Date of Award
5-1-2020
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Communication Studies
First Advisor
Pensoneau-Conway, Sandra
Abstract
Feminist Current is a multi-author Canadian self-proclaimed feminist website which frequently publishes trans-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) discourse via blogs, podcasts, and global news. This project is a critical discourse analysis of the ways in which Feminist Current communicatively constructs and deconstructs transgender identity in problematic and exclusionary ways. In this study, I consider significant definitions given through Feminist Current, entertain the question of whether TERF is a slur, and discuss the major themes. Based on twenty-three sampled essays published on Feminist Current, I find that Feminist Current authors use five major themes in their discourse: violence against women, strategic censorship, antimanipulation and pro-bodily autonomy, performances of humor and naivete, and calls for solidarity. This discourse functions to separate transwomen from women’s spaces and position transwomen as illegitimate and aggressive, while simultaneously repositioning radical feminism as a superior ideological framing.
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