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Feminazi (also spelled femi-Nazi or femme-nazi) is a pejorative, derogatory term used predominantly in the United States and Canada by political conservatives to characterize and belittle feminists who are perceived to be intolerant of conservative views. The word itself is a portmanteau of the nouns feminist and Nazi. The term does not relate to the National Socialist Women's Organization or any other organization of women who served Nazi Germany.

Origin

The term was popularized by conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, who credited his friend Tom Hazlett, a professor of law and economics at George Mason University, with coining the term. Limbaugh originally claimed that the word “feminazi” not only referred to an extreme feminist but a woman whose goal was that there should be as many abortions as possible, saying at one point that there were fewer than twenty-five true feminazis in the U.S.

Context

The term feminazi has developed various connotations. In colloquial usage, “Feminazi” has even been used as a derogatory way to refer to a lesbian, regardless of whether or not the lesbian identifies herself as a feminist.

Among some extreme pro-life conservatives, the term equates feminist advocacy for reproductive freedom and pro-choice legislation with promoting a holocaust.

Among some men's rights and father's rights groups, the term is used to refer to feminists they believe villify men. These men's groups ague that radical feminism establishes a two-class society in which a privileged group (women) target and discriminate against another group (men). Radical feminist or feminazi agendas which blame all social ills on men or 'patriarchy' can be likened to NAZI propaganda that blamed all social ills on jews or judaism.

Father's rights advocates have complained for decades about the fundamental injustice of the family courts and laws such as VAWA which discriminate against men much like Jim Crow Laws discriminated against blacks and NAZI Nuremberg Laws discriminated against Jews. Men's rights advocates such as Angry Harry and Fathers for Life analyze similarities between feminism and nazism as key to explaining discrimination of men in the family court, and the destruction of the traditional family.

Response

The term has garnered much criticism over the years. Some consider conservatives’ use of the term “feminazi” to refer to feminists ironic because German feminists and other political dissenters were among the victims of Nazi concentration camps and Nazi work camps. Gloria Steinem said in an interview, “Hitler came to power against the strong feminist movement in Germany, padlocked the family planning clinics, and declared abortion a crime against the state--all views that more closely resemble Rush Limbaugh’s.” Many prominent German feminists like Helene Stöcker, Trude Weiss-Rosmarin and Clara Zetkin were forced to flee Nazi Germany. In fact, Nazi philosophy is documented as being in clear opposition to gender equality.

Liberal feminists have argued the term is a way to dismiss all feminism and any group run by or for women as being extreme or man-hating. (An example of this can be seen when Rush Limbaugh referred to the National Center for Women and Policing as feminazis - Rush Limbaugh Show (broadcast 22 June 2005).) As a way to co-opt or de-fuse these derogatory connotations, some feminists have employed the term in a satirical way. One group posts ironical photos and humorous writing on a website as a way to undermine the stereotype.

Many cultural theorists believe the term feminazi is one way in which social conservatives attempt to minimize and marginalize the work of liberal feminists (equal pay initiatives, sex discrimination and sexual harassment law, reproductive freedoms , promotion of diversity, and legislation that helps protect women from violence). Young feminists have observed that social conservatives, like Rush Limbaugh and men's rights groups, frequently use the term feminazi to stereotype the entire feminist movement, particularly among the generation of people who did not experience the “sexual revolution.”

Libertarian feminists (who should not be confused with liberal feminists with whom they are often in opposition) have proposed their own term, “gender feminist”, to replace the term “feminazi”.

Feminazi in popular culture

• A similar term Femnazi was coined earlier as the name of the male-hating female inhabitants of the fictional planet, Femnaz, in a Legion of Super-heroes story from a 1964 issue of Adventure Comics written by Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel.

• In an April 2006 episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert used the word femistapo in his “The Word” segment. Femistapo is a portmanteau word combining feminist and Gestapo. It is a parody of the word feminazi.

• In an episode of The West Wing, Josh Lyman refers to C.J. Cregg as a “feminista”, a portmanteau word combining “feminist” and “sandinista”.

See also

• Godwin's law

References

1. Media Matters
2. http://mediamatters.org/items/200409170006 Media Matters]
3. ^ Rush H. Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be, Pocket Books, 1992 p.193

   “I prefer to call the most obnoxious feminists what they really are: feminazis. Tom Hazlett, a good friend who is an esteemed and highly regarded professor of economics at the University of California at Davis, coined the term to describe any female who is intolerant of any point of view that challenges militant feminism. I often use it to describe women who are obsessed with perpetuating a modern-day holocaust: abortion. There are 1.5 million abortions a year...”

4. Rush H. Limbaugh, The Way Things Ought to Be, Pocket Books, 1992 p.296

   “Feminazi: Widely misunderstood by most to simply mean ‘feminist’. Not so, boobala . A Feminazi is a feminist to whom the most important thing in life is ensuring that as many abortions as possible occur. There are fewer than twenty-five known Feminazis in the United States…”

5. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3693/is_199906/ai_n8832106/pg_2
6. http://www.gabnet.com/lit/deich3e.htm
7. http://www.fathersforlife.org/culture/ideology.htm
8. ^ Ask Gloria (second question down)
9. When is calling a Jew a Nazi not anti-Semitic? When she’s a feminist Jew.
10. Triangles and Tribulations: The Politics of Nazi Symbols
11. Kinder,_Küche,_Kirche#Third_Reich
12. http://mediamatters.org/items/200508160001?offset=20&show=1
13. http://www.gurl.com/findout/label/pages/0,,694923,00.html
14. http://www.ifeminists.net/introduction/editorials/2001/1218.html

• Neologisms
• Pejorative terms for people
• The Rush Limbaugh Show
• Political neologisms