A straw-feminist is a made-up version of a feminist exemplifying the worst positions of radical feminists in one character, used in straw man argumentsWP against feminist ideas.
Straw feminists are commonly attributed some if not many of the following attributes:
- hate men
- hate sex
- think all men are rapists
- blame personal failures on sexism
- call nearly any violation "rape"
- are Angry feminist mobs
- want women to become systematically dominant over men
- want to outlaw marriage
- are "ugly, hairy lesbians"
- call themselves 'womyn' instead of women
- are strident and overzealous, and see symbols of the evil patriarchy in innocuous things and campaign to have them banned (e.g., wanting to make gingerbread men gender neutral)
- etc.
These can be grouped in three categories:
- irrelevant ad hominems
- rare positions among feminists (such as insistence on "womyn" or aim to outlaw marriage)
- misrepresentations of actual feminist viewpoints
Bringing them up in a discussion where they haven't been expressed is an example of derailment.
Commentary
Incidents
- The modus operandi of the Feminist Software Foundation sockpuppet group is a deliberate straw-feminist act.
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