January 03rd, 2025

DON'T CALL ME A BITCH
A man left a comment on my facebook page calling me a bitch. It was meant as a light hearted reply to one of my posts but I messaged them and told them it was inappropriate, especially from someone I have never met. Equally, it is offensive to call me babe or sweetie or any other over affectionate label that isn’t my name if you don’t know me.  While I can call myself all of the above, it doesn’t give anyone else except my close friends, the right to.
Social media creates blurred lines I know, people think they’re your friends and they know you, even though they’re just following your posts. And as a feminist it’s all about creating a safe space with respect to acknowledge women’s rights and strengths.
So delving a bit deeper, calling a woman a bitch, especially one that you have never met, is in fact quite passive aggressive. In the urban dictionary, the definition of a woman is “someone who whines excessively,” “annoying and whining female,” “a person who performs tasks for another, usually degrading in status,” a “woman with a bad attitude.” I have a great, positive attitude on the whole and labelling a woman a bitch is implying that she isn’t fitting the mold women are “supposed” to fit into and we’re defying society’s unhealthy and antiquated expectations of a woman. We are here to be seen and heard. Bitch is an insult aimed at women who behave in “male” ways, women who are too ambitious or aggressive, women who are ambitious, women who earn a lot of money, women who are not as nice or as quiet as some people would like them to be. And yes I am all of those but I behave without arrogance and mostly with empathy so as not to intentionally hurt anyone.
Calling a woman a bitch is actually exposing deep rooted prejudice against a woman and I take it really personally. Bitch is so insulting because it attempts to use a piece of my identity – my femaleness – as a weapon. “Bitch” is literally mysogeny, slagging me off because I’m a woman.
​Similarly calling a man a bitch is insulting. It’s derogatory to imply they’re acting weak, again, a slur against women.
You may think I’m over reacting, but I am a feminist protecting women’s rights to be strong. Which is why me and my friends call people (who deserve it) cunts. It’s good enough for   Chaucer and Shakespeare and more recently Germaine Greer. The word historically is associated with shame and repression as well as the way women have been denied knowledge of their own bodily pleasure. Men gasp and prudes wince but it’s empowering for women to take back control of the word and everything it symbolises. I am sugar and spice, and all things nice. And even though I swear, I’m classy as fuck. It doesn’t make me a bitch.


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