# Conservative Dopers, please explain the concept of "FemiNazi" to me
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [October 16, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889 "2003-10-16T23:28:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mr.Evil\_Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Evil_Breakfast)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2003, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/1 "2003-10-16T23:28:26Z")
You know the phrase that your drugaddicted leader Rush Limbaugh uses all the time.
I see it this way, and do tell me if I’m mistaken or somehwo taking it out of context.
Rush is obviosly combining feminists and nazis, which means that he gets at least one of his favorite things in there.
Now feminists as I have always understood them, basically want to be on the same level as men when it comes to equal pay for the same amount of work, etc.
Feminists are also seen as being “liberal” and on the left side of the political spectrum.
Nazis on the other hand, wanted and tried quite hard, to wipe out an entire race of people, namely the Jews and thought that the Arayan (blonde hair and blue eyes) were chosen and destined to be **The Supreme Race**.
The Nazis are just about as far away from feminists as one can get, being quite close to the end of the “conservative” and right end of the political spectrum.
So, how can these two fit togther in anything resembling a logical and rational way?
And spare me the crap about how _Rush is just being ironic_ or _Rush is just having fun, it’s funny._
Rush has never been ironic or funny.
Ever.
---
### Author:  [@electric\_sheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/electric_sheep)
#### Post date: [October 16, 2003, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/2 "2003-10-16T23:34:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> **Now feminists as I have always understood them, basically want to be on the same level as men when it comes to equal pay for the same amount of work, etc.**
And feminazis want specifically more pay for women, special accomodations, replacement of --\> signs with 3 (I suggest 3\<----, but nevermind that), always condemn men for everything from bad breath to cancer, and look butch. There are some of them out there, much like with neo-Nazis, but the term is as abused as “fascist.”
---
### Author:  [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/3 "2003-10-17T01:52:59Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> \*\*
> You know the phrase that your drugaddicted leader Rush Limbaugh uses all the time.
> \*\*
Why isn’t this in the Pit? Please don’t deign to tell me about my “leader”. This is very, very weak technique. I believe that the bar is much higher than this in GD.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> \*\*
> Rush is obviosly combining feminists and nazis, which means that he gets at least one of his favorite things in there.
> \*\*
Please be more specific and provide a cite.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> \*\*
> Now feminists as I have always understood them…
> \*\*
How about instead of discussing how you’ve always understood them, you provide some relevant quotes and citations to back up your assertions? IOW, cite, please. Provide a definition of feminist and provide something to back-up your definition.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> \*\*
> The Nazis are just about as far away from feminists as one can get, being quite close to the end of the “conservative” and right end of the political spectrum.
> \*\*
Please provide a relevant definition of ‘conservative’ and provide thropugh citation examples of how the National _Socialist_ Party fit this definition.
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> \*\*
> And spare me the crap about how _Rush is just being ironic_ or _Rush is just having fun, it’s funny._
>
> Rush has never been ironic or funny.
>
> Ever. \*\*
You don’t want to consider the idea that an entertainer is pandering to an audience? Why don’t you just tell _us_ what feminazi means?
**It would be helpful if you would provide examples of who Mr. Limbaugh has called a feminazi so that we can see the term in context.**
---
### Author:  [@Scylla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scylla)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/4 "2003-10-17T01:58:20Z")
A feminazi is an extremist man-hater, the kind that think all sex is equivalent to rape, and would gouge your eyes out if you held the door for them.
Like the KKK their import and numbers are vastly over-stated, and they serve the purpose of boogeywomen (boogymen? Boogypeople? Boogeywomyn?) illustrating the dangers of liberalism run amok.
Though common this kind of demonization goes tiresome whoever’s doing it, IMO.
---
### Author:  [@errata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/errata)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/5 "2003-10-17T03:36:57Z")
I went to one of the most liberal colleges in the nation and I have never met anyone meeting Scylla’s or electric!sheep’s characterization (hell, I even dated one of the founding member’s of the Lesbian Avengers).
As far as my personal experience and readings on feminism are concerned, the characterization is bogus. I do recall some people with serious personality disorders (like Valerie Solanas), who latched on to feminism in a bad way, but I don’t think that’s what Rush and his ilk are really referring to.
---
### Author:  [@electric\_sheep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/electric_sheep)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/6 "2003-10-17T03:52:44Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by errata \*
> \*\*I went to one of the most liberal colleges in the nation and I have never met anyone meeting Scylla’s or electric!sheep’s characterization (hell, I even dated one of the founding member’s of the Lesbian Avengers).
>
> As far as my personal experience and readings on feminism are concerned, the characterization is bogus. I do recall some people with serious personality disorders (like Valerie Solanas), who latched on to feminism in a bad way, but I don’t think that’s what Rush and his ilk are really referring to. \*\*
I agree, there really aren’t any 100% “true” feminazis. However, advocating the use of governmental power to enforce a cultural agenda does get you half way, and when combined with hilarious ideas like changing signs as I described, people are inclined scream “feminazi.” In such cases, it’s probably best to think of the term as being analogous to “grammar nazi.”
