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There have been a few linguists out there who claim that politicians can sometimes create a "story" that sticks in the public mind so well it ends up framing the entire debate around an issue, whether that issue be the war on terror, poverty, abortion or whatever. While the degree to which they succeed is debatable, I think it's impossible to deny that the story of the "ugly, hairy, lesbian, man-hating feminist" has been one that sticks, even among women and even among feminist women.
Right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh contributed one of the most egregious tools in the perpetration of this story when he popularized the term "Femnazi" in his book The Way Things Ought To Be (wikipedia has a quote). In the quote, he labels feminists "femnazis" because they perpetuate the Holocaust of abortion. However, Rush Limbaugh has used it to mean far more than that. Even if you do believe that abortion is murder, it's impossible to deny that Rush says some crappy, anti-feminist, bullshit.
If you believe any of what he says is reasonable, then fuck off, because this article isn't for you, but I digress.
Feminists, for one reason or another, have sometimes appropriated the word "femnazi." I've seen maybe one occasion where the woman in question genuinely hated men, but more often I see feminists using the word "femnazi" to refer to themselves, as a way of taking back what would normally be a slur. For the most part, I'm cool with this.
However, I have ALSO seen it being used by self-proclaimed feminists use it to refer to ... well, THOSE feminists. Who "those" feminists are depends on the woman using the word. "Those" feminists can range from misandrists to lesbian separatists to radical feminists to pro-abortion feminists to someone who just doesn't like your favorite TV show. The point of the word is to make a distinction. The user of the word is one of the "good guys," not like "those" feminists.
I do not advocate censorship, but in my life I've found it necessary to strike words from my vocabulary, and "femnazi" is one of them. I agree that there are no bad words, but bad intentions, but if you use some words in certain ways, like using "gay" to mean "stupid" or "pussy" to mean "weak," you ARE using the word with a bad intention. ("Gay" to mean "homosexual" and "pussy" to mean "vagina" I'm fine with, though.) In a similar vein, if you consider yourself a feminist, and use the word "femnazi" to mean "those" feminists, you are using the word with a bad intention, one that hurts the cause of feminism far more than any perceived help.
There are many reasons why I believe this to be so.
1.) The word never means just one type of feminist, and can at any moment mean ANY type of feminist. See the above paragraph where I talk about the myriad types of feminists who have been called femnazis by other feminists? Is it really right to characterize a misandrist and a woman who thinks that, say, a certain comic could be more palatable if the superheroine wasn't always getting captured and tied up, as being on the same team (because conspiracy-esque vocabulary usually goes hand-in-hand with this stuff) that is destroying feminism for all the GOOD feminists like you?
It is often said that feminism is not the Borg, because it's not, and in the feminist community that goes for both who you are aligned and opposed to. The woman who you disagree with on, say, Frank Miller's writing is probably not in league with the same woman who protests men on campus making snow-penises because they're symbols of rape or the woman who insists communism need go hand-in-hand with feminism. So why would you put them all under one label for any reason other than to be dismissive?
Of course, you don't have to agree with all feminists all the time, but more on that later.
2.) Nevermind "femnazi," "Nazi" is at the point where it could mean anything. The reason that Godwin's Law became a law is evidence of the ubiquitous nature of the insult. The things I've seen compared to Nazism have included genocide, totalitarian regimes, imperialist policies, invasions and hate groups, but have also included calling someone a "misogynist," inability to listen to others, enforcing message board rules, being a stickler about grammar or just being mean.
I make a point of this, because when I challenged a feminist on using the word femnazi, she insisted that *I* did not actually know anything about Hitler's regime. And that femnazis are women who hate men and want to censor their comic books just like HITLER HATED JEWS AND WAS A CENSOR. Because I somehow had managed to not know what Hitler did. (Guess reading books on the Holocaust and visiting Holocaust museums and listening to lectures on it at my Temple functions doesn't count for much.)
That she compared criticism of art to censorship is ridiculous, but what is equally ridiculous is the idea that femnazi is always used to compare feminist beliefs with what the Nazis ACTUALLY DID. In his original quote, Rush Limbaugh conflated pro-abortion principles with the Holocaust, and called women "Nazis" as a result, disregarding The Third Reich's anti-abortion policies for the "right" types of women. Clearly, the word feminazi can have little to do with actual Nazis.
3.) The word femnazi panders to the myth of the hairy, lesbian, man-hating feminist. When feminists use the word "femnazi" to mean "those" feminists, nine times out of ten they're usually not talking to who they perceive as "those" feminists. Feminists usually say this to non-feminists, usually men, to mark themselves as "safe."
Sometimes this comes from an admirable place, like the "catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" place. If you establish yourself as a safe, good feminist who will promise not to hack off anybody's penis, you can presumably encourage someone who is indisposed to listen to feminists to listen to YOU.
But establishing yourself as an exception to the stereotype does nothing to break down the fact that it IS a stereotype. It hurts both other feminists, as well as yourself, as you're now limiting yourself to making your argument for feminism framed by the story that feminism IS inherently man-hating and hostile. Like ugly, hairy, lesbian, man-haters ... or Nazis.
