'Feminazi' is sadly one of the most common examples of Godwin in our society.

[LilithSlave]

You know how the Escapist is so known for calling people out for comparing anything to Nazis, even if it's an appropriate comparison?

This is the one time I've never seen it applied. And this is one of the most appropriate times to tell someone they're a nazi or compare them to nazis. Even if you disagree with some of the more extreme feminists, it's utterly ridiculous to compare them to nazis.

Feminists aren't anything like nazis. It's an ideology opposed to every aspect of nazism on almost every level. The ideology is about social equality. From the side of the oppressed instead of the oppressor. It is opposed to Social Darwinism, inequality, it is non-racial, it is pro-homosexual. And the typical feminist is a hardcore LGBT advocate, anti-racist, anti-nationalist, anti-heterosexist, anti-ableist, and the ideology even harbors many hardcore animal rights activists. Not to say this is an example of all feminists, the annoying thing people label feminists being, is all the same, when there are incredibly varied versions of the ideology. But if anything would be typical of feminists, it's anything but what most people blame them of. The hardcore belief in social justice hardly makes anyone a nazi.

What is a feminist, one may ask. Many have said, "feminism is nothing more than believing men and women are equal", of course, that's true. But that's a bit overly simple and allows people to ignore problems of privilege. It's easy to say you believe in equality even if you do not, because there are all sorts of levels of equality. Feminism is better described as an ideology that is based upon reverse engineering male supremacy in society, out of society. Done from the name of the minority and the oppressed, much like how workerism is proletariat and worker centric. And means that feminism means knowing and understanding the causes and foundations of male supremacist and sexist thought in society, and how to combat and deconstruct it. A feminist isn't someone who opposes sexism in thought, but in action.

People who are sexist towards men, do not make the majority of this ideology. Recognizing that male supremacist thought exists in society and is a problem, is not the same as harboring ill toward men.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Heh, you have a point there, never seen Godwin's law used in regards to feminazis. Possibly it's because nobody (much) seriously is drawing the connection, it's just done to mock them.

I'd question the typical feminist being opposed to all those things, but oddly enough, this is a criticism you don't generally see bandied about.

Oh, and in b4 shitstorm, of course. Bingo cards at the ready.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I don't much care for feminism. As a male, it really isn't my fight. I don't practice chauvinism or support it in any way, but I neither will I actively support feminism. Same with pretty much any other activism movement like homosexual marriage rights, racial or religious equality, etc.

I've never been on the receiving end of such discrimination, and it would be arrogant to even attempt to understand what it's like. And since I can't bring myself to care for a cause that I have no personal connection to, I just ignore it.

And the only time you should compare someone to the Nazis is when they actually do something that the Nazis themselves did. The bad stuff. Obviously Nazis had to breathe too.

 

[mad825]

You know how the Escapist is so known for calling people out for comparing anything to Nazis, even if it's an appropriate comparison?

This is the one time I've never seen it applied. And this is one of the most appropriate times to tell someone they're a nazi or compare them to nazis. Even if you disagree with some of the more extreme feminists, it's utterly ridiculous to compare them to nazis.

That's because you are missing the point. It's a mere figure of speech used to compare the extremism.

Weren't the Black Panthers like the Nazis so to speak?

 

[Captain Booyah]

I got the impression it was more to do with the "extremism" of the term, rather than any direct comparison ideologically. I'm pretty sure the real Nazis weren't too concerned with one or two misplaced apostrophes, either.

 

[Esotera]

I'm fairly sure that most people using that term are referring to extreme feminists (the crazy ones who believe all men are evil and want to rape them). That's an entire different philosophy, and isn't based on equality.

 

[Soviet Steve]

I don't really see the feminazi term crop up much in discussions in general and much less so when compared to the number of times the Nazis are mentioned. Its still an inappropriate term to utilize however. Incidentally has anyone figured out why it is a bad thing that the Nazis are mentioned or is people shouting "Godwins law!" as meaningless as I think it is?

