timberwraith

Read this *whole* thread. It's quite a story!

Cathy Brennan, the fake goth, rears her visage in this story. Oh my.

https://journa.host/@e_urq/110090511063686883

Evan Urquhart 🏳️‍⚧️ (@[email protected])

The title was "Why I'm Still a Butch Lesbian." It ran on Slate. It was about how not trans I was, and how women could be masculine and still proudly women, and also, did I mention how not trans I was? After I published this essay I was messaged on FB... ...by Cathy Brennan. I didn't recognize the name, and you may not either, but she was among the most infamous TERFs of that time.

Mastodon
Mar 26, 2023 at 5:31pmWeb
Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023

(The "fake goth" reference will only make sense to people who knew who Brennan was a decade ago.)

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cathy-brennan-is-a-fake-goth

Cathy Brennan is a Fake Goth

Cathy Brennan is a Radical Feminist who believes that transgender women are not women, and calls them 'fake women'. On her Twitter, she has “goth” in her bi

Know Your Meme
Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023

Btw, last I heard, Brennan dropped out from the TERF movement because the movement became so entwined with right wing elements that even *she* was alienated... And Brennan is evil concentrate, for goodness sake. So, that's saying something.

(Someone correct me if I'm off on this, but that's what I heard.)

Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023

I just edited my original post in this thread to include a link to @e_urq's post.

I forgot to include it.

(I really wish Mastodon had a "quote-tweet" command.)

Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023

I suspect it's fairly commonplace for trans people to go through a period of "deprogramming" themselves from internalizing cis society's terrible views of us.

I used to be a staunch radical feminist, and I had internalized a fair amount of transmisia and self-hatred during those years. Radical feminism is rife with it.

Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023

It took several waves of sorting through my beliefs/perceptions regarding trans people and issues around sex/gender based oppression to fully deprogram myself.

I posted about this a lot back at Twitter.

Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023
(Personally, I don't see much distinction between "garden variety" radical feminism and TERFism. Radfem ideologies are generally rife with extremely toxic, binaristic, transmisic views of sex/gender issues. Even the non-TERF varieties are riddled with heavy amounts of cissexism. It's a deeply problematic variant of feminism. Tread carefully when in contact with texts from those quarters. It's poisonous.)
Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023
(I think "garden variety" radical feminism tends to easily transition to full on TERFism. Transmisia is embedded in its cis-centric foundations.)
Show threadEvan Urquhart 🏳️‍⚧️Mar 26, 2023
@timberwraith Yep, that's my understanding. The woman who was so extreme it completely reversed my life course was also, arguably, one of the more principled people in the TERF movement.
Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023
@e_urq It's sort of mind blowing, isn't it? I guess a decade ago, some TERFs had a degree of integrity.
Show threadanniethebruceMar 26, 2023

@timberwraith I've heard the same thing.

Drawing the line at outright fascism doesn't erase the harm she did and promoted, but if she can do it what the fuck is wrong with the rest of that crowd?

Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023
@anniethebruce RIGHT? Holy wow.
Show threadTurboQuokkaMar 26, 2023
@timberwraith That’s what I’d heard, too. I vaguely remember the incident that caused her to kinda disappear. At the time I posted a response on her Twitter that this whole modern TERF movement was a monster she helped create, the receipts were all over the internet, and that she needed to own her shit (for which she unsurprisingly blocked me.) Never really heard much from her after that time period though, so I have no idea what she’s been up to since.
Show threadanniethebruceMar 26, 2023

@timberwraith For a while people who were simply asking why she was referred to as fake goth got nuked from Facebook almost immediately.

I get around that by just never using her name, simply saying "noted fake goth"

Show threadtimberwraithMar 26, 2023
@anniethebruce [sigh] Facebork is such a terrible place, LOL.