Feminazi

Feminazi is a pejorative term for feminists, popularized by politically conservative American radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh.

Origin and usage

According to The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang, feminazi refers (pejoratively) to "a committed feminist or a strong-willed woman".[1] The term is a portmanteau of the nouns feminist and Nazi.[2] Radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh popularized the term among his listeners.[3][4] In his 1992 book The Way Things Ought to Be, Limbaugh credited Thomas Hazlett, professor of economics at the University of California at Davis, with coining the term.[5]

Limbaugh has stated that the term feminazi refers to "radical feminists" whose goal is "to see that there are as many abortions as possible"[1][6] and a small group of "militants" whom he distinguishes from "well-intentioned but misguided people who call themselves 'feminists'".[7] However, the term came to be used more widely for the feminist movement as a whole;[8] Limbaugh has used it in reference to the Feminist Majority Foundation, among other groups and individuals.[6] The sociologist Michael Kimmel writes in Angry White Men: American Masculinity at the End of an Era that the term attacks feminism by "phantasmagorically linking campaigns for wage equality, or safety from battery and rape, to the organized, methodical genocide in the Third Reich".[4]

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 that feminazi is a "clever term of propaganda" intended and used to "[bully] into complicit silence women who might otherwise challenge men's violence".[9] In the second edition of her book Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, women's-rights activist Gloria Steinem writes, "I've never met anyone who fits that description [of wanting as many abortions as possible], though [Limbaugh] lavishes it on me among many others".[10]

Cultural impact

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".[11]

Steinem has suggested a boycott of Limbaugh for his use of the term.[12] According to Steinem, "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".[12][13]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Barrett, Grant, ed. (2006). The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang. Oxford University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-19-530447-3.
  2. ↑ "feminazi". Merriam-Webster.
  3. ↑ Chapman, Roger; Ciment, James (2015). Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints and Voices. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-31-747350-3.
  4. 1 2 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.
  5. ↑ Limbaugh, Rush H. (1992). The Way Things Ought to be. Pocket Books. p. 193. ISBN 978-0-67-175145-6.
  6. 1 2 Wilson, John K. (2011). The Most Dangerous Man in America: Rush Limbaugh’s Assault on Reason. Macmillan. pp. 54–57. ISBN 978-0-31-261214-6. When asked in 1995 about the term 'feminazi', he declared: 'It's the way I look at the feminist movement'. Limbaugh referred to the National Center for Women and Policing and the Feminist Majority Foundation as 'feminazis'. So it's not just twenty-five individuals, but every single feminist organization, its leaders, and millions upon millions of Americans with the same views whom Limbaugh compares to Nazis.
  7. ↑ Jamieson, Kathleen Hall; Cappella, Joseph N. (2008). Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative Media Establishment. Oxford University Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-19-974086-4.
  8. ↑ Levit, Nancy (1998). The Gender Line: Men, Women, and the Law. NYU Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-0-81-475295-1.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ 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.
  11. ↑ Williams, Zoe (15 September 2015). "Feminazi: the go-to term for trolls out to silence women". The Guardian.
  12. 1 2 "Ask Gloria: Excerpts from Q&A's with Gloria Steinem". Feminist.com. October–November 1996.
  13. ↑ Kaufman, Michael; Kimmel, Michael (2011). The Guy's Guide to Feminism. Da Capo Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-58-005362-4.

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. Authority in Contention. Research in social movements, conflicts and change: an annual compilation of research. 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.
  • 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. 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.
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