Most people will know me as the feminazi lawyer. The Daily Mail labelled me a feminazi after I had the temerity to challenge sexism, a crime that apparently justifies invoking the terminology of national socialism. It is rather fitting that the term has gained traction among the rightwing media, as it was popularised by right-leaning polemicist Rush Limbaugh in the 1990s (although he credits economics professor Thomas Hazlett for coining the term).

Feminazi is not an innocuous insult. According to Limbaugh a feminazi is “a feminist to whom the important thing in life is ensuring that as many abortions as possible occur”. In comparing feminists to the Nazis, Limbaugh is cynically deploying iconography of the most odious kind.

Given Limbaugh’s notoriety in labelling people extremists, I was interested to investigate how radical his views actually are. An internet search for Rush Limbaugh brings up a seemingly bottomless diatribe against women, and I came across the following gem: “Feminism was created to force popular culture to accept ugly women.” If you thought he couldn’t stoop any lower, he has also said of women: “If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it and I’ll tell you what it is. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.” Labelling feminists as feminazis is an effective mechanism in deflecting attention from the dark extremism of proponents of the term.

Feminazi: the go-to term for trolls out to silence women Read more

The word is a direct assertion of misogyny. Women do not need to be radical to be called a feminazi. They simply have to challenge sex inequality. Advocates of the word contend that the inequalities women face in society are acceptable, even inevitable, and cannot be changed by movements for justice and equality. They define harm inflicted on women as insignificant or fictitious.

The Daily Mail reframes sexist comments in professional spaces as harmless compliments, while Limbaugh defines a woman’s control over her reproductive choices as part of a programme of mass murder. The word is wielded as a weapon to control and conquer the feminist movement. It rebukes and intimidates women who challenge vested male power and strive to improve the situation of women.

Words that exploit visceral connections to the Nazis, Stalinists and al-Qaida (so-called gal-Qaida) malign feminists as the enemy because they challenge the patriarchal status quo.

The word feminazi is used by the powerful against the less powerful to silence them. One thing that puzzles many is why women label other women feminazis. In truth, this is likely to be a form of self-protection and self-advancement. Feminism is criticised as a useless movement because it jeopardises the small, incremental gains in power women have made. A woman calling another woman a feminazi is a way of pandering to the men who valorise women who conform.

Retaliating against being branded a feminazi is imperative

Retaliating against being branded a feminazi is imperative. If the word is used without meeting visible resistance, the woman against whom it is wielded is wounded, and many women who watch this play out in popular discourse are hurt. Women who might have spoken out against gender inequality could now be reluctant to put their head above the parapet due to the consequences. The word can therefore be seen as an effective way to silence women.

Using the label to describe someone is a way of legitimising the onslaught of misogynistic abuse and death threats that follow. You can say these things to a feminazi without recrimination. As the rightwing messaging goes, the feminazi deserves it. The tragic irony is that every time the word is bandied about without retaliation, the power imbalance between men and women is reinforced.

So how can feminists respond? We must recognise that the label is a strategy to put feminists on the defensive by making them feel morally obligated to distinguish feminism from Nazism. And yet the public promulgation of terms such as feminazi emphasises the need for a movement that seeks the advancement of women. Appropriating such a deplorable term definitely is not an option. Women can instead reinforce the potency of feminism by identifying as feminists. But the most important response to obscenity is to expose the misogyny being used against women.

Claiming that those who challenge gender inequality are feminazis is, arguably, libellous. It is a false statement because feminists are not Nazis, and it could be defamatory because being branded some kind of a crypto-Nazi implies extremist and even homicidal ambitions – precisely why Limbaugh referred to “as many abortions as possible”. Labelling someone a feminazi publicly castigates and vilifies them and creates public perceptions that are untrue. It renders them at risk of being stigmatised, hated and unemployable. All of this for daring to contest the abuse of women.

Let there be no mistake: a war of words is upon us. It commenced because women spoke out. Now words are being used against women in an attempt to silence them.