Femwashing is when companies use marketing to capitalize women's rights and equality. Similar to greenwashing, where an organization presents an image of heighten environmental awareness, or pinkwashing, where companies present themselves to be LGBT friendly or progressive, femwashing uses messaging of women's rights for capitalistic gains. It sells “freedom” and “equality” as capitalistic forms of liberation, and at its core, it is profiting off the patriarchy.
Femwashing is when companies use marketing to capitalize women's rights and equality. Did you see how REI started using marketing "women's empowerment" to sell their outdoor gear? Yet the company doesn't even have equal women in its senior leadership or equitable family leave policies for its store employees!
by StealthFem October 4, 2017
The act of making a male character in a movie, female. Usually this happens to properties that were once popular.
The femwashing of Sherlock Holmes threw me for a loop. I never expected Watson, Sherlock's sidekick to be a female in Elementary and not only that a Chinese American.
by doodyman February 9, 2017
The act of replacing established, traditionally male roles in stories, television, film or other media with females solely for the purpose of increasing female presence while reducing that of males.
As the decision to replace the male roles with an all female cast clearly wasn't aimed at improving the film, the snewest Ghostbusters film was a clear case of femwashing.
by Realequality October 11, 2018