Can we please retire the word "feminazi"?!?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen the word feminazi tossed about on several posts lately. Surely I can't be the only one who finds the term offensive (and on so many levels). As a Jew who has many relatives who survived Nazi concentration camps (and even more relatives who didn't survive), equating feminists with Nazis is just so disgusting, even more so when you consider that Nazis were anti-feminist and anti-choice. And as a woman and feminist who is proud of what women have accomplished in the realm of equality and civil rights over the past 150 years, I am disturbed that so many women throw this term around. I'm always so surprised by the number of women who willingly use a word that was brought into popularity by Rush Limbaugh, who will never be mistaken as a friend to women, a word whose only purpose is to demean women and make their accomplishments and demands for equality seem small and worthless.

No.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a woman and feminazi is the same to me as soup nazi or grammar nazi. The only women who get called feminazi or those who try and impose their views on others.

I don't think feminazi is used when trying to put a woman in her place at all or argue against injustice. It is when they go overboard.

Then again I don't consider myself a feminist myself as I don't see myself as a victim /martyr. I don't see the world through oppression glasses and I don't dislike or try and minimize or vilify men.

You are a feminot.

[Anonymous]

I am 35. I have an advanced degree, as does my mom. My grandmother was the first female manager for her company in her field at the time. I voted the first chance I got. I take this for granted. the suffrage movement and the women's rights movement, to me, are things in history books just like ww2. Studied em, they changed my life for the better, but I take those changes for granted.

I feel that there are a lot of women my age who take women's rights for granted. I never lived in a world without female world leaders, female captains of industry, etc. Do I believe in womens rights in the US and abroad? Yes. But do i identify as a feminist? No. Because growing up in the 90s, feminism had a bad connotation. The overboard feminist. Lilith fair feminist, if I may . Not the woman who sacrificed so that I can be where I am today, personally and professionally, and have a circle of like women around me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ITA - it's such an ugly word, and demeans so many people and concepts at once. Would you believe my FIL used to call me that as a term of endearment? I am Jewish and I work for a reproductive rights organization - he thought he was being cute! Ha. It's taken a few years but he's finally stopped.

One of the key dynamics of American right-wing politics is to take concepts and language that make even the possibility of dissent possible, and de-legitimize them. They're incredibly good at this. Whether it's "feminism" or "socialism", "liberalism" or "the military-industrial complex", it's all about denying their victims the ability to conceive of a critique, much less mount an opposition.

Orwell touched on this in his writings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITA - it's such an ugly word, and demeans so many people and concepts at once. Would you believe my FIL used to call me that as a term of endearment? I am Jewish and I work for a reproductive rights organization - he thought he was being cute! Ha. It's taken a few years but he's finally stopped.

One of the key dynamics of American right-wing politics is to take concepts and language that make even the possibility of dissent possible, and de-legitimize them. They're incredibly good at this. Whether it's "feminism" or "socialism", "liberalism" or "the military-industrial complex", it's all about denying their victims the ability to conceive of a critique, much less mount an opposition.

Orwell touched on this in his writings.

Thanks PP. This is the most thoughtful critique I've seen on this thread. It's amazing how successful this delegitimization has been. I was sad but not shocked to see how quickly some women lined up on here to proclaim "Eww, I'm not a feminist!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITA - it's such an ugly word, and demeans so many people and concepts at once. Would you believe my FIL used to call me that as a term of endearment? I am Jewish and I work for a reproductive rights organization - he thought he was being cute! Ha. It's taken a few years but he's finally stopped.

One of the key dynamics of American right-wing politics is to take concepts and language that make even the possibility of dissent possible, and de-legitimize them. They're incredibly good at this. Whether it's "feminism" or "socialism", "liberalism" or "the military-industrial complex", it's all about denying their victims the ability to conceive of a critique, much less mount an opposition.

Orwell touched on this in his writings.

Thanks PP. This is the most thoughtful critique I've seen on this thread. It's amazing how successful this delegitimization has been. I was sad but not shocked to see how quickly some women lined up on here to proclaim "Eww, I'm not a feminist!"

I was horrified and quite frankly shocked. Jaw dropping shocked. I guess these women on this board are perfectly OK with what's going on in Egypt right now and can't for the life of them figure out what the protests by those --- ewwwwww, feminists ----- are all about.
I chalk it up to ignorance. But if you're that ignorant, just leave the posting alone for a little bit. Read, learn maybe. But don't post like you know anything about feminism or what it means to be a feminist.