4.) Calling someone a femnazi does not endear them to your cause. There's nothing wrong with wanting to criticize the feminist movement from within. I also understand that feminists are neither monolithic nor perfect. In the past and today, feminists have said things that are sexist, misandrist, misogynist, racist, or just plain stupid or reprehensible. Even the famous ones who have made invaluable strides for women have had their blunders, such as Betty Friedan's "lavender menace" comment. There are lots of stuff some feminists want and have said they want both in academia and on the Internet that I find totally against my personal principles.
In the ideal world, feminism is striving for the rights of 50 percent of the population of the world and 50 percent of that population is bound to disagree and have different goals. As much as we may want to, we can never all be one big, happy family and I believe trying to stifle internal debate and criticism under the banner of sisterhood is misguided at best and a form of stonewalling others into accepting YOUR brand of feminism at worst.
Debate is healthy, but starting that debate by labeling those who disagree with you as a "femnazi" is not opening dialogue. It puts them on the defense with a loaded word and distinguishes them as the bad guy and you as the good guy. And if you equate someone with one of the worst dictatorial/genocidal regimes in modern history, there's a pretty good bet they're not going to stick around to find out WHY you think that way.
Now, conversely, I do believe rage CAN be acceptable, and rage in the face of perceived, say, misandry is acceptable. But ... remember what I said about "femnazi" meaning anything depending on who says it?
If you're angry, be angry, but be responsible. Don't use a word that can be used to disparage the movement as a whole to inflate your argument. Instead, call a misandrist a misandrist or a racist a racist or a moron a moron.
I'm not asking to ban the word, or ban Limbaugh, or anything like that. But I believe it is healthy to re-consider the intentions of how we use words. If you consider yourself a feminist, I believe it is irresponsible to call other feminists, no matter how reprehensible their views, "femnazis." The word came from a place where it was meant to denigrate all feminists en masse, has been used to denigrate feminists to a point where it doesn't mean anything, encourages stereotypes and stifles debate. And if you believe in free speech, none of that is good.
So please, in the future re-think your use of the word "femnazi." And for the love of God or any other deity you may believe or not believe in, don't bring in "ugly" or "hairy" or "lesbian" with it. There's something wrong with being a man-hater, but there's nothing wrong with the other three.
And for those of you who think this issue isn't important 1.) BLAH! and 2.) give a hand to those low-income women of color left behind as Hurricane Gustav approaches (got from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
morchades who got from badgerbag who got from lavendertook who got from La Chola although I can't find where wait here it is). (my father bought for two zuzim, chad gadyaaaaa ...).
Right-wing commentator Rush Limbaugh contributed one of the most egregious tools in the perpetration of this story when he popularized the term "Femnazi" in his book The Way Things Ought To Be (wikipedia has a quote). In the quote, he labels feminists "femnazis" because they perpetuate the Holocaust of abortion. However, Rush Limbaugh has used it to mean far more than that. Even if you do believe that abortion is murder, it's impossible to deny that Rush says some crappy, anti-feminist, bullshit.
If you believe any of what he says is reasonable, then fuck off, because this article isn't for you, but I digress.
Feminists, for one reason or another, have sometimes appropriated the word "femnazi." I've seen maybe one occasion where the woman in question genuinely hated men, but more often I see feminists using the word "femnazi" to refer to themselves, as a way of taking back what would normally be a slur. For the most part, I'm cool with this.
However, I have ALSO seen it being used by self-proclaimed feminists use it to refer to ... well, THOSE feminists. Who "those" feminists are depends on the woman using the word. "Those" feminists can range from misandrists to lesbian separatists to radical feminists to pro-abortion feminists to someone who just doesn't like your favorite TV show. The point of the word is to make a distinction. The user of the word is one of the "good guys," not like "those" feminists.
I do not advocate censorship, but in my life I've found it necessary to strike words from my vocabulary, and "femnazi" is one of them. I agree that there are no bad words, but bad intentions, but if you use some words in certain ways, like using "gay" to mean "stupid" or "pussy" to mean "weak," you ARE using the word with a bad intention. ("Gay" to mean "homosexual" and "pussy" to mean "vagina" I'm fine with, though.) In a similar vein, if you consider yourself a feminist, and use the word "femnazi" to mean "those" feminists, you are using the word with a bad intention, one that hurts the cause of feminism far more than any perceived help.
There are many reasons why I believe this to be so.
1.) The word never means just one type of feminist, and can at any moment mean ANY type of feminist. See the above paragraph where I talk about the myriad types of feminists who have been called femnazis by other feminists? Is it really right to characterize a misandrist and a woman who thinks that, say, a certain comic could be more palatable if the superheroine wasn't always getting captured and tied up, as being on the same team (because conspiracy-esque vocabulary usually goes hand-in-hand with this stuff) that is destroying feminism for all the GOOD feminists like you?
