Mythbustin’ Mondays: The Feminazi

Hello, lovely readers, and welcome to this weeks edition of Mythbustin’ Mondays. Today we’ll tackle the well-known myth of the feminazi- the militant, angry feminist who wants nothing more than to destroy and oppress men. Personally, I’ve never met a feminazi. I’ve never even met a feminist I would describe as particularly militant. But I have met plenty of people who have heard of and believe in this terrifying figure. Let’s break this myth down, shall we?

The term feminazi was popularized by radio personality Rush Limbaugh. According to him, the word specifically refers to “unspecified women whose goal is to allow as many abortions as possible”, and speculates that at one point there were “fewer than 25 ‘true feminazis’ in the US”. Where exactly Limbaugh found this statistic is a mystery to me, and probably to him, too. And what does it mean to “allow as many abortions as possible”? Are feminazis feminists who run around, punching pregnant women in the stomachs in broad daylight, screaming “TAKE THAT, PATRIARCHY”? Some how I doubt that’s ever happened.

The idea of someone as blindly pig-headed and uber-conservative as Rush Limbaugh calling anyone a Nazi seems ironic to me, especially considering feminists and other political dissenters were among the victims of the Nazi concentration camps during World War II. According to feminist activist and theorist Gloria Steinem, “Hitler came to power against the strong feminist movement in Germany, padlocked the family planning clinics, and declared abortion a crime against the state—all views that more closely resemble Limbaugh’s.”

When it comes down to it, feminazi is just a word that’s meant to marginalize feminists and dismiss their beliefs as extreme. We’re not looking to degrade men; we’re looking to be treated equally as human beings. Which apparently is comparable invading Poland and starting the Holocaust. Who knew?