A feminazi is an exaggerated description of a woman’s rights advocate strongly committed to the fight for equality.
Often used by conservatives to disparage feminists and those who strive for equality, feminazi is a word that combines feminist and nazi to create a single word meant to accuse people of sounding and looking like nazis.
The word was created by Tom Hazlett and was frequently used by the radio talk show host and conservative commentator, Rush Limbaugh. Two decades later, a much wider range of women falls under the conservative commentator’s feminazi label. According to him, the term describes “a feminist to whom the most important thing in life is ensuring that as many abortions as possible occur”.
Laura Bates states: “It’s a desperate attempt to demonize us, and it’s frustrating because if it wasn’t such an offensive word, you could actually start to embrace it and own it.”
“And yet, of course, because the insult isn’t just to feminists, but also to the victims of totalitarianism past and present, it’s not something feminism can simply decide to own.” (Williams, 2015)
See more resources
Lowen, L. (2019, November 12). What It Means to Be a Feminazi. ThoughtCo. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.thoughtco.com/definition-of-feminazi-3533833
Williams, Z. (2015, September 15). Feminazi: the go-to term for trolls out to silence women. The Guardian. Retrieved February 17, 2023, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/15/feminazi-go-to-term-for-trolls-out-to-silence-women-charlotte-proudman