TERF - A Badge of Honour or a Dehumanising Slur?

Gold-work hand embroidery
40 x 30cm

Deliberately sharing the same background as Sorry Buddy Your Wife Is Uninvited, this piece is an exploration into the mixed emotions many of us “TERven” (the TERF coven) feel towards this acronym.

In many uses, it is employed as a dehumanising slur, just like ‘bitch’ or ‘witch’. 

It is intended to ‘other’ those that are labelled with it by way of categorising them as a type of ‘low woman’ who are akin to Nazis and other scum, both frequently repeated statements by gender ideologues (see terfisaslur.com). This, of course, opens all sorts of doors to excuse the vile behaviour many of us have been subjected to.

It is, however, also a word that some of us have been using to find and connect with likeminded people in the ideological muddy water of gender ideology. 

After all, not being a “TERF” means that you support the castration and sterilisation by way of hormone treatment and surgery of minors. 

It means you have capitulated any and all female-only services, spaces, shortlists and sports competitions to men who claim to be women.

Men who feel emboldened by the public’s pluralistic ignorance and fear of falling out of favour to grab what isn’t theirs call it “trans-rights” and scream bloody murder when the Supreme Court points out that, no, they are actually not women under the law. 

So my relationship with this word is and always has been complicated. This piece represents the pride in standing up for something all of us believe is deeply meaningful and important, since all it takes for evil to prevail, is for good men (and women) to do nothing.

£6,000
£4,800

Exhibition pre-sale price
Interest-free payment plan available
See here for more details