It is often said that feminism is not the Borg, because it's not, and in the feminist community that goes for both who you are aligned and opposed to. The woman who you disagree with on, say, Frank Miller's writing is probably not in league with the same woman who protests men on campus making snow-penises because they're symbols of rape or the woman who insists communism need go hand-in-hand with feminism. So why would you put them all under one label for any reason other than to be dismissive?
Of course, you don't have to agree with all feminists all the time, but more on that later.
2.) Nevermind "femnazi," "Nazi" is at the point where it could mean anything. The reason that Godwin's Law became a law is evidence of the ubiquitous nature of the insult. The things I've seen compared to Nazism have included genocide, totalitarian regimes, imperialist policies, invasions and hate groups, but have also included calling someone a "misogynist," inability to listen to others, enforcing message board rules, being a stickler about grammar or just being mean.
I make a point of this, because when I challenged a feminist on using the word femnazi, she insisted that *I* did not actually know anything about Hitler's regime. And that femnazis are women who hate men and want to censor their comic books just like HITLER HATED JEWS AND WAS A CENSOR. Because I somehow had managed to not know what Hitler did. (Guess reading books on the Holocaust and visiting Holocaust museums and listening to lectures on it at my Temple functions doesn't count for much.)
That she compared criticism of art to censorship is ridiculous, but what is equally ridiculous is the idea that femnazi is always used to compare feminist beliefs with what the Nazis ACTUALLY DID. In his original quote, Rush Limbaugh conflated pro-abortion principles with the Holocaust, and called women "Nazis" as a result, disregarding The Third Reich's anti-abortion policies for the "right" types of women. Clearly, the word feminazi can have little to do with actual Nazis.
3.) The word femnazi panders to the myth of the hairy, lesbian, man-hating feminist. When feminists use the word "femnazi" to mean "those" feminists, nine times out of ten they're usually not talking to who they perceive as "those" feminists. Feminists usually say this to non-feminists, usually men, to mark themselves as "safe."
Sometimes this comes from an admirable place, like the "catch more flies with honey than with vinegar" place. If you establish yourself as a safe, good feminist who will promise not to hack off anybody's penis, you can presumably encourage someone who is indisposed to listen to feminists to listen to YOU.
But establishing yourself as an exception to the stereotype does nothing to break down the fact that it IS a stereotype. It hurts both other feminists, as well as yourself, as you're now limiting yourself to making your argument for feminism framed by the story that feminism IS inherently man-hating and hostile. Like ugly, hairy, lesbian, man-haters ... or Nazis.
4.) Calling someone a femnazi does not endear them to your cause. There's nothing wrong with wanting to criticize the feminist movement from within. I also understand that feminists are neither monolithic nor perfect. In the past and today, feminists have said things that are sexist, misandrist, misogynist, racist, or just plain stupid or reprehensible. Even the famous ones who have made invaluable strides for women have had their blunders, such as Betty Friedan's "lavender menace" comment. There are lots of stuff some feminists want and have said they want both in academia and on the Internet that I find totally against my personal principles.
In the ideal world, feminism is striving for the rights of 50 percent of the population of the world and 50 percent of that population is bound to disagree and have different goals. As much as we may want to, we can never all be one big, happy family and I believe trying to stifle internal debate and criticism under the banner of sisterhood is misguided at best and a form of stonewalling others into accepting YOUR brand of feminism at worst.
Debate is healthy, but starting that debate by labeling those who disagree with you as a "femnazi" is not opening dialogue. It puts them on the defense with a loaded word and distinguishes them as the bad guy and you as the good guy. And if you equate someone with one of the worst dictatorial/genocidal regimes in modern history, there's a pretty good bet they're not going to stick around to find out WHY you think that way.
Now, conversely, I do believe rage CAN be acceptable, and rage in the face of perceived, say, misandry is acceptable. But ... remember what I said about "femnazi" meaning anything depending on who says it?
If you're angry, be angry, but be responsible. Don't use a word that can be used to disparage the movement as a whole to inflate your argument. Instead, call a misandrist a misandrist or a racist a racist or a moron a moron.
I'm not asking to ban the word, or ban Limbaugh, or anything like that. But I believe it is healthy to re-consider the intentions of how we use words. If you consider yourself a feminist, I believe it is irresponsible to call other feminists, no matter how reprehensible their views, "femnazis." The word came from a place where it was meant to denigrate all feminists en masse, has been used to denigrate feminists to a point where it doesn't mean anything, encourages stereotypes and stifles debate. And if you believe in free speech, none of that is good.
So please, in the future re-think your use of the word "femnazi." And for the love of God or any other deity you may believe or not believe in, don't bring in "ugly" or "hairy" or "lesbian" with it. There's something wrong with being a man-hater, but there's nothing wrong with the other three.
And for those of you who think this issue isn't important 1.) BLAH! and 2.) give a hand to those low-income women of color left behind as Hurricane Gustav approaches (got from
morchades who got from badgerbag who got from lavendertook who got from La Chola although I can't find where wait here it is). (my father bought for two zuzim, chad gadyaaaaa ...).
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Yep, I was taking an additional look at Direct Relief myself.
For some reason The Red Cross wasn't even listed here. Hope they use my bucks for... something. 6_6