 

[FallenMessiah88]

Calling someone a "feminazi" really has nothing to do with comparing them to the nazi's or the nazi ideology. It's basically because the nazi's were pretty extreme in their beliefs, just like some (not all) feminists are extreme in their beliefs. Therefore: An extreme feminist = feminazi.

 

[Something Amyss]

That's because you are missing the point. It's a mere figure of speech used to compare the extremism.

No, it's really not. It's a slur. That's like saying someone's not being offensive by saying "******" because "there's black people and then there's niggers."

I don't much care for feminism. As a male, it really isn't my fight. I don't practice chauvinism or support it in any way, but I neither will I actively support feminism. Same with pretty much any other activism movement like homosexual marriage rights, racial or religious equality, etc.

I've never been on the receiving end of such discrimination, and it would be arrogant to even attempt to understand what it's like. And since I can't bring myself to care for a cause that I have no personal connection to, I just ignore it.

And the only time you should compare someone to the Nazis is when they actually do something that the Nazis themselves did. The bad stuff. Obviously Nazis had to breathe too.

Wow. I think that's actually worse than the people who are actively on the negative side.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I'm fairly sure that most people using that term are referring to extreme feminists (the crazy ones who believe all men are evil and want to rape them). That's an entire different philosophy, and isn't based on equality.

Who and where are these people? Because when the term comes up and I ask this question, I find there tend to be two answers.

1) Random women on the internet who are verbally hostile towards or attack men.

2) A small fringe of 80s radical feminists like Mary Daly or Andrea Dworkin.

There are male versions of both of these things. Internet misogyny is kind of epidemic, death threats and threats of rape to female writers happen every day. We don't call the people who do this "masculinazis", we call them what they are, misogynists or trolls.

On the more official side, Robert Bly, and I'm deliberately misrepresenting him here because actually I have it on good authority that he's a pretty nice guy, once told his group of male followers to punch women in the mouths if they tried to tell them what it meant to be a man. He wasn't being completely literal, neither is Mary Daly or Sheila Jeffreys. What all these people are advocating, and I can understand why it's threatening to the opposite sex to hear this, is that the two sexes are inherently destructive to one another. Daly is arguing that men are inherently destructive to women, Bly is arguing that women are inherently destructive to men. They're both wrong, but there are plenty of ways to argue they're wrong without calling them "nazis".

I hate the term "feminazi", it's meaningless and none of the people who use it ever know what they're talking about.

 

[thom_cat_]

I don't much care for feminism. As a male, it really isn't my fight. I don't practice chauvinism or support it in any way, but I neither will I actively support feminism. Same with pretty much any other activism movement like homosexual marriage rights, racial or religious equality, etc.

I've never been on the receiving end of such discrimination, and it would be arrogant to even attempt to understand what it's like. And since I can't bring myself to care for a cause that I have no personal connection to, I just ignore it.

And the only time you should compare someone to the Nazis is when they actually do something that the Nazis themselves did. The bad stuff. Obviously Nazis had to breathe too.

Wow. I think that's actually worse than the people who are actively on the negative side.

Ummmm... how?

To the OP: the term "feminazi" is meant to be used to describe ridiculous over the top and extreme "feminists" that don't care about equality as such, but seeing everything as a threat towards women and anything a male does as some sort of discrimination.
Personally, I'm a feminist, I fail to see why anyone wouldn't want equality between the sexes. It's just a pity it's a confused term seeing as people see "fem" and go "OH, it must just be for the womenz."

 

[GrandmaFunk]

it's a hyperbolic term along the lines of "soup nazi" and it refers to the rigid, humorless nature of the ppl pushing a cause.

it shouldn't be taken that seriously

 

[isometry]

That's a good point. I don't think I've ever called anyone a "feminazi", but when I've read the term being used I've never thought about Godwin.

I think most uses of the word do not involve too much thought about the real Nazi party. It's just a fun way to say "militant feminist", etc. Conversely I don't think anyone would call a real female nazi a "feminazi", the term is too silly for that.

