"Feminazi": a feminist trend... too radical?

The existence of the term feminazi, seen from the perspective of social psychology.

The word feminazi has been spreading in recent decades as a way of referring somewhat ambiguously to women who believe in the superiority of their sex over that of men and who want to impose themselves on men using totalitarian practices.

Up to this point, and regardless of whether there is any person deserving of the appellative "feminazi", this seems to be just another of the many words that have been invented recently, but its existence is no coincidence.

The idea to which the word "feminazi" refers is formed by a set of clichés about feminists. It is a journalistic invention that responds to a smear campaign directed against feminism from conservative political positions. Thus, an attempt has been made to create a discourse in which feminists are associated with Nazism.

In doing so, they have the invaluable assistance of the stereotypes and heuristic thinking, two elements that are very much taken into account in political propaganda and social psychology. social psychology.

Beyond specific cases

The meaning of the term feminazi can change from time to time, and what it refers to can exist to a greater extent depending on the context. Are there women who believe they are superior to men? Considering the number of people that inhabit the planet earth, it would be risky to say no.

However, before judging positively or negatively the existence of this word, we must take into account that if it is used today, it is very possible that, rather than referring to a specific person, we are referring to a whole political movement... relating it to Nazism. In fact, this word feminazi was devised in the 1990s to delegitimize not specific people, but feminism, and the legacy of its meaning lives on today. Why? Because the word feminazi sinks its roots in a smear campaign campaign against feminists that is more than 100 years old.

Conservative propaganda

The use of generalizations and clichés is constant in our daily lives. Moreover, it is tremendously difficult to detect when we are falling into this type of intellectual slippage because they are part of the realm of heuristic thinking, a mode of thinking that is automatic and requires virtually no effort.

Often these stereotypes are due to ignorance or intellectual laziness, but in other cases there are political motivations behind these clichés. The case of feminists is a clear example of this.

In Western countries, the feminist movement established itself as a political actor at the end of the 19th century to demand the right to vote for women. right to vote for women.. This is a demand that today seems so legitimate that its questioning produces immediate revulsion, but a century ago it was something totally revolutionary that set off all the alarms in a stablishment controlled by men. It was at that time that public opinion began to be fed with anti-suffragette propaganda. suffragettes who called for equal suffrage.

Thus, the United States saw the publication of posters and caricatures in which the feminists of the time were described as cruel women with masculine traits, with totalitarian desires whose main aspiration was to subjugate men, something that coincides completely with the (somewhat diffuse) concept of feminazi. All this, let us remember, for campaigning for the right to vote.

A close look at the propaganda pieces that peppered the pro- or anti-feminist debate of the time reveals that the stereotypes associated with the idea of what some people today call "the feminazi" have not changed at all since the suffragettes demanded the right to vote in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Stereotypes related to the feminazi concept

The curious thing is not that feminists were accused of behaving as men of the time behaved, but that these stereotypes are still in force today, associated with a type of person who is sometimes called a feminazi to denote a mysterious connection with totalitarianism and extermination. Here you can see how posters from the suffragette era display characteristics that are still present in the memes and comic strips today.

1. Ugly and cruel women

Associating ugliness with wickedness is so common in propaganda that it is one of the most constant laws in the caricaturing and discrediting of political rivals. Whoever wants to communicate moral turpitude, it is enough to draw irregular teeth, big and bulging noses and frowns.

2. They want to dominate the man

Of course, an implicit attribute of the word feminazi is the will to impose oneself on others. However, this cliché existed long before the invention of the word. A hundred years ago, suffragettes were described as wanting to take away gender roles and privileges. privileges from men by neglecting household chores and, in general, domestic chores.

Today it is not so common to see such paradoxical criticisms of feminism (they used to accuse them of doing exactly the same as men, although the emphasis was on the unnaturalness of the woman dominating the relationship), but the assumption that feminists are intolerant and authoritarian is still present.

3. Male Aesthetics

The accusation of wanting to look like men is common in campaigns against feminism. Feminists are understood to transgress gender roles related to the idea of "femininity related to the idea of "femininity", and this is also brought to aesthetics as if it were something negative.

4. Misuse of sexuality

Traditionally, women who make use of their sexuality similar to men have been seen as manipulative and prone to use their bodies to achieve their own ends. From this perspective, almost any characteristic of women that can be associated with sex and that has nothing to do with creating a family is portrayed as belonging to women with a low moral profile, both 100 years ago and today.

It is a logic that is often used to attack feminists, who have a vision of female sexuality that goes far beyond the family.

5. They are feminists because of their hatred of men

Very often, caricatures of feminist women refer to the central role played by men. central role played by men in the "conversion" of some women. in the "conversion" of some women to feminism. In this way the activists' motivations are attributed to an inability to relate adequately to men. The concept of feminazi fits well with this stereotype, since German National Socialism was fueled by a totally irrational contempt for certain groups labeled as races.

These simple examples are part of a social situation that is much more complex than what can be glimpsed in a few simple caricatures, but they can serve to give us an idea of the context in which the term feminazi appears. Its meaning may be totally different in a few decades, but that does not mean that it has not been put into circulation with a clear political objective. a clear political objective in which psychology and a situation of change in favor of women's rights come into play.