Now, I want to make it real clear, this term is not one that I use to describe a feminist - someone who supports women’s rights, fights for equal rights between the sexes and enjoys the portrayal of strong female characters. I like feminists. I like to think I’m one them, and I’m proud to say that there’s more than one on my F-list.

Feminazis, on the other hand, are the bane of the feminist movement. They’re the stereotype that gets feminists so much bad press, the minority that makes the majority look bad. They claim to support equal rights for women, but what they really want is special treatment. They believe that the only way for a woman to truly be strong is to take on an excessively dominate role that forces the men in her life to be subordinate to her. They will deny these claims, but their actions speak otherwise.

I have a long list of complaints against feminzis, not the least of which being that they seem to take delight in ruining other peoples’ enjoyment of comic books. (If you find an entire fandom so offensive, why the hell are you in it? Nobody’s forcing you to read these books. I know that people hear this argument all the time and that just because you’re against sexism doesn’t mean you’re against superheroes, but feminazis are different - they don’t like anything about superhero comics because they’re so horrid, and yet they still buy them. WTF?)

But what’s got me riled this time is more a matter of semantics than anything else: I cannot tell you how sick I am of feminazis throwing all variations of the word ‘misogynous’ around. Feminazis love the term because it sounds political and it has such a damnable definition, ‘The hatred of women.’

So let me take a moment to make my point damn clear: Mainstream comic books are NOT misogynistic! Sexist, yes, while I don’t think that is near as bad as it has been in the past, but not misogynistic.

There is a huge difference.

Sexism is when a man looks at a woman and thinks, “Oh boy, is she hot! I bet that babe would look awesome in a bikini!” without thinking of her personality or the person behind it. Alternatively, it’s when the man thinks, “Well, she’s going to be useless in this fight. Women should stay in the kitchen.”

Misogynism is when a man looks at a woman and thinks, “Fuck that bitch. Anything that happens to her is ‘cause she’s got it coming. I bet she’d scream real nice when I torture her in my basement.”

Admittedly, there is still sexism in comics, though I believe it’s slowly-but-surely being eradicated. (That’s a lecture for another day) But, in mainstream comics at least, misgyonism is basically extinct. When it does rear it’s ugly head, once every decade or so, it is, without exception, a trait of antagonists. The villains. The ‘bad guys.’ If anything, their misgyonism is used as a way to vilify them in the eyes of the reader. That means it’s being used as an obviously bad thing - if the read doesn’t already realize that it’s bad, they will quickly associate it as such by the other characters’ reactions.

If you never realized this, then congratulations, you just utterly failed in a basic aspect of your average elementary-school level literature course.

Also, just so I don‘t have to put it in another rant: when a female character dies, it is not automatically misogynistic. I hear all these stupid arguments about how female deaths are overly-sexualized and gory. In this day and age, most deaths are gory, because it adds the shock factor - if you want blood and gore, look at the deaths of Kon-el, Bart Allen, Jack Drake, Alexander Luthor, Ted Kord and several dozen Green Lanterns (whom I cannot name on sight or whom were never really named.) during the Sinestro Corps storyline, not to mention the recent capture and torture of Kid Devil in Teen Titans. All of them bloody, all of them horrible, and all of them with male victims. Those are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

As for the deaths seeming sexual, let me tell you something - anything that any woman does will look more sexual than a man doing the same thing. Why? Because we evolved to have more obviously sexual physical traits than men, ie, hips and boobs. If I reach over from my computer desk to grab a pen, it will look more sexual than if my brother - who is the same relative size and build that I am - were to do the same, because my hips would shift and my boobs would jiggle.

And finally, anyone who argues that men aren’t being drawn to show off their chest, ass or crotch areas obviously don’t read very many comics - I quite enjoy the vast number of times we get really good looks at Nightwing’s ass or Robin decides to sit around without his shirt, thank-you-very-much.

I suppose, in conclusion, I should try to wrap up all my main points, which is simple enough: There is a vast difference between misgyonism and sexism and, while both are bad things, misgyonism is definitely the worse of the two and throwing the word around is borderline libel against the comic book industry. While said industry does have its sexist leanings, it is not by any means supporting any kind of misogynistic cause.