A feminists call against "feminazi's"

2016 marks a devastating loss for the self-proclaimed feminists, as the champion of women in politics (Hillary Clinton) lost the election to a man who has a history of nonexistent respect for women (Donald Trump). But I draw the line in the sand when people harmlessly declare their support for feminism are declared "FEMINAZIS" by ignorant individuals. There is a huge difference between feminism and the degrading term of feminazi. According to Merriam-Webster, feminism is the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes. Being a feminazi apparently means that a girl (or a guy, but usually females) hates the male gender and believes in female supremacy. Two very different viewpoints, differentiated by the word "equal". 

An article from a website called Heat Street waged a harsh assault against the movement of feminism, claiming that feminists were more riled up than usual and that they were lashing out against "anyone with a Y-chromosome" from their hatred of the male gender. This surprised me that people still are ignorant over the difference between actual feminists and male-hating "feminists". Actual feminists are unfairly grouped together with feminazis because the feminist agenda has been hijacked by the latter group and no one has done anything about it. Feminazis are the louder of the two groups, and that unfortunately leaves a negative impression on most people. The well-intentioned ideals of feminism of equality for all people no matter of gender, race, creed, religion, sexual orientation are lost in the battle for control.

Just the other day I had a talk with my father about feminism. He tried to dismiss the conversation because he didn't want to hear about how "women were supposedly better then men and all that annoying stuff". I was momentarily shocked but I quickly got over it rather quickly- since I had been coming across these kind of comments more than usual as of late. I calmly explained the creed of feminism and how our platform has been hijacked by these feminazis under the guise of "feminists". If my father, who isn't overly into various social media sites, mistakenly but not maliciously lumps feminists and feminazis then there are certainly more people out there who are unaware of the truth.

My advice to feminists or anyone really when noticing a feminazi spreading a negative image under the guise of feminism, I urge you to call it out. Feminists already have a hard time being taken seriously for their message of equality, so these other people spreading around a false message adds another insurmountable struggle to our shoulders. Simple as that.   

​Cassandra