| Revision as of 02:35, 30 November 2019 editUser2083146168 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users1,272 edits →Modern usage: thesaurus fix, for consistencyTag: Visual edit← Previous edit | Revision as of 03:07, 30 November 2019 edit undoUser2083146168 (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users1,272 edits →Origin: Added 2 primary Oxford dictionary. Using just political dictionary is unbalanced. Source for 2nd dictionary is cited; can't find the 1st dictionary online free, although I have private access to it.Tag: 2017 wikitext editorNext edit → | ||
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| their “belief that men aren’t necessary.”|via=}}</ref> whom he distinguishes from "well-intentioned but misguided people who call themselves 'feminists'".{{r|Jamieson & Cappella}} His friend Thomas Hazlett however was credited as coining it to describe "any female who is intolerant of any point of view that challenges ]".<ref name=":0" /> ''The New York Times'' described it in 1994 as "one of favorite epithets for supporters of women's rights".{{r|Seelye}} Limbaugh has used it in reference to the ] and the activists ] and ], among others.{{r|Wilson}} Steinem writes that "I've never met anyone who fits that description , though lavishes it on me among many others".{{r|Steinem 1995}} | their “belief that men aren’t necessary.”|via=}}</ref> whom he distinguishes from "well-intentioned but misguided people who call themselves 'feminists'".{{r|Jamieson & Cappella}} His friend Thomas Hazlett however was credited as coining it to describe "any female who is intolerant of any point of view that challenges ]".<ref name=":0" /> ''The New York Times'' described it in 1994 as "one of favorite epithets for supporters of women's rights".{{r|Seelye}} Limbaugh has used it in reference to the ] and the activists ] and ], among others.{{r|Wilson}} Steinem writes that "I've never met anyone who fits that description , though lavishes it on me among many others".{{r|Steinem 1995}} | ||
| According to ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang'', the term refers (pejoratively) to "a committed feminist or a strong-willed woman".{{r|Barrett}} | According to ''The Oxford Dictionary'', the term refers to "a radical feminist". According to Oxford Learner's Dictionary, it is "an offensive word for a feminist with strong or extreme views".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/feminazi?q=feminazi|title=feminazi noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes {{!}} Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com|website=www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com|access-date=2019-11-30}}</ref> In ''The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang'', the term refers (pejoratively) to "a committed feminist or a strong-willed woman".{{r|Barrett}} | ||
| === Response === | === Response === | ||
Revision as of 03:07, 30 November 2019
Pejorative term for feminists | The neutrality of this article's introduction is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (November 2019) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Feminazi is a pejorative term for feminists, which was popularized by politically conservative American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.
Origin
feminazi is a portmanteau of the nouns feminist and Nazi. The term appeared in the early 1990s when Rush Limbaugh popularized it in his NPR radio show to name women who defended the right to abortion. Limbaugh credited the university professor Thomas Hazlett with coining it.
Limbaugh, who has been vocally critical of the feminist movement, stated that the term feminazi refers to "radical feminists" whose goal is "to see that there are as many abortions as possible" and a small group of "militants", who are characterized by their "quest for power" and their "belief that men aren't necessary", whom he distinguishes from "well-intentioned but misguided people who call themselves 'feminists'". His friend Thomas Hazlett however was credited as coining it to describe "any female who is intolerant of any point of view that challenges militant feminism". The New York Times described it in 1994 as "one of favorite epithets for supporters of women's rights". Limbaugh has used it in reference to the Feminist Majority Foundation and the activists Gloria Steinem and Susan Sarandon, among others. Steinem writes that "I've never met anyone who fits that description , though lavishes it on me among many others".
According to The Oxford Dictionary, the term refers to "a radical feminist". According to Oxford Learner's Dictionary, it is "an offensive word for a feminist with strong or extreme views". In The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang, the term refers (pejoratively) to "a committed feminist or a strong-willed woman".
Response
While Limbaugh states that feminazis, as opposed to mainstream feminists, are those "who are happy about the large number of abortions we have" in the United States, the anti-violence educator Jackson Katz argues that "no such feminists exist", and feminazi is a "clever term of propaganda" that is intended and used to " into complicit silence women who might otherwise challenge men's violence". In his book Angry White Men, the sociologist Michael Kimmel says the term is used to attack feminist campaigns for equal pay and safety from rape and domestic violence by associating them with Nazi genocide.
