Good question. That very well may be, but do they truly hate men or just fear them? And are fear and hate the exact same thing? The way the world is right now, I don’t want unisex bathrooms unless they are one-at-a-time types because I wouldn’t feel safe using one unless there was always an attendant. I’m not worried about trans women because I know they aren’t using that as a cover to be predatory but I wouldn’t want men in there, because overwhelmingly it is men who prey on women. I know there are some radical feminists who do see men as kind of sub-human because of this and I would put them in the misandry category — although is hate that comes from fear more about the hate or the fear? I’m not sure there is a definite line.

I’m certainly not condoning their discriminatory stance but if you are irrationally filled with fear and also uncomfortable with the gender binary of patriarchy being disrupted, I think that’s when you end up with TERFs. I could be wrong, of course, but being afraid that men will hurt you is pretty much an all day, everyday experience for most women (even if it’s just subconsciously in the background a lot of the time). I don’t see that as the exact same thing as hate, but that’s just my perspective, although probably all hate has some fear quality to it.

I used to live in North Carolina and when the so-called “bathroom bill” was enacted, I participated in a lot of discussions about it, mostly with other women. My group of friends all agreed that the “solution” to this problem was to work to create a society where women didn’t need to be so afraid of men, and then no-one would care who went to the bathroom where. Focusing on trans people was kind of the tail wagging the dog. Easier said than done, however.