Do You Love Bad Girl Bitches Or Disdain The Image?

 

“The only "B" word you should ever call a woman is beautiful. Why? Because bitches love to be called beautiful. - T-shirt.” 

 
― Lani Lynn Vale Execution Style 

How did "bitch" come to be? This brief article  may surprise you that a reference to a female dog could escalate into negative meaning over the many years of its common social usage -- then reemerge with Superwoman-like ferocity..  From sexual reference to insult to whatever it refers to now seems very troubling to me. I hate women referring to themselves or others as "bitches," no matter the situation. "Beauty" and "bitch" denote two entirely different images of women, just as and "scowling" and "pleasurable" do to describe their general behavior.

According to a 2014 Vice report by Arielle Pardes, the use of “bitch” in literature and articles doubled between the years 1915 and 1930. While part of this surge was due to a spike in the word’s use to describe female dogs, as well as the rise in popularity of the term “son of a bitch,” some of this increase was also driven by its use as an insult against women.

 By the 18th century, it had become “the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more provoking than that of whore,” according to the Atlantic.  And in the 1900s, its use soared, Zoe Triska writes for HuffPost.

 “There is an uptick in use of ‘bitch’ as a term of abuse for women that starts gradually in the 1920s and 1930s, and then really gains traction in the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s for a woman who is seen as conniving, malicious, or just plain bad."

 -- Kory Stamper, a lexicographer and former associate editor for Merriam-Webster dictionaries. 

 In actuality, the term “bitch,” echoed the messaging of the anti-suffrage movement.

As anti-suffragists argued, if women were to leave the private sphere, or the home, for the public one, they would be stepping out of bounds. Using terms like “mannish” and “unsexed,” they sought to portray suffragists as encroaching on male gender roles. And in what historians see as a clear example of slut-shaming, they attacked women’s sexuality too, denouncing suffragists as “loose” women who had questionable social mores. So many men did not want women to vote or enter the field of politic.

This designed slur became was distressingly unsurprising: Whenever women, minorities, or other groups have successfully gained greater power in America, they’ve seen swift backlash.remind women of these same boundaries. 

 After women obtained the right to vote — a change that initially applied exclusively to white women — the term “bitch” began to take off. Used to describe women who were too lewd or aggressive, it played on the same tropes as the anti-suffrage movement did.

 As English professor Dolores Barracano Schmidt wrote in the 1971 paper “The Great American Bitch,” writers in the 1920s and ’30s established the idea of the “bitch,” or the difficult woman, as they grappled with shifting power dynamics in heterosexual relationships. “They are the hardest, the cruelest, the most predatory, and the most attractive, and their men have softened or gone to pieces nervously as they have hardened,” says an Ernest Hemingway character of these women.

(Li Zhouli. "Use of the word “bitch” surged after women’s suffrage." Vox. https://www.vox.com/21365241/19th-amendment-womens-suffrage-backlash.  August 19, 2020.)

Now,  in a feminist drive, "bitch" can indicate a strong or assertive  woman and has therefore been re-appropriated  by some women. As stated in Scallen'Bitch Thesis,  "As Asim demonstrates with his discussion of the appropriation of the N word by black communities, the term bitch is deployed in pop culture in multiple ways (with multiple meanings) at the same time."Derogatory terms are constantly appropriated. Many women, such as Nicki Minaj, refer to themselves as bitches. By calling oneself a bitch in today's culture, these women are referencing their success, money, sexuality, and power. 

 Still, according to Dr. Timothy Jay, there are "over 70 different taboo words", but 80 percent of the time only ten words are used, and bitch is included in that set. Being called the term bitch has been associated with worsening the mental health of women.

 (Klonoff, Elizabeth A.; Landrine, Hope; Campbell, Robin (March 2000). "Sexist Discrimination May Account for Well-Known Gender Differences in Psychiatric Symptoms". Psychology of Women Quarterly. 24 (1): 93–99. doi:10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01025.x)

BITCH (redirected from Beautiful Intelligent Talented Creative Honest)

Acronym	Definition
BITCH	Babe In Total Control of Herself
BITCH	Brave, Intelligent, Tenacious, Creative, Honest
BITCH	Boys I'm Taking Charge Here
BITCH	Being in Total Control, Honey
BITCH	Beautiful Intelligent Talented Charming Honest
BITCH	Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity
BITCH	Beautiful Individual that Creates Haters
BITCH	Best Individual the Company Hired
BITCH	Black Widow, Ironman, Thor, Captain America, Hulk
BITCH	Birds in the City of Hollywood (MTV Jackass)
BITCH	Beautiful Intelligent Talented Creative Honest

I don't like the transformation, and I believe the slang still is quite demeaning. Yet, in in rap and pop culture, a new manifesto has risen. You hear this connotation so frequently now as a statement of feminine power. The turn is a complete 180% in definition as used in popular culture.

