What does "bitch" mean now?

[milomorris]

Actually, when "fuck" is hurled around, the implication is that the penetration is non-consensual. Except in the case of "go fuck yourself'," which carries masturbatory overtones. So the slur is neither homophobic, nor misogynist specifically. 

[ifyoucantfixit]

    Why so?  I don't necessarily remember hearing that fucking is to be non-consentual...   Most of the time, fortunately, I believe it is consentual..  It is a noun, not an adjective.

[milomorris]

    Why so?  I don't necessarily remember hearing that fucking is to be non-consentual...   Most of the time, fortunately, I believe it is consentual..  It is a noun, not an adjective.

I thought we were talking about using the word as curse/swear.

[bentgyro]

Most of my customers are rednecks and f**k is used alot.....verb, adjective, adverb, noun, etc.  Without that word
some of them would be almost voiceless.
At work, I'm the old bitch...yes, I am old and I have my moments but my customers do respect me.
They know not to f**k with the old bitch.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Most of my customers are rednecks and f**k is used alot.....verb, adjective, adverb, noun, etc.  Without that word
some of them would be almost voiceless.
At work, I'm the old bitch...yes, I am old and I have my moments but my customers do respect me.
They know not to f**k with the old bitch.

  

[Marge_Innavera]

I think, in many areas, the word 'bitch' has not so much been 'reclaimed' as been overused and thus its impact lessened.  My close friends and I were calling each other bitches jokingly years before it became popular to do so.  We noted that outside our very tight group, other women were offended when we called them that.  In the years since, it's come to have a myriad of meanings, but mostly I only use it in the context of referring to a mean person - male or female.

Yes, it's come to have many meanings.  Here's my take on one aspect of it:

Kathy Bates, in the movie adaptation of Steven King's Dolores Claiborne, confides to her employer Vera (Judy Parfitt) that her husband is molesting her daughter and stolen Dolores' savings to keep her from leaving and getting her daughter out of harm's way.  In the next scene Vera advises her to cultivate some bitchery in order to cope with an "oppressively masculine world."  Being a bitch, she tells her, is "sometimes all a woman has to hang onto."

Of course, this was the character who tells her that "an accident can be an unhappy wife's best friend," but there's some wisdom in it. I've known women who let life run over them like a bulldozer because they couldn't let go of the sacred dictum to 'be nice.'

In all honesty, I can't claim to be one of the forum members who doesn't curse much, though I'm careful about the setting.  When I'm volunteering in the kitchen of our local Senior Center, no one has yet heard me say that "this f**king dough won't rise."    

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ww69vIhVIOs

[ifyoucantfixit]

   Well join the club Marge.  I too am guilty of the foul mouth in many instances.  I don't use it constantly, but my husband has been
known to call me a sailor.  Haha.   I do use colorful language whenever I am with family and some friends.  I don't do it in places, where
I do not think it proper.  I have to say however.  I would not trust a person, who never uttered a curse word.  I think they
would probably not be an honest or forthright person, or maybe one who was too uptight, to be truthful.

[serious crayons]

In all honesty, I can't claim to be one of the forum members who doesn't curse much, though I'm careful about the setting.  When I'm volunteering in the kitchen of our local Senior Center, no one has yet heard me say that "this f**king dough won't rise."    

Because you always use enough yeast? 


No, I'm with you. Swearing is fine, but swearing in front of people who are offended by it is just plain uncivil.

I once went to a movie with a couple of friends. Afterward in the lobby, we ran into an acquaintance who was there with her elderly mother. The younger women agreed that we all liked the movie, but the mother said "If only there wasn't so much swearing!" The younger women all looked at each other and said, "What swearing?"

I've always sworn occasionally -- not casually, but when I'm really mad -- in front of my kids (not AT them, but in their hearing), which I know is a huge taboo. Now that my older one swears in pretty much every sentence and my younger one curses when he's angry, I don't feel as bad about it. And no, they are not modeling my behavior (if only they would ever do that, my life would be a million times easier), though I suppose they know my ability to handle a bit of profanity makes them more likely to use it.



 

[Jeff Wrangler]

I'm sure I've told this story before, but when I was a very small boy, my mother caught me saying, "What the hell?" very loudly. She promptly gave me one heck  of a spanking, and after that, "four-letter-words" did not cross my lips until I was in college! 

And my father, bless him, contributed to setting a good example for me. I noticed that he started saying "Shit!" when something exasperated him only after he had heard me saying it. So I guess I was a bad influence on my old man! 

[serious crayons]

And my father, bless him, contributed to setting a good example for me. I noticed that he started saying "Shit!" when something exasperated him only after he had heard me saying it. So I guess I was a bad influence on my old man! 

He probably figured the cow was out of the barn at that point.

I literally never heard my parents say anything stronger than "damn" -- and even that VERY rarely. And they weren't at all religious or even particularly straight-arrow people-- they were more martini-drinking, early '60s advertising-industry, Cheever/Mad Men types. They let me watch, read, and toward the end even pretty much do, whatever I liked. But they didn't swear. When I first heard swear words, i thought they were something only kids said and that adults hadn't heard of them.