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Feminazi

Feminazi is a pejorative term used by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh who credits his friend Tom Hazlett a professor of economics at the University of California, Davis with coining the term to describe any feminist who is intolerant of points of view that challenge militant feminism. 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.

According to Limbaugh, "a feminazi is a woman to whom the most important thing in life is seeing to it that as many abortions as possible are performed" (source: The Way Things Ought To Be , Rush Limbaugh, p. 192–93, July 2, 1992). Limbaugh also uses the "feminazi" term during discussions of feminist actions or attitudes not specifically related to abortion. According to Limbaugh, the term denotes a woman who makes radical feminism her lifestyle; it is not a term to be applied to feminists in general, but is rather a title to be earned through extremely excessive activism.

Others use the term more loosely than Limbaugh, referring to one or more feminists, drawing an allusion between them and the Nazis, often with varying definitions and explanations of the feminazi term. The term seems to be often used to refer to "militant" feminists, using the "nazi" portion of the term to draw an analogy with totalitarianism in general rather than the Nazi party per se.

The use of the term is often seen a form of ad hominem attack; especially when the term is used more loosely, it can also be seen as ironic or cruel or a display of ignorance, as Hitler's National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) strongly opposed feminism and advocated the singular role of the woman as a "breeder" and child-care provider. The word itself is a portmanteau of "feminist" and "Nazi". If used ironically, the word plays on the allegedly "excessively" activist feminists' image as intolerant or discriminatory in their alleged hatred toward anyone who isn't them.

Last updated: 10-08-2005 14:34:46
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