The 4 differences between Feminazi and Feminist
A review of the differences between the terms "feminist" and "feminazi", which should not be confused.
The term "feminazi" is one of the most controversial words used today. It is so because of its strong emotional content, referring to Nazism, and because it is also linked to a topic that polarizes public opinion: feminism.
Nowadays it is very common to find people who criticize this political movement and philosophical current centered on women, making it seem that "feminism" and "feminazism" are synonymous. As we will see, there are many reasons to distinguish between the two concepts.
Throughout this article we will see what the differences are between "feminazi" and "feminist" and why it is a mistake to confuse the two.and why it is a mistake to confuse the two words.
The 4 differences between "feminazi" and "feminist".
This is a summary of the differences that we can find between feminist and feminazi, and that will give you reasons not to use them interchangeably.
1. One is philosophically worked out, the other is not.
The first thing to point out about the differences that exist between the feminist and the "feminazi" is that, while the first concept has been worked on for decades by a large number of people, the second is that the feminist and the feminazi are not the same. has been worked on for decades by a large number of female philosophers (and, to a lesser extent, male philosophers), there is not much theoretical concreteness.there is not much theoretical concreteness in the meaning of the second.
For example, feminism has been worked on by thinkers such as Judith Butler from a perspective that seeks to abolish gender (understood simply as a social construct), while other currents, such as feminism of difference, seek to delve into the meaning of being a woman beyond the male view of this issue.
The word "feminazi," on the other hand, was created in the 1990s by the American radio host and commentator Rush Limbaugh, known for his sympathies for conservative ideology, and who therefore did not manage to describe with much nuance what something called "feminazism" would consist of as a social phenomenon.
Thus, there is a clear asymmetry between the phenomenon of feminism, which for decades has produced very diverse ways of addressing the issue of discrimination against women (sometimes complementary, sometimes directly opposed to each other and the cause of battles within feminism itself), and the concept of the feminazi, which is totally devoid of nuances and which no one has been able to work out philosophically.
2. The functions of both terms are different
The word feminism was born as a derogatory term, but soon the activists for women's rights appropriated it and turned it into the name of their political and intellectual movement.. Therefore, its usefulness is to label a set of lines of thought and philosophical development, as well as forms of political activism and social movements.
On the other hand, the word "feminazi" is not capable of describing a more or less neutral or unemotional its raison d'être is that of a pejorative term, which exists only to criticize or toIt exists only to criticize or attack certain groups of people.
That is why many people criticize the simple use of the word "feminazi", because it is simply there to express an opposition to feminism that goes so far as to attribute to it the negative properties of an ideology capable of producing genocide.
Feminism" designates a phenomenon that is easy to concretize, "feminazi" does not.
Currently, the term "feminism" is used as a descriptive term, which serves to designate a social phenomenon taking place in contemporary society and in a wide variety of countries.
On the other hand, the word "feminazi" does not designate a specific social phenomenonThe word "feminazi" does not designate a concrete social phenomenon, since to begin with it is not related to a main idea that serves to indicate where the group of people who participate in "feminazism" begins and where it ends (although in an approximate, not exact, manner). The reason for this can be found in the two previous sections: it has not been developed theoretically and is simply born as a pejorative label.
4. Ferminism is a social movement; Feminazism is not.
This is possibly the main difference between "feminist" and "feminazi". People who consider themselves feminists can be grouped into a set that can be analyzed in a specific way by sociology, because they share certain themes, certain symbols and common concerns that are related to the situation of women.
This is not the case with the concept of "feminazi," which cannot be attributed to a collective. cannot be attributed to a specific collective.. Today there simply does not exist a social fabric of people who feel identified with political pretensions similar to those of Nazism and who share spaces or demands with feminism.
Evidently, we can always blur the meaning of Nazism to make it correspond to certain authoritarian or even ultra-right attitudes that it is possible to detect in people who call themselves feminists and who have a certain internal organization and capacity to mobilize people.
To do this, however, one must leave behind the most characteristic features of real Nazis: their ideas of ethno-states (the creation of states assigned to groups of people seen as impossible to mix), the desire to physically exterminate the enemy within (living within one's own country), corporatism (with vertical unions carrying the will of the leader to all levels of society), and certain mystical and superstitious ideas explaining the origin of the lineages that make up society.
Bibliographical references:
- Krolokke, Charlotte; Anne Scott Sorensen (2005). "Three Waves of Feminism: From Suffragettes to Grrls". Gender Communication Theories and Analyses:From Silence to Performance. Sage. p. 24.
- Phillips, Melanie (2004). The Ascent of Woman: A History of the Suffragette Movement and the Ideas Behind it. London: Abacus. pp. 1 - 370.
- Seelye, Katherine Q. (1994). "Republicans Get a Pep Talk From Rush Limbaugh". The New York Times.
(Updated at Apr 13 / 2024)