ad feminam

[ad fem-uh-nam, -nuhm, ahd]

adjective

1. appealing to one's personal considerations or feelings about women, especially one's prejudices against them.

Word History and Origins

Origin of ad feminam¹

< Latin: literally, to the woman

Example Sentences

The next year, Dr. Barres published a scathing essay in Nature, in which he wrote that the ad feminam statements by Summers and other scholars were “nothing more than blaming the victim.”

From Washington Post

I don’t like to go ad feminam on performers’ bodies—that’s what got us into this anorexia mess in the first place—but Jolie looked unhealthy and sad to me, and the leg-jut seemed like an uncharacteristic plea for attention, sexual and otherwise.

From Slate

He stoops to ad feminam attacks instead.

From Time Magazine Archive

She was mortified at finding she had made a mistake, annoyed at my answering her so boldly, and frightened at her father’s anger; for the old gentleman was very apt to vent it in the argumentum ad feminam, and box her ears soundly.

From Project Gutenberg

Perhaps few of them suspected the argumentum ad hominem--or rather ad feminam--in Woodhull's speech.

From Project Gutenberg