I see a couple problems with this. There are certainly men who view women as little more than property and such, and the strongest term we have for those is "misogynist", which is a term with almost no emotional impact.
I'd question that. I imagine men who don't present misogynistic tendancies that are lambasted as that would find it greatly offensive. I imagine men who DO present such tendancies would be the type to typically take insults and scoff at them, choosing to instead shield themselves through insulting back rather than letting themselves be outwardly offended. Again, this is a case of a word not being universally insulting but it having different insulting meanings to different people.
A woman who views men with contempt is a "feminazi", which is a word with considerable emotional impact, and is used far more often than "misogynist".
Again, I think this is again an instance where it is the context and society that has caused the possible backlash, not the "word". Once again, the term is likely used "more often" because in general you do not have an organized political movement to push "men's rights" where as there IS for women. I have no doubt, knowing our society in which EVERY political grouping generally has some kind of insulting term affixed to it, that there would be something for an equivilent male organization.
I also think this comes down in general to the different attitudes that at least on a personal level I've observed between extremely over the top males and females in regards to their sex. Where as Males, from what I've observed, seem more likely to go on the attack and shrug off an insult as "meaningless" I've noticed women more likely to take it and wear it as a badge and as something to use as a sort of standard bearer to attack back.
To give an analogy, let us say that insulting words are like a weapon...say a knife. The male tendancy, from what I've observed, would be to rip the knife out, ignore it, and run forward to kill the enemy with their own weapon. The female tendancy would be to grab it, use it to fuel their anger further, and use it as the weapon to attack them back with. (A bit crude of an analogy but I hope you get where I'm going).
Essentially, that the way in which the extreme's on both sides of the sexes react to the words is less about how "offensive" the words are but more simply on the ways in which they react to it, which in turns creates the way in which the words are viewed to a certain extent.
In a very similar way, "bitch" is female directed, and has a strong impact, but the male version, "bastard" has almost no impact.
Again, I hear "bitch" and "bastard" generally said in EXTREMELY similar context with extremely similar venom. The only real difference I see is the way in which it envokes a reaction *typically*. Your assertion seems to be that that means one word is naturally more "offensive" than the other it seems, where as I think it has more to do with the general way in which the sexes tend to act and respond to certain things on a stereotypical general level.
The second problem is that the word "feminazi" is used more to marginalize women of strength than it is to describe women with ultra extreme man hating positions, at least in my experience.Thankfully, it seems the use of the term is going down, but at one time, any time "women's issues" where brought up, it was a safe bet the word "feminazi" would be broken out soon.
Which was my point in the post. "Feminazi" as a term is not something I have an issue with. While I think it is not extremely useful in conversation because it does have a tendancy to inflame, within the context of its creation and general meaning I do not think it is an offensive thing. When it is extended as an overall generalization to any and every women that feels the need for womens rights THEN I can understand offense to it. But this still leads back to my original statement...that in general I do not view words as being able to be "universally" offensive but requiring context to be offensive, which said context at times can only apply to a singular person.
Now, I don't find the word "feminazi" to be offensive. I do not find words to be offensive at all. I am more worried about ideas than words.
I agree, and in regards to something like "Feminazi" I do not believe that the "idea" behind it in a general sense is "offensive" but I do believe it can be used, and often is used, in an offensive way when over generalized.