According to Helen Lewis, deputy editor of the New Statesman, "the idea of conflating a liberation movement with Nazism is just deeply ignorant. It’s self-undermining, because it’s so over the top." Laura Bates, the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, has said that "It’s a desperate attempt to demonise us, and it’s frustrating, because if it wasn’t such an offensive word, you could actually start to embrace it and own it".
Gloria Steinem has suggested a boycott of Limbaugh for his use of the term, stating, "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".
Modern usage
After Limbaugh first used the term, it became widely used to refer to feminism as a whole, especially in reference to women who supposedly "blame everything on gender" including " sexism for their troubles" as well as feminists who are bossy, hate men and femininity. The term is used to discredit arguments corresponding to extremist stances aimed at favouring women, and more generally towards radical feminist groups with a totalitarian stance. Specific actions such as the employment of sexual harassment laws in order to threaten the livelihood of innocent men have also attracted the use of the term.
According to the feminist critic, Jessa Crispin, the term is increasingly used by by young feminists more often than conservative men, who use it to shame and dissociate themselves from radical feminists.
Protests
A conservative Catholic Spanish group launched a bus campaign against 'Feminazis' with an image of lipstick-wearing Hitler, as a protest against sexist laws on domestic violence, demanding that laws are made gender-neutral.
See also
References
- "feminazi". Merriam-Webster.
- Raess, Matthias. "Semantic Change and Nazi Compounds (Manuscript in prep)".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Lacy, Tim (2010). "Limbaugh, Rush". In Chapman, Roger (ed.). Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices, Volume 1. M.E. Sharpe. p. 323. ISBN 978-0-76-561761-3.
- ^ Kimmel, Michael (2013). Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era. Nation Books. pp. 42–44. ISBN 978-1-56-858696-0.
- Limbaugh, Rush H. (1992). The Way Things Ought to be. Pocket Books. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-67-175145-6.
- ^ Jamieson, Kathleen H.; Cappella, Joseph N. (2008). Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment. Oxford University Press. pp. 102–103. ISBN 978-0-19-974086-4.
- ^ Barrett, Grant, ed. (2006). The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang. Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-19-530447-3.
- ^ Wilson, John K. (2011). The Most Dangerous Man in America: Rush Limbaugh’s Assault on Reason. Macmillan. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-31-261214-6.
{{cite book}}: Invalid|ref=harv(help) - ^ Moi, Toril (2006-10-01). ""I Am Not a Feminist, But …": How Feminism Became the F-Word". PMLA. 121 (5): 1735–1741. doi:10.1632/pmla.2006.121.5.1735. ISSN 0030-8129.
If we wonder what "militant feminism" is, we learn, at the end of the quotation, that "militant women" are characterized by their "quest for power" and their "belief that men aren't necessary."
{{cite journal}}: line feed character in|quote=at position 107 (help) - Seelye, Katherine Q. (December 12, 1994). "Republicans Get a Pep Talk From Rush Limbaugh". The New York Times. p. A16.
- Steinem, Gloria (1995). Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (2nd ed.). New York, N.Y.: Henry Holt and Company. p. xv. ISBN 0-80-504202-4.
- "feminazi noun - Definition, pictures, pronunciation and usage notes | Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary at OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com". www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
- Katz, Jackson (2006). The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and how All Men Can Help. Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-40-225376-8.
- Williams, Zoe (15 September 2015). "Feminazi: the go-to term for trolls out to silence women". The Guardian.
- ^ "Ask Gloria: Excerpts from Q&A's with Gloria Steinem". Feminist.com. October–November 1996.
- Kaufman, Michael; Kimmel, Michael (2011). The Guy's Guide to Feminism. Da Capo Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-58-005362-4.
- Levit, Nancy (1998). The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law. NYU Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-81-475295-1.
- Brake, Deborah L. (2007). "Perceiving Subtle Sexism: Mapping the Social-Psychological Forces and Legal Narratives that Obscure Gender Bias". Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. Rochester, NY.
