What Does The Term Feminazi Really Mean

Language, for years, has been used as an extremely effective tool to oppress women. From being called ‘sluts’ for having a sexual drive to being termed as a ‘bitch’ for being too bossy, we’ve heard it all. And now that these terms have been used over and over again, we’ve found a brand new one: Feminazi. We throw around this word way too casually and often at those disgusting people who are ‘Feminist types’.

‘Learn to deal with a joke about sandwiches, you feminazi.’

‘I just said she’s got a great rack. That isn’t objectification. Take it as a compliment yaar. And you definitely don’t need to protest like a feminazi about it.’

‘I get equal rights and all, but I don’t understand these feminazi’s cribbing about them all the time.’

You see how easily it can be slipped into just about any sentence? From what I can gather by its use is that it has a negative ring to it. I mean, if we were to go into the etymology of the word, it is clear that it combines ‘Feminist’ and ‘Nazi’ to come together as a whole.

Feminism has, for long, been defined as a movement for equal rights. Why did it come into being? Because women were treated more like possessions than humans. From what they wore to their right to vote to elect a representative of their choice, men mostly controlled everything. Don’t believe me?

Well then, did you know that the first woman to wear a trouser in public was jailed? Generations of women had to fight to be able to vote and women all around the world are still fighting for various rights at this moment.

Nazism, on the other hand, killed millions of people in the name of ‘racial purity’.

There were concentration camps where Jews faced atrocities of the worst kind. So many of them were gassed to death but not before being tortured with inhumane ways that you don’t even want to hear about. Men in military-clad uniforms shot at people who seemed suspicious to them, including infants in prams.

Seems like a strange combination then, doesn’t it?

Feminism is a movement that strives for equal rights for everyone in the society. Nazism, on the other hand, is widely known for killing 6 million Jews in the most gruesome way possible. However, these two starkly opposite movements find themselves combined together on social media by trolls trying to malign feminists who ask for the world order to be changed just a little bit in order to accommodate them as well.

Coming back to the meaning of the word ‘Feminazi’, the truth is that, it doesn’t have any.

There is no such term. It doesn’t exist because no feminist wants to kill people and no Nazi ever fought for inclusivity. The combination of the two words itself is more of a paradox. These two words, when put together, make no sense. Feminism as a concept pertaining to equal rights for everyone has, as it is, been bastardized. It has attained a negative tinge over the years, almost to be used as an abuse.

The new term ‘Feminazi’ is an extension of this same bastardization.

The word has been invented to belittle all those feminists who are trying extremely hard to make the world a more inclusive place. All that effort goes for a toss when equality-demanding feminists are compared to mass murderers.

Now, of course, you may be open-minded and forward, but the truth is that as long as you continue to indulge in rhetoric without analyzing it, you’ll be taking steps backward. Every time you use the word, you’re burdening an entire section of people to morally explain their fight for basic rights. You’re making them feel guilty about their fight by telling them they’re as good as murderers.

Women speaking in a bold voice for things they want and deserve is a rather new phenomenon but let’s not silence them with harsh words that hold no meaning, but hit hard.