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What does "bitch" mean now?
ifyoucantfixit:
--- Quote from: David In Indy on April 12, 2012, 03:41:19 pm ---I was watching this old black and white movie on TCM a few months ago, and this woman was holding a small dog in her arms. Something alarmed the dog and she got loose and ran out the door. The woman then shouted "My bitch! My bitch! Somebody get my bitch!"
:laugh: :laugh:
Sorry! I this has NOTHING to do with the article, but I couldn't help it! :-\
--- End quote ---
I do think that it is relavent. It is an instrument of language. English, has many places where the particular words have many meanings. Sometimes they are nouns, and sometimes adjectives. I personally use the word bitch quite often, and do not think of it as a forbidden word. I only use it when I am particlarly unfond of someone. Like.."I am now dodging bombs. I know that there are many of her fans here." One in particular but I cannot abide Madonna. I will not say here why. But it is much more than my approval or disapproval of her as a musician.
I do not ever use the N words, the C word or most of the other nasty epithets in common usage today.. Whore being one. I would never call anyone that. It is over the line. Even if a person has that bent, or is in that employ. It is just over the line. Just as the N word is.
Personally I think using mean words is less a problem than to actually do bodily harm.."sticks and stones," so to speak... It, Means you are your own person....but when I say she is a bitch...I mean the most annoying self obsorbed and hateful person I can describe... So there are limits to which even I subscribe to independant behaviors.. When you do not have regard for others...it is to be a "BITCH"
David In Indy:
--- Quote from: ifyoucantfixit on April 12, 2012, 10:48:44 pm --- I do think that it is relavent. It is an instrument of language. English, has many places where the particular words have many meanings. Sometimes they are nouns, and sometimes adjectives. I personally use the word bitch quite often, and do not think of it as a forbidden word. I only use it when I am particlarly unfond of someone. Like.."I am now dodging bombs. I know that there are many of her fans here." One in particular but I cannot abide Madonna. I will not say here why. But it is much more than my approval or disapproval of her as a musician.
I do not ever use the N words, the C word or most of the other nasty epithets in common usage today.. Whore being one. I would never call anyone that. It is over the line. Even if a person has that bent, or is in that employ. It is just over the line. Just as the N word is.
Personally I think using mean words is less a problem than to actually do bodily harm.."sticks and stones," so to speak... It, Means you are your own person....but when I say she is a bitch...I mean the most annoying self obsorbed and hateful person I can describe... So there are limits to which even I subscribe to independant behaviors.. When you do not have regard for others...it is to be a "BITCH"
--- End quote ---
That's an excellent way to put it, Janice!!!
serious crayons:
--- Quote from: milomorris on April 12, 2012, 03:07:46 pm ---I agree with this assessment of "asshole." But I disagree about "prick" or "dick." As a matter of fact, "prick" was the more polite term used back when "dick" was considered too rude. Either way, these words have the same effect on men that the "c-word" or the "t-word" have on women in terms of the dehumanizing bodily reduction. And I'll tell you that personally, I like penises very much...starting with my own. So I still cringe when I hear those words, and being called such really pushes my buttons...unless--as has been pointed out--the speaker is using them in jest.
I should also point out that while the "c-word," the "t-word," the "p-word" and "dick" are not allowed on network TV, "prick" is.
--- End quote ---
I don't think "dick" or "prick" are the equivalent of the c-word. Who in the real world have you ever heard refer to it as the "d-word"? That word is tossed around casually by men and women, boys and girls, sometimes attached to "head." Whereas "cunt" is pulled out by only the rudest people in only the most extreme situations.
No, the equivalent of "dick" is "pussy," which is used pretty casually. Though neither, interestingly, is often applied to a woman. Nor is "asshole," for that matter.
--- Quote ---Let me offer another angle. Calling a man a "bitch" is emasculating, but not because it reduces a man to the level of a woman, but rather his masculinity is so damaged that he "becomes" a woman.
--- End quote ---
I'm not thrilled with "bitch" in any context, though I find it the most offensive when it's a man speaking of a woman. Hence, I am at least somewhat offended by about 75 percent of rap songs. (Well, 75 percent of the ones I've heard, which is a small fraction of all rap but seems to be about representative -- one night when my son was playing his iTunes in the car on the aux plug, I asked him to find a song that didn't have the word "bitch" in it, and he had trouble doing so.)
According to the website Rap Genius, which records and explains rap lyrics, there are 8,222 rap songs with the word "bitch" in them, including over 100 with the word right in the title. Titles -- and these include songs by the biggest names in rap -- include "Shut Up Bitch Swallow," "Bitches Ain't Shit," "Fuck My Bitch," "Bitch Suck Dick," "Bitches on My Dick," "Break that Bitch," and "Violate that Bitch." Also, "Sophisticated Bitch" and "Bitches in Paris" and "Please Respect the Bitch" (good start, yo). And the romantic ballad "I Love My Bitch."
Of course, "bitch" is better than "ho."
Bitch-related rap anecdote: A rumor went around for a couple of days recently that Jay-Z had publicly sworn off using the word "bitch" since his daughter was born. It turned out to be fake, which Jay-Z casually confirmed when asked about it on TV. Nope, he had no plans to change his use of an offensive slur. However, a month or two earlier, a feud cropped up between Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, partly based on Lil Wayne recording a song in which the phrase "your bitch" implicitly referred to Beyonce. In Jay-Z's mind, apparently, it's fine to use "bitch" with abandon when applied to women in general, but it's a huge insult when applied to one's wife.
