feminist ideological conflict transgender-related ideological conflict TERF wars A metaphorical term applied to reference the ideological dispute over whether or not the term "TERF" (shortened from "trans-exclusionary radical feminist") is a slur. It is of note, that the scale of power relations in the so-called "TERF wars" is unbalanced. While cisgender women face little to no potential harms, transgender women risk their entire identities and oftentimes lives in these "debates". Many TERF-related talking points have found their way into mainstream right-wing media and have been used to reduce or eliminate existing rights for transgender persons. This ontology classifies slurs as such if they fulfill all three criteria for a slur as laid out by linguists Christopher Davis and Elin McCready: it must be derogatory towards a particular group, it must be used to subordinate them within some structure of power relations, and the derogated group must be defined by an intrinsic property. TERF satisfies the first condition, fails the third condition, and its positionality on the second condition is dubious. trans-exclusionary radical feminist wars