---
### Author:  [@pervert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervert)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/7 "2003-10-17T05:31:27Z")
I can’t believe you didn’t do this before posting, Mr Breakfast. But straght from his web site come this
> [@](#):
>
> I have said thousands of times that there were never more than 12 feminazis, but some people love to say I mean anyone who wants equal pay for equal work is a feminazi. You’ve been mislead or are deliberately misleading others.
>
> Once again, let me give you the definition, which never included Boxer, Pat Schroeder or anyone else: “Fem·i·na·zi: [fe-m&-”'nät-sE] - 1: A woman to whom abortion is the most important function in human activity. 2: A radical feminist who demands that you accept and believe everything she does - or else."
I haven’t heard his show in years, but he was always very specific about this.
I’m not sure where you got the ideas you espoused, but I think you should definately check your sources. Criticizing something you have not made an honest attempt to understand is naughty at least and can lead to very bad intellectual habits.
There is some of his writing available to unsubscribed people [www.rushlimbaugh.com](http://www.rushlimbaugh.com).
---
### Author:  [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/8 "2003-10-17T06:25:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …1: A woman to whom abortion is the most important function in human activity. 2: A radical feminist who demands that you accept and believe everything she does - or else.
Have any of you ever met anyone to whom abortion is the most important function in human activity? I can’t imagine such a person! I can understand why some people might choose to work toward insuring that women retain the right to choose, but that certainly doesn’t mean that anyone thinks it is the most important function!
The second definition is also interesting to me because it continues to assume that a feminist is female. Also, part of the statement seems to be missing. “She” demands that you accept and believe whatever she does…_or what_???
Someone could just as easily say that Rush Limbaugh demands that you accept and believe whatever he does. (There is no follow through threat and either can demand all they want and it doesn’t matter.)
So we are still left with very, very vague definitions of _feminazi_.
Webster’s says that a _feminist_ is someone who believes in equal opportunity and equal pay for equal work for women. I _suspect_ that Rush Limbaugh considers that any _woman_ who is assertive and vocal about equal opportunity and pay is a _feminazi._ – though he would never admit that.
But I think that the word _feminist_ itself has come to have all sorts of negative connotations it doesn’t deserve.
Don’t you support equal opportunity for women?
Don’t you support equal pay for equal work?
Then you’re a feminist.
As for Limbaugh’s definitions, I don’t know anyone who fits his definitions – and that is after 33 years as a feminist.
---
### Author:  [@sajwalke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sajwalke)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/9 "2003-10-17T06:28:35Z")
I’m certainly not conservative, or a fan of Rush, but I have to say that “nazi” in that sense just means a person with rabidly strong beliefs who try to pin the faults of society in general on a particular group of people. The original nazis tried to pin the state that Gemany was in on the jews, just as, at least in some peoples eyes, some feminists try to pin everything on men. It’s a tem used only to describe the really radical feminists, not the ordinary everyday feminists.
---
### Author:  [@pervert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervert)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/10 "2003-10-17T07:18:57Z")
I’m sorry, **Zoe** , I wrote the earlier post, but I must be missing something in it.
1. The first paragraph clearly states that he never considered there to be more than 12 feminazis, so it is not surprising that you have never met one. Also it specifically says that he does not consider the term to apply to equal pay for equal work.
2. “or else” is a figure of speech. It means that the person will become angry and retaliate against you.
3. I don’t think that the second definition assumes a female. It is common now to use she in a generic nuetral sense. Similar to the way “he” was used to mean people. I don’t know for sure, but it may be that he simply did this to be cute.
And, just for good measure,
1. if there are not more than 12 feminazis he might know for a fact that they are all female.
So I think that the definition is quite specific.
There are many reasons to disagree with Rush. This is one of the weakest.
---
### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/11 "2003-10-17T07:43:23Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Evil wrote:
> Rush has never been ironic or funny.
>
> Ever.
I’m no fan of Rush’s but you are clearly throwing out some bait and hoping someone will bite. You know very well what is meant by FemiNazi, but you’re interest is to nit-pick it to prove that you are either smarter or funnier than Rush. He gets paid rather handsomely to dish out his schtick. And you?
---
### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/12 "2003-10-17T07:48:05Z")
**Moderator’s Note:** This does seem like more of a rant than a debate.
Down to the Pit with ye!
---
### Author:  [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/13 "2003-10-17T08:59:55Z")
Thanks **perv**.
Mr. Breakfast, I await you rebuttal.