The problem is that if I find "bitch" offensive when used in these contexts, I'm now reluctant for political reasons to use it in its traditional way: to describe a woman who's mean or unpleasant. As in, "My boss is such a bitch" or "You're acting like a bitch." If "bitch" is to be used as a synonym for "woman," those phrases are redundant and obvious. And if I don't want Jay-Z to use the word, I shouldn't add to the world's supply. So now what? "My boss is such an asshole," I guess, though to me that still sounds funny when used to describe a woman.
I used to think reclaiming slurs was a reasonable idea, but I've come to find the process so fraught with pitfalls that maybe it's better to just not do it.
--- Quote ---Let me offer another angle. Calling a man a "bitch" is emasculating, but not because it reduces a man to the level of a woman, but rather his masculinity is so damaged that he "becomes" a woman.
--- End quote ---
And I'm assuming this arose from prison terminology.
But now, I think, "bitch" has a more generic, non-gendered meaning when applied to men. It's more like "asshole." If you want to insult a man by calling him something feminine, you would use "pussy."
--- Quote --- The opposite insult would be calling a woman "butch," "bull-dyke," or saying "she's got a dick." Those insults are intended to strip away her femininity, therefore she "becomes" a man. Its about gender reversal.
--- End quote ---
I don't think these are quite equivalent. "Butch" and "bull-dyke," because of their sexual-orientation connotations, mean something a little different, and I would assume their meaning changes depending on whether the person is gay or straight. As for "she's got a dick," yes it's an insult, but I think of it as an insult often applied to women not because they're acting "masculine" per se, but because they're behaving in a way that's presumably only acceptable for men. For example, women who are seen as being "inappropriately" competitive or aggressive in business.
It's interesting that our insults are so gender-specific.
milomorris:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on April 13, 2012, 10:45:07 am ---I don't think "dick" or "prick" are the equivalent of the c-word. Who in the real world have you ever heard refer to it as the "d-word"? That word is tossed around casually by men and women, boys and girls, sometimes attached to "head." Whereas "cunt" is pulled out by only the rudest people in only the most extreme situations.
No, the equivalent of "dick" is "pussy," which is used pretty casually. Though neither, interestingly, is often applied to a woman. Nor is "asshole," for that matter.
--- End quote ---
I was speaking on an individual level. I should have been more clear. You are certainly right that "dick" doesn't have the same level of rudeness on a social level. I think that is, in part, because men in the past were expected to be able to handle insults, whereas women were expected to be protected from them. The cultural hold-out from that social contract is that any word that insults women is by default more heinous than any word that insults men. Chivalry isn't quite dead yet.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on April 13, 2012, 10:45:07 am ---I don't think "dick" or "prick" are the equivalent of the c-word. Who in the real world have you ever heard refer to it as the "d-word"? That word is tossed around casually by men and women, boys and girls, sometimes attached to "head." Whereas "cunt" is pulled out by only the rudest people in only the most extreme situations.
--- End quote ---
I agree.
--- Quote ---According to the website Rap Genius, which records and explains rap lyrics, there are 8,222 rap songs with the word "bitch" in them, including over 100 with the word right in the title. Titles -- and these include songs by the biggest names in rap -- include "Shut Up Bitch Swallow," "Bitches Ain't Shit," "Fuck My Bitch," "Bitch Suck Dick," "Bitches on My Dick," "Break that Bitch," and "Violate that Bitch." Also, "Sophisticated Bitch" and "Bitches in Paris" and "Please Respect the Bitch" (good start, yo). And the romantic ballad "I Love My Bitch."
--- End quote ---
Awful, just awful. :(
--- Quote ---Of course, "bitch" is better than "ho."
--- End quote ---
Once I was casually called "ho" by a fellow gay guy. I ripped him a new one. ...
--- Quote ---Bitch-related rap anecdote: A rumor went around for a couple of days recently that Jay-Z had publicly sworn off using the word "bitch" since his daughter was born. It turned out to be fake, which Jay-Z casually confirmed when asked about it on TV. Nope, he had no plans to change his use of an offensive slur. However, a month or two earlier, a feud cropped up between Jay-Z and Lil Wayne, partly based on Lil Wayne recording a song in which the phrase "your bitch" implicitly referred to Beyonce. In Jay-Z's mind, apparently, it's fine to use "bitch" with abandon when applied to women in general, but it's a huge insult when applied to one's wife.
--- End quote ---
Let's be more clearly specific: It's OK for Jay-Z to use the word; it's not OK for someone else to use it about Jay-Z's wife.
--- Quote ---I used to think reclaiming slurs was a reasonable idea, but I've come to find the process so fraught with pitfalls that maybe it's better to just not do it.
--- End quote ---
Perhaps it depends on the slur, but I was never happy or comfortable with reclaiming "queer." And, curiously, the only people I ever met personally, face-to-face, who had no problem using that word, were invariably at least a decade younger than me, if not more.
(OT and BTW, welcome back, Katharine. I've been missing you.)
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