Hi yes, before I read this far I considered pming you. I like this post but, the title put me off. If you are wondering if it is actually still a sexist slur, please consider the way it is used. This article breaks it down beautifully:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ppmx3m/the-evolution-of-the-bitch-905
What remained problematic, however, was the way “bitch” related to power dynamics. When women have too much power, they’re called bitches as a way to knock them down a peg. But when men aren’t asserting enough power, they’re called bitches too. In the E-40 and Too $hort song “Bitch” (2010), we hear both versions of the word: E-40 tells men “don’t act like a bitch” and criticizes men who have “feminine tendencies like a bitch,” but also calls a woman who has sex with multiple men a “bitch.”
As Lupe Fiasco so eloquently put it: “Bitch bad, woman good, lady better.”
But perhaps the problem isn’t really so much what we call women—it’s how we treat women. “Bitch” has come a long way, sure, but perhaps the reason it hasn’t been truly reclaimed is because conditions for women haven’t really changed, either. If there ever comes a time when women aren’t made to feel ashamed of their sexuality, when they don’t have to fight for fair wages or the opportunity to speak in a meeting, when they don’t constantly fear the possibility of violence or sexual assault, and when women feel that they have some say in the society that we live in, then “bitch” will shed that last layer of stigma for good. Words only make sense in context. When we see the day when the context is changed, then the core meaning of the word will change, too.
But has that day arrived yet? Bitch, please.
