People who have TERF directed at them often characterize it as a pejorative or hate speech. OED editor Fiona McPherson explained that because "there is a little bit more nuance behind its usage – it's not always just a straight-out insult", the dictionary's editors opted to explain this rather than simply label the term "derogatory" or "chiefly derogatory". The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added an entry for TERF (noun) in June 2022, which states that although the term was first intended as a neutral descriptor, it is "now typically regarded as derogatory". Several writers have observed that TERF can be used in broader senses to refer to trans-exclusionary feminists who are not radical, people with a certain kind of trans-exclusionary politics regardless of whether they are radical feminists or even things that are culturally associated with second-wave feminism in general. The term has since become an established part of the contemporary feminist language but its usage is contested. Smythe initially used TERF to refer to a particular type of feminist whom she characterized as "unwilling to recognise trans women as sisters" but notes that the term has taken on additional connotations and that it has been "weaponised at times" by both inclusionary and exclusionary groups. We wanted a way to distinguish TERFs from other radfems with whom we engaged who were trans*-positive/neutral, because we had several years of history of engaging productively/substantively with non-TERF radfems. It was meant to be a deliberately technically neutral description of an activist grouping. In a 2014 interview with Cristan Williams of The TransAdvocate blog, Smythe – using her net-pseudonym "TigTog" – said: It was used to describe a minority of feminists who espouse sentiments that other feminists consider transphobic, including the rejection of the view – predominant in feminist organizations – that trans women are women, opposition to transgender rights, and the exclusion of trans women in women's spaces and organizations. She wrote that she rejected the alignment of all radical feminists with "trans-exclusionary radfem (TERF) activists". Smythe coined the term, due to a blog post she wrote reacting to the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival's policy of denying admittance to trans women. Trans-inclusive cisgender radical feminist blogger Viv Smythe has been credited with creating and popularizing the term in 2008 as an online shorthand.
Critics of the label have pointed to its usage alongside insulting or abusive rhetoric, and described it as a "bullying tool", while other academics have argued that this alone does not make it a slur.
In academic discourse, there is no clear consensus on whether TERF constitutes a slur. People labeled TERFs often reject the label, instead describing their beliefs as gender critical. Though TERF was created to be a "deliberately technically neutral description", the term is now typically considered derogatory or disparaging. The use of the term TERF has since broadened to include reference to people with trans-exclusionary views who are not necessarily involved with radical feminism. Trans-inclusive feminists who support transfeminism assert that these "TERF" ideas and positions are transphobic and discriminatory towards transgender people. First recorded in 2008, the term was originally used to distinguish transgender-inclusive feminists from a group of radical feminists and social conservatives who reject the assertion that trans women are women, including trans women in women's spaces, and transgender rights legislation. TERF ( / t ɜːr f/) is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist.
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