It's tempting to say the -nazi suffix is treated lightly here because of misogyny. But what about the term grammar nazi? Is that really a case of Godwin, or is it just a fun phrase? I think it's just a fun phrase, nobody would call a real nazi publication editor a "grammar nazi."

 

[RanD00M]

You do understand that a feminist and a feminazi are two entirely different things.
Do your research before you make such a thread.

 

[Jordi]

Godwin's law is stupid. Comparisons to Hitler and the nazis can be very useful, because pretty much everybody knows them and thinks of them as the quintessential representations of evil. It can obviously be misused, but you don't need a law that comments on the frequency or lack of creativity of the comparison to point that out.

Nazis were both extreme in their beliefs, extremely pro-"one group of people" and extremely anti-"other groups of people". So if you have a meticulous misandrist calling herself a feminist, I think the term "faminazi" is a fairly apt (hyperbolic) slur.

Also, I would like to point out that feminism has absolutely nothing to do with racism, nationalism, ableism, LGBT advocacy and animal rights. Even if a large proportion of feminists also supports these other causes, they do so in addition to feminism, not as a part of it. The causes are all almost completely disjoint. If you support equality of people in general, then that shapes your opinion on all of these things, but feminism itself focuses completely on the (in)equality between men and women. It is a worthy enough cause on it's own.

 

[Zeckt]

I think its interesting one of your points is that feminists are usually advocates to the LGBT community when I've seen them treat male to female transexuals as less then human. I think you mean they are advocate's to LGB, but not the T.

 

[Something Amyss]

Ummmm... how?

It was popularised by Rush Limbaugh in the 90s, not used to discriminate between extremists (in part, because women wanting to wear pants and control their bodies are all extremists). Retroactively defining it, even as people are still using the original term more prevalently (including Rush, who still uses it pretty frequently), is ridiculous. You're justifying the term as it's used by the majority, as well as any rationalisation to your retcon meaning.

 

[Something Amyss]

I think its interesting one of your points is that feminists are usually advocates to the LGBT community when I've seen them treat male to female transexuals as less then human. I think you mean they are advocate's to LGB, but not the T.

Or, you know, as they are not a collective, different people have different feelings within the overall movement.

But how crazy would that be?

 

[Terminal Blue]

I think its interesting one of your points is that feminists are usually advocates to the LGBT community when I've seen them treat male to female transexuals as less then human. I think you mean they are advocate's to LGB, but not the T.

I still think it's fair to say "usually", what you're talking about there is a very small number of radical feminists (also called 'difference feminists') who were significant in the 1980s and have become increasingly less so.

That is if we're talking about questions over the appropriation of the female body, which is the issue those people had. If you're just talking about people being dicks, well, I don't know.. some people are dicks. I think you'd be hard pressed to say that generally speaking feminists are bigger dicks to trans folks than non-feminists.

If you support equality of people in general, then that shapes your opinion on all of these things, but feminism itself focuses completely on the (in)equality between men and women. It is a worthy enough cause on it's own.

Actually, I think for most feminists, certainly educated feminists who have read about the movement, feminism is a system for understanding gender and critiquing inequality in general, not just an argument that men and women need to be equal (whatever that means any more, I don't think it's as clear cut as it was for Mary Wollstonecraft).

You'll often see feminists reading Frantz Fanon, for example, even though he's a black man writing about race. The model of inequality he uses is a very relevant one to feminists, he comes from the same place as other existential humanists like Simone de Bouvoir so he remains hugely important to a particular era of feminist thought. Nowadays, probably the most famous "feminist" writer alive (Judith Butler) is far more famous for her work on sexuality, because to her the regulation of gender roles are absolutely implicated in the treatment of gender non-conformity.

I think I'm with Lilith on this one. Most feminists today, though by no means all, are very invested in wider issues in social inequality. Indeed, you can't just point to "women" as a homogenous mass of people with similar trials and tribulations without acknowledging that there are differences between women which carry their own forms of inequality and discrimination.