The dominant story in mainstream culture is that women and minorities are hyper-vigilant in perceiving bias, to the point of mistakenly perceiving sexism and racism when it does not really exist. Mainstream culture is replete with derogatory references to "feminazi" women who blame everything on gender, and with depictions of strident women who are too quick to blame sexism for their troubles.
{{cite journal}}: line feed character in|quote=at position 49 (help) - Bridges, Elizabeth (2015-02-28). "Reacting to "The F-Word": How the Media Shapes Public Reactions to the Feminist Movement". 2015 Honors Council of Illinois Region Student Research Symposium.
There is a misguided notion that feminists are loud, bossy women that hate men and all things feminine, causing the image of the "feminazi" to be created.
- Rodríguez-Darias, Alberto Jonay; Aguilera-Ávila, Laura (2018-01-01). "Gender-based harassment in cyberspace. The case of Pikara magazine". Women's Studies International Forum. 66: 63–69. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2017.10.004. ISSN 0277-5395.
Another recurring theme was the notion that the arguments set out in the articles and comments do not correspond to a feminist perspective, but rather to an extremist stance that is aimed at favouring women in a seeming sex war. Expressions such as "feminazi" or "misandry" were used to discredit and slander certain arguments in these discursive confrontations.
{{cite journal}}: line feed character in|quote=at position 66 (help) - ""Feminazis" (We Can Do It!). La moda extremista del pensamiento feminista postmoderno. – Critica.cl" (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2019-11-30.
The term was popularized by the American Rush Limbaugh in the 90s to name women who defended the right to abortion (Newspaper Cataluma, 2014), the expression that was initially out of place, is currently used to designate groups Feminists, not for their requests for safe abortion, but for their rigid and totalitarian posture that reaches pathetic extremes.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - Schaffer, Kay (1998-11). "Scare words: 'Feminism', postmodern consumer culture and the media". Continuum. 12 (3): 321–334. doi:10.1080/10304319809365775. ISSN 1030-4312.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - Crispin, Jessa (2017). Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto. Melville House. p. 708. ISBN 9781524781231.
- Jones, Jessica (2019-03-01). "Spanish conservatives launch bus campaign against 'Feminazis' with image of lipstick-wearing Hitler". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-11-29.
Further reading
- Dye, April (30 March 2006). "Angry Feminazis and Manhaters: How Women Develop Positive Feminist Identities in the Face of Stigma". Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Women in Psychology, Ypsilanti/Ann Arbor, MI.
- Ferree, Myra Max (2004). "Soft Repression: Ridicule, Stigma, and Silencing in Gender-based Movements". In Myers, Daniel J.; Cress, Daniel M. (eds.). Authority in Contention. Research in social movements, conflicts and change: an annual compilation of research. Vol. 25. Emerald Group Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-7623-1037-1. ISSN 0163-786X.
- Hazlett, Thomas Winslow (December 1987). "H.L. Mencken: The Soul Behind the Sass". Reason.
We could really use him now, what with Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, Tip O'Neill and Jerry Falwell, Gary Hart and Donna Rice, the Moonies, the feminazis, the Naderite crusaders, and the television evangelists.
- Limbaugh, Rush H. (1992). "The Limbaugh Lexicon". The Way Things Ought to Be. Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0-67-175145-6.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help) - Martirosyan, Lucy (August 3, 2016). "Check out this cumbia response to the word 'feminazi'". Public Radio International. Archived from the original on November 9, 2016.
- Rudman, Chelsea (12 March 2012). "'Feminazi': The History Of Limbaugh's Trademark Slur Against Women". Media Matters for America.
- Skutta, Peter (1997). "Linguistic politics and language usage in the debate on "Political Correctness"". hausarbeiten.de.
- Waisanen, Don (2013). "An Alternative Sense of Humor: The Problems With Crossing Comedy and Politics in Public Discourse". In Rountree, Clarke (ed.). Venomous Speech: Problems with American Political Discourse on the Right and Left. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. pp. 308–9. ISBN 978-0-31-339867-4.
{{cite book}}: External link in|chapterurl=|chapterurl=ignored (|chapter-url=suggested) (help)