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In this case if you follow the links in my post I am referring to self-identified actual TERFs.
Psy-oped. There's nothing radical about being TE.
That seems to fundamentally misunderstand how words work together? That's like someone linking to an organization for self-identified gay Republicans and someone else replying "There's nothing gay about being a Republican". Yeah, sure, but that doesn't mean there aren't gay Republicans.
People are perfectly capable of being both gay and Republicans and identifying with both those labels, just as they are perfectly capable of being both radical feminists and anti-trans and identifying with both those labels.
What is so radical about those broads then?
They are actual literal radical feminists. They hate trans women because they hate men(which trans women are), not because of anything against gender transition.
That's not quite right. They hate men but they also hate the idea of a transition itself, since the radical feminist thinking is predicated on there being fundamental, inalterable biological differences between sexes, at least on the level of bodies (not necessarily brains, or if there are, they are conceived as being different from what is traditionally understood). Transition, then is sort of like cheating these differences; either an attempt to present oneself as a woman for nefarious purposes, or an attempt by a woman to try to rid themselves of the (social) burdens of a female body by trying to become a man, which is viewed with pity-often-turning-to-hatred.
That is common sense thinking that was the norm for thousands of years until yesterday.
Well yes, it is. But it's also radical feminist thinking(that's what radical feminist means- it's not a synonym for "particularly extreme feminist")- most feminists deny the obvious differences between men and women and claim that -whatever- will make the differences go away.
What makes them feminists is that they support reordering society(in admittedly vague and poorly defined ways) to put people exhibiting the things making women different from men on top just by nature. It's totally possible to be a moderate radical feminist. JK Rowling is probably an example.
For example, I think most radical feminists would endorse that men are more inclined to violence or criminality and are physically stronger than women (hence the concern about trans women in women's spaces), but they would deny that there are any differences in intellectual interest or interpersonal capability between men and women. For them, as the phrase goes, the sex differences stop at the neck.
They share the latter denial with more mainstream, intersectional feminism, but largely do not share the former endorsement with it -- so that's why there's an area of agreement between conservatives and radfems on the "trans women are physically stronger than women and thus are potentially dangerous to them" point. But the disagreement between radfems and conservatives on sex differences above the neck form a serious point of dissent, where in other times, where feminism in itself was more the issue du jour, they would be the worst of enemies.
From personal experience, I wager that people specifically identifying with the elements of radical feminism that haven't gone mainstream are women who typical-mind-fallacy their way into speaking for most women, who are unlike them. It seems to be a cacaphony of disagreeable women, high-self-confidence women, women with intense intellectual interest, women who don't like children, women who like challenging the status quo, women who are very stubborn. I don't intend those statements to be judgmental, just descriptive. But they are statistically unusual for women, and those traits are more typical of men.
I reckon that the very real but statistically unusual life experience and personalities of the radfems made them underestimate the difference in personality and interest that exist between average men and women. If you're disagreeable, don't like children, want to challenge the status quo (i.e. are a contrarian), then people telling you women are sweet and kind and love cute babies and often reinforce the moral order and so on sure sounds like them trying to lie to you in order to oppress you!
J.K. Rowling, whatever her problems with depression, sure seems like an agentic and stubborn person. I would say that probably the very traits that led her to such great wealth also led her to radical feminism.
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