Feminazi is a pejorative term for feminists, which was popularized by politically conservative American radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh.[1]
Rush Limbaugh stated about the use of "feminazi":
I happen to be prolife. I happen to think life is the most sacrosanct thing on the planet, human life. I think that if we cheapen it, or devalue it in any way, then other societal ills result. I do not think it is wise for a society to kill for convenience sake, and I think that is what abortion has become ... A feminazi is a woman, a feminist, to whom the most important thing in her life is seeing to it that all abortions possible take place. That's why there aren't very many. I don't know more than twenty in the whole country. A feminazi is a woman who gets mad when a woman decides to have a baby, is talked out of having an abortion. I really don't understand that, if choice is what this is really all about.” He added that the millions of abortions performed in the United States were comparable to a holocaust. [The Rush Limbaugh Story, Paul D. Colford, pages 184-185][2]
Origin and usage
According to Dictionary.com regarding American Slang, the term "Feminazi" is "is an offensive slur for a feminist whose views are considered radical or extreme."[3]
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".[4] 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".[5]
See also
References
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)
External links