[Anonymous]

I'm a proud "feminist" but also a SAHM who bristles when WOHM try to tell me that they are better than me, do more than me, and that I should try to find a job with flexibility like they do.

I'm the feminist. They are the anti-feminists.

[Anonymous]

In recent threads...

The feminists cheered and laughed when Michelle Duggar lost her baby

The feminists jeered and lacked empathy for he military mom who died leaving a husband and kids behind.

The feminists blamed a dad for his wife's depression

The feminists put down SAHMs

The feminists didn't see why a father who is not with the mother should get visitation during the first few months of the baby's life because it is hard enough for mom and that is her time to bond.

This is why I do not identify as a feminist. Do these feminists represent all feminists - no of course not. But that is the voice of modern feminism that now comes through loud and clear. I will loudly speak out for human rights (of all people) but I do not identify as a feminist, that word for me is tainted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In recent threads...

The feminists cheered and laughed when Michelle Duggar lost her baby

The feminists jeered and lacked empathy for he military mom who died leaving a husband and kids behind.

The feminists blamed a dad for his wife's depression

The feminists put down SAHMs

The feminists didn't see why a father who is not with the mother should get visitation during the first few months of the baby's life because it is hard enough for mom and that is her time to bond.

This is why I do not identify as a feminist. Do these feminists represent all feminists - no of course not. But that is the voice of modern feminism that now comes through loud and clear. I will loudly speak out for human rights (of all people) but I do not identify as a feminist, that word for me is tainted.

Hi PP. I posted yesterday at 13:33.

I just read the whole thread about the military mom who died and I never saw anyone identify themselves as "a feminist". I saw a lot of people hating on large families and a lot of people saying pretty callous things. I would personally like to think that those posters would be a lot more compassionate in person - the internet gives a lot of latitude to be cruel anonymously. It's not restricted to people who identify as feminists or people who have just one child instead of 8 or people who have never had a miscarriage or people who stay at home or work at home or whatever.

I am curious as to what you think the "voice" of modern feminism is, and where you think it comes from.

I will happily identify as a feminist, but it's not my primary identity. I believe in the potential of the feminist movement to help solve many social problems for women, or at least to bring awareness of those problems. I do not believe that feminists are all nice people who think kind, charitable things about all other people. Clearly there are a lot of different opinions on what feminism means. This thread demonstrates that perfectly.

For what it's worth, based on what you posted, I would consider you to be a feminist, by my definition. I don't care if you went to Lilith Fair in the 90s (I did) or if you are a stay at home mom now (I'm not) or if you have one kid (like me) or 19 (like Michelle Duggar). Women's rights are human rights. There have always been radical segments of any political movement - the Black Panthers did not speak for all civil rights activists and the Duggars do not speak for all Catholics. It's the nature of having a large population with different intensities of belief.

[Anonymous]

Um....the Duggars aren't Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Ban, Ban, Ban!!! Liberal America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Um....the Duggars aren't Catholic.

Sorry! Shows what I know about them! I'm sure they don't represent their entire (non-Catholic) religious group either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In recent threads...

The feminists cheered and laughed when Michelle Duggar lost her baby

The feminists jeered and lacked empathy for he military mom who died leaving a husband and kids behind.

The feminists blamed a dad for his wife's depression

The feminists put down SAHMs

The feminists didn't see why a father who is not with the mother should get visitation during the first few months of the baby's life because it is hard enough for mom and that is her time to bond.

This is why I do not identify as a feminist. Do these feminists represent all feminists - no of course not. But that is the voice of modern feminism that now comes through loud and clear. I will loudly speak out for human rights (of all people) but I do not identify as a feminist, that word for me is tainted.

Where in the world are you seeing these posts identified as being written by feminists??? It seems to me that you 1) disagree with the viewpoints expressed, and therefore, 2) attribute them to feminists because of some weird agenda you personally have. There are so crazy whacked out people on this discussion board. I can't say for certain because I don't read every thread and don't know who's posting, but they are generally not the voice of feminists today.

Why would you attribute the admittedly nasty responses to feminists? You could just as easily, for example, attribute the military thread's nastiness to people who are anti-military. Seems like you have a lens through which you are bound and determined to see things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Um....the Duggars aren't Catholic.

Sorry! Shows what I know about them! I'm sure they don't represent their entire (non-Catholic) religious group either.

Actually I think they do!!! (Seriously)

[Anonymous]

and the Duggars do not speak for all Catholics

Oh, of course, because they have a lot of kids they MUST be Catholics! Nice assumptions, Ms. Feminist, and spouting off on topics or using examples you, admittedly, know nothing about. In large part, why feminists have a bad rap.