---
### Author:  [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/14 "2003-10-17T11:55:26Z")
I don’t see anything heinous per se in wanting Governments to make law that is socially progressive in its nature, but then I’m one of the many, many feminists in the world who would probably consider being called “liberal” to be quite a mis-statement. There’s a stream of feminism generally referred to in political theory as “socialist feminism” and it’s just a hair more radical than “liberal feminism” and that’s where you’ll find me.
As for calling groups of people you don’t like “nazis” of one sort or another, even to describe their position at what you perceive to be the extreme of the spectrum, I’ve always found this genuinely bewildering and insulting to the memory of the people who actually suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It’s a metaphor too far as far as I’m concerned. I know it’s slipped into common usage and popular culture, but I still find it irksome.
---
### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/15 "2003-10-17T12:36:16Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by electric!sheep \*
> \*\*And feminazis want specifically more pay for women, special accomodations, replacement of --\> signs with 3 (I suggest 3\<----, but nevermind that), always condemn men for everything from bad breath to cancer, and look butch. There are some of them out there, much like with neo-Nazis, but the term is as abused as “fascist.” \*\*
OK, I’ve got no dog in this fight at all, okay.
So someone just tell me what the hell that ‘sign’ thing means, will you? I don’t get that at all.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Wrong\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Wrong_Girl)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/16 "2003-10-17T13:20:58Z")
Maybe because the arrow is kinda phallic? I don’t really know what purpose replacing it with a “3” serves.
If I’m way off base with this, I guess I just have a dirty mind before I have my coffee in the morning. 🙂
But seriously, I’m kind of curious, too. I’ve read Ms. since I was a pre-teen (my mom subscribed), and I think of myself as a feminist and I’ve NEVER heard of this arrow sign crap.
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/17 "2003-10-17T14:44:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Idlewild \*
> \*\*As for calling groups of people you don’t like “nazis” of one sort or another, even to describe their position at what you perceive to be the extreme of the spectrum, I’ve always found this genuinely bewildering and insulting to the memory of the people who actually suffered at the hands of the Nazis. It’s a metaphor too far as far as I’m concerned. I know it’s slipped into common usage and popular culture, but I still find it irksome. \*\*
I’d blame _Seinfeld_ (ref. the “Soup Nazi”) for spreading this bad habit to the general population, but it’s obvious he (and Rush) must have got it from some other source themselves.
And that does go to the OP – in some circles of discourse (now expanded even more after its absurd application to a _lunch counter_), “-nazi”, used as a suffix, has been degenerated from a descriptor of a specific genocidal fascist race-cult to a general tag meaning “extreme, rigid, unyielding, inhumane, hateful beyond reason”.
This is the usage our now Rehab Patient apparently meant, in creating that less-than-clever composite: a crude _caricature_ of radical “ideological feminism”(\*). Indeed, as the man himself points out, you’d hardly run across a real one of those in your lifetime. BUT… to his target-audience man-in-the-street, who would not know a Womens Studies department if one fell on him, who remembers reading about Andrea Dworkin and it sounded like “weirdo writer says all heterosexual sex is always rape”, it resonates and creates a fear that there are many of them all over. And honestly Rush did not make that intense an effort to disclaim on-the-air who he meant by “feminazi”, back when he was establishing the term…
(\*since he’d likely distinguish it from “rights feminism”)
---
### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/18 "2003-10-17T15:07:12Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Mr. Evil Breakfast \*
> **The Nazis are just about as far away from feminists as one can get, being quite close to the end of the “conservative” and right end of the political spectrum.**
Ye Gads. I take it History wasn’t your forte at Dumbass High?
---
### Author:  [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/19 "2003-10-17T16:08:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by errata \*
> **As far as my personal experience and readings on feminism are concerned, the characterization is bogus. I do recall some people with serious personality disorders (like Valerie Solanas),**
No shit! Valerie Solanas has to be one of the most nutty women on the planet. My brother had an “episode” with her some years ago…and what an episode it was! 🙂
Sam
---
### Author:  [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)
#### Post date: [October 17, 2003, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889/20 "2003-10-17T17:13:38Z")
I’d never use this term, 'cause I think that it’s offensive and stupid, but I do have an internal mental definition for it.
When I hear the term “FemiNazi,” I think of college student who has just discovered feminism and is taking it to the nth degree. You know, to the point where a guy opens a door for her and she gets loudly offended. Or the ones that get exceedingly hot-and-bothered that I use “he” when referring to a generic person in an essay (a mild comment about it is fine; a twenty minute rant on how sexist the English language is. . .well. . .).
I invariably think of a college student because, in my experience, that age group is when you find beliefs that have the ideally annoying combination of being very radical, very unbending, and very intolerant. However, it is my understanding that other people–I wouldn’t know about Rush Limbaugh, as I don’t watch his show, so this may not be how HE means it–use it to describe any feminist who isn’t quiet about her beliefs.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/conservative-dopers-please-explain-the-concept-of-feminazi-to-me/207889.md?page=2)