Feminist attorney Jo Freemn= (Joreen) authored "The BITCH Manifesto" in 1968:^[

A Bitch takes shit from no one. You may not like her, but you cannot ignore her. ... [Bitches] have loud voices and often use them. Bitches are not pretty. ... Bitches seek their identity strictly thru themselves and what they do. They are subjects, not objects. ... Often they do dominate other people when roles are not available to them which more creatively sublimate their energies and utilize their capabilities. More often they are accused of domineering when doing what would be considered natural by a man.

 ( "The Bitch Manifesto - Documents from the Women's Liberation Movement."Scriptorium.lib.duke.edu. 2012.)

This new usage -- reclaiming power -- has been cited by many researchers as increasing the perception the word as acceptable and excusing men who use it against women.

In a 2006 interview titled "Pop Goes the Feminist", Bitch magazine co-founder Andi Zeisler   explained the naming of the magazine:

When we chose the name, we were thinking, well, it would be great to reclaim the word "bitch" for strong, outspoken women, much the same way that "queer" has been reclaimed by the gay community.. That was very much on our minds, the positive power of language reclamation."

Personally, I simply abhor the new connotation of a word traditionally meant to provoke listeners to belief a "bitch" is a whore or to think a woman is an underling. I still wince at the frequency women of today refer to themselves as "bitches" to intimidate others and solidify their positions of power or "rough and tough" creatures. It reeks of senseless control through language employing irony and reversal of an ugly, pejorative slang word.To me, the use of the "B word) only supports domination, not love and justice. 

Therein. the use of reference as a tough "bitch," requires a warning for explicit language that makes so many -- gentlemen and ladies -- uncomfortable; even if it sometimes seems to be a good fit.

"Bitch" is normally used as a derogatory word toward women. And yet in a room full of successful entrepreneurs, they used it on a regular basis to pump themselves up, bust through fear, and even make important business decisions. Does that sound right to you? Is it possible that we could take something that someone else meant for bad and turn it into something positive

 (Dr. Tori Cooper. "It’s Okay To Call Yourself A Bitch." https://coricooper.com/okay-call-bitch/. October 8, 2017.)

My final rant -- all of my powerful, beautiful family females -- should never call themselves "bitches." It is unbecoming for my daughters, daughtere-in-law, and grandbabies. They are all strong and assertive, but calling one a "bitch" would raise my ire. May even their worst passions disassociate them from using such language.

Call me "old-fashioned," but I believe "bitch" is extremely offensive and derogatory. Would a decent man relish being known as "a son of a bitch" or a "knucklehead" or a "thug"? Not in my book. I seek a much gentler, kinder association with the good side of my personality -- not someone deriding my character to  animalistic obscenities. I don't appreciate loud, abrasive portrayals of "bad ass" stature. I certainly pray my female family is kind and loving with no association with "bitchy."

Bitch

By Carolyn Kizer 

 

Now, when he and I meet, after all these years,

I say to the bitch inside me, don’t start growling.

He isn’t a trespasser anymore,

Just an old acquaintance tipping his hat.

My voice says, “Nice to see you,”

As the bitch starts to bark hysterically.

He isn’t an enemy now,

Where are your manners, I say, as I say,

“How are the children? They must be growing up.”

At a kind word from him, a look like the old days,

The bitch changes her tone; she begins to whimper.

She wants to snuggle up to him, to cringe.

Down, girl! Keep your distance

Or I’ll give you a taste of the choke-chain.

“Fine, I’m just fine,” I tell him.

She slobbers and grovels.

After all, I am her mistress. She is basically loyal.

It’s just that she remembers how she came running

Each evening, when she heard his step;

How she lay at his feet and looked up adoringly

Though he was absorbed in his paper;

Or, bored with her devotion, ordered her to the kitchen

Until he was ready to play.

But the small careless kindnesses

When he’d had a good day, or a couple of drinks,

Come back to her now, seem more important

Than the casual cruelties, the ultimate dismissal.

“It’s nice to know you are doing so well,” I say.

He couldn’t have taken you with him;

You were too demonstrative, too clumsy,

Not like the well-groomed pets of his new friends.

“Give my regards to your wife,” I say. You gag

As I drag you off by the scruff,

Saying, “Goodbye! Goodbye! Nice to have seen you again.”

 

Carolyn Kizer, “Bitch” from Mermaids in the Basement. 

 

Copyright © 1984 by Carolyn Kizer. Reprinted with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P. O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368, www.coppercanyonpress.org.

Source: Twentieth-Century American Poetry (Copper Canyon Press, 2004)