This is probably something that is encountered my female feminists more often than by male feminists. It’s not the only thing—it’s not entirely uncommon for angry men to tell female feminists over the internet that they should be raped. Awful. And it’s all part of Lewis’ Law (referring to the journalist, Helen Lewis): “the comments on any article abut feminism justify feminism.”
Very true.
So, today, I saw a lovely post on Tumblr about one of my favorite superheroes, Wonder Woman.
Tumblr users superblys posted the following, in bullet points:
By the time that this post reached my dashboard, others who had reblogged it had added images of Wonder Woman being awesome.
I reblogged the post, because it was very much to my taste. And I happened to glance down at the other notes. Somewhere along the way, though not in the direct path of the version of the post that reached me, Tumblr user mariahellbunny reblogged with this comment:
And actually used the word feminazi. Or, you know, the plural form.
I do not understand.
And I would like to know exactly what this Tumblr-user (possibly a female?) means by the term.
So, here was my response:
To clarify, I’m not suggesting that it is reasonable that people be uncomfortable with Wonder Woman for this. Fictional characters, including superheroes, do not have to fit into a tidy little box. The idea that people would feel uncomfortable because Wonder Woman uses brute force and a warrior’s skill instead of improbably artful ninja skills is upsetting to me.
Please do not make the mistake of believing that most of the responses were negative. From what I can tell, most of the responses have been quite positive. Lots of reblogs and comments and clarifications and messages of support for superblys.
Miscommunications happen online all of the time. Maybe mariahellbunny thought that people were cheering, specifically, for Wonder Woman to go around killing men because they are men. I don’t know.
I do know that using the word ‘feminazis’ turns the credibility of any argument that you might make to 0. You might as well use the word ‘chemtrails.’
