Letters to the Editor
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Beat her?
I don't know... I think Andi has decided to redefine 'bitch' to suit her own predesignated point regarding sexism. Clearly, it is merely a gender-specific version of 'asshole.'
Or when a grumpy, dusty old broad says 'beat the bitch' it is merely to be mean. I myself would agree that HR Clinton is not exactly oozing charisma, but by any definition of 'bitch,' mine or the one defined by the Bitch editor, I would have trouble finding that that in Clinton.
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What does 'Bastard' Mean?
Do men name magazines after that word? Do the most ambitious men gladly adopt it as some emblem?
Do men get to define what the word 'bastard' means? Or do women?
What does the word mean?
If you can define 'bastard' and define it the way a guy defines it and the way a girl defines it, then you will have an answer as to why the definition of 'bitch' varies between men and women.
While I have not yet pinned down the distinction between how women and men see 'bitch' differently, I suspect men do not have a problem in business with a determined, humorless woman. The problem men have, I think, is with women who act haughty or superior because of it.
Maybe the superior attitude is a signifier that something has gotten to the woman, that she is affected by it.
If she acted oblivious and maybe even threw a finger, made a wisecrack, or laughed it off, men would be less prone to calling the woman a bitch. They might gain some grudging respect that she has mastered the subtext.
The problem ultimately stems from how women all too commonly seem to WANT to deliberately place themselves above the fray and above men, as if we men are too stinky to be confronted on our level and need to be talked or attituded down to. As if our natural course of action is illegitimate.
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I love bitches
If the definition of bitch is "any woman who is strong, angry, uncompromising and, often, uninterested in pleasing men" then this country needs all the bitches it can get. If Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, Elizabeth Edwards, Nancy Pelosi and Susan Sarandon are bitches, then I have to say that I love bitches. I'd much prefer to be associated with any of the previously named women than some spineless, vapid little twit who only parrots everything a man tells her.
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What do you call a male version of a "Bitch"?
...A man.
You know, strong, opinionated, forceful...won't take crap...maybe not too concerned about hurting someone else's feelings...not afraid to push someone around to get what they want....
But when I do it, I'm just an "Alpha Male".
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"female John McCain supporter"
Linda Burke, of Hilton Head, SC.
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Webster's definition
1: the female of the dog or some other carnivorous mammals
2 a: a lewd or immoral woman b: a malicious, spiteful, or overbearing woman —sometimes used as a generalized term of abuse
3: something that is extremely difficult, objectionable, or unpleasant
4: complaint
Sounds specific enough to me. So if you aren't a female dog and it isn't being used as a verb...well, there not much left.
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"S.O.B."
For a time, guys with a fuck-you attitude called themselves "S.O.B.s," a term that still packs a sexist wallop.
"Bitch or "s.o.b."? How about "Asshole"? A strong person acting strong is fine. A weak person disguising her or his weakness with a nasty 'tude is a flaming rectum.
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Embrace the slur make it your own
We'll just them cunts instead.
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Sticks and stones....
The word 'bitch' usually says more about the person who says it than it does about the person at whom they're directing the slur. I think the huge deal people (including, regrettably, Tim Grieve over at War Room) are making of this incident is a gigantic national equivalent of the nervous titter in junior high health class the first time the teacher says 'penis'.
Hillary has heard it all before. The main thing this enormous titter does is keep her name in the news. Like she needed it.
Any chance we can talk about John Edwards and why poverty is a women's issue? No, the headlines were already taken by some old biddy who used a naughty word. What a ridiculous country.
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The complement to "bitch" is "dog"
Standard terminology to identify the sexes in dogs is "dog" and "bitch". Watch an intact male dog with an intact (or not)bitch who is NOT in heat.
Dog: Hey, baby...
Bitch: Hey, baby...
Dog: You're really cute...
Bitch: You're cute too.. no wait... SNAP!
Dog: (Not the least concerned) I still think you're sexy, baby...
Bitch: Get your nose out of my face, you @#$%@!!!
It's funny to watch. You always kind of sympathetic to the dog (but not so much because he's pushy) and sympathetic to the bitch (but not so much, because she IS flirting even after she tells the dog to back off).
Which is to say that while I understand its cultural meaning, bitch has become kind of a toothless word to me. It's just a female dog. It almost feels archaic to me at this point to think that it has any impact except to point up the lack of imagination of the person who uses it to mean anything OTHER than a female dog. If someone called me a bitch it would hardly register.
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Let us be clinical and precise.
The correct terms are psychopath, sociopath, or one afflicted with boderline personality disorder, commonly refered to as assholes, s.o.b.s, bitches, predators, psychos, con artists, predators, scumbags, bad people, and just plain evil.
Associating positive words with it is spin and to what purpose other than making it more acceptable because there are only shades of gray and no such thing as bad and good or right and wrong.
Let us not be so impolite in the future and use the term psychopath as it is appropriate and effective in labeling these human predators.
In the context of politicians using derogatory terms for each other - "Pot calls kettle black."
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"bitch" is related to "bicker", "biting", and such.
The word "bitch" is closely related to words like "bicker" or "biting" (particularly when used about something said). Its meaning is probably also by analogy with words like "itch" and "switch", all related to annoying, recurring, nagging pain at the level of a sting or scratch.
"Life's a bitch!" -- sometimes it's one annoying thing after another (like these threads).
Someone who incessantly complains, nags, whinges, and bickerers -- is a bitch. Plain and simple.
I know you have read otherwise, maybe even in a respected source such as an etymological dictionary. It is still wrong. (The Wiki entry is particularly wrong.)
Much of what we were all talk in school about word origins in English is pure fabrication. The early studies of the evolution of English (and similarly German) were often driven by a desire to prove that the English language was the equal of languages like French derived from the Classics -- Greek and Latin. (Sanskrit added later.) For as many words as they could, they tried to find a way that it could be "elated to" a Greek, Latin, or Romance language word, even if that required them to ignore the obvious.
The Latinate grammarians also tried to enforce a Latin-style grammar onto English. Remember all those "tenses" of verbs that you were supposed to learn in school? Or the rule against splitting infinitives ("to boldly go")? The only reason for the latter was that you couldn't split the infinitive in Latin!!