just make you scared. and you deserve to be free, instead.
Could you spare a few hours a week to help injured wild animals return to the wild?
Our work is only made possible by the support of our volunteer teams and we need more people to join the WAF family. As a volunteer, you will be helping with the feeding, care and cleaning of our patients and will be vital in helping animals return to the wild!
We run three shifts each day: 9am – 1pm, 1pm – 6pm and 6pm – 10pm (weekend shifts run on alternate weeks) and have vacancies every day of the week. At the moment, we are particularly in need of help on mornings and evenings!
Could you help us give animals a second chance? If you would like to read more or apply, please visit:
This bundle of feathers is a young herring gull and it was transferred to us from a local vets after falling off a roof and into a bin.
Sadly, despite efforts to find its parents, it quickly became apparent that it had been abandoned. It was checked over by our vets but, although it was a little thin, it had no major injuries and was rather feisty!
It is currently in one of our pens eating us out of house and home and will return to freedom as soon as it is old enough to be released!
This young magpie arrived at WAF after falling out of its nest. Although the people who found it tried to reunite the family, it kept being pushed back out and was not getting the attention it needed to survive.
It is now in one of our incubators being regularly fed by our volunteer teams. It is doing very well and will return to freedom as soon it is fully grown!
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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