"Bitch"
Oh, dear ... that word ... the one up there ...
If there is a word that most women resent more than anything else, I suspect it's the word, "bitch."
Now, let's get one thing straight. I never ever use that word. Not ever.
OK, once I may have used it in the throes of passion. I guess that I thought it might have some kind of dramatic effect, you know, sort of get the piston pumping a bit harder, but to my dismay, the effect was the exact opposite. The aforementioned piston suddenly ended up with nowhere to pump.
So it goes.
For centuries, the word, "bitch," has been possibly the most demeaning insult one could offer a woman. I won't go into the various connotations of the word, but let's just say that it implies how a woman is something akin to a high-strung, emasculating, foul-mouthed, self-centred, cranky, cock-teasing ...
Oh, wait, enough already.
What strikes me as odd is how popular culture has begun to embrace the word as something quite positive. Many women, like Tina Fey (“Bitches get stuff done!”), Madonna ("Unapologetic Bitch"), and Nicki Minaj ("I’m a boss-ass bitch"), have empowered the word in a way to mean "powerful, assertive, independent, and free" — all good qualities.
Still, the bottom line is that the interjection remains drowning in a quagmire of sexism and contempt.
Maybe the only thing worse is for someone to call a man a "son of a bitch." Now, for me, those are fighting words. The perpetrator is not just slagging me, but my mother as well. And, trust me, you don't wanna go messin' with my mama ...
Oh, dear ... that word ... the one up there ...
If there is a word that most women resent more than anything else, I suspect it's the word, "bitch."
Now, let's get one thing straight. I never ever use that word. Not ever.
OK, once I may have used it in the throes of passion. I guess that I thought it might have some kind of dramatic effect, you know, sort of get the piston pumping a bit harder, but to my dismay, the effect was the exact opposite. The aforementioned piston suddenly ended up with nowhere to pump.
So it goes.
For centuries, the word, "bitch," has been possibly the most demeaning insult one could offer a woman. I won't go into the various connotations of the word, but let's just say that it implies how a woman is something akin to a high-strung, emasculating, foul-mouthed, self-centred, cranky, cock-teasing ...
Oh, wait, enough already.
What strikes me as odd is how popular culture has begun to embrace the word as something quite positive. Many women, like Tina Fey (“Bitches get stuff done!”), Madonna ("Unapologetic Bitch"), and Nicki Minaj ("I’m a boss-ass bitch"), have empowered the word in a way to mean "powerful, assertive, independent, and free" — all good qualities.
Still, the bottom line is that the interjection remains drowning in a quagmire of sexism and contempt.
Maybe the only thing worse is for someone to call a man a "son of a bitch." Now, for me, those are fighting words. The perpetrator is not just slagging me, but my mother as well. And, trust me, you don't wanna go messin' with my mama ...
