The Failure of Cis Feminism

Abstract

Abstract Faced with the proliferation of TERF rhetoric outside academia, this article proposes a case study of an anti-trans, anti-gender, anti–sex work graduate student at a progressive American institution to challenge feminism to address the ways in which it is providing a space of unchallenging silence for TERF views to remain a nonissue and receive academic support and accreditation. An examination of this specific student highlights a narrative of radicalization occurring during her studies at the university. A challenge for cis feminists to self-reflect and step up, this article argues that cis feminism has for now failed to address the transphobia in its midst, thus forcing trans students and scholars to lose faith in feminism and to find care and support elsewhere.