"Bitch" cannot be reclaimed in a man's world [opinion]

[Shana A]

"Bitch" cannot be reclaimed in a man's world
Timeka Williams
Issue date: 2/20/08 Section: Opinion

http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2008/02/20/Opinion/bitch.Cannot.Be.Reclaimed.In.A.Mans.World-3221205.shtml

"Who you calling a bitch?" asked Queen Latifah in her 1993 Grammy award winning track, U-N-I-T-Y. But some of us were not listening. As evident in the title of my less than favorite feminist magazine, Bitch, women have reached a new low by using the tools of an oppressive and patriarchal society to identify themselves.

[NicholeW.]

Word.

[Nero]

Yep. Nor can the N word be reclaimed (though many try) or any word that has been used by one group to demonize and dehumanize another.
I don't believe in 'reclaiming' such words at all.

[Sandy]

Next to bitch, I am offended by any use of the word, "broad" in reference to women.

This word, since it is not in the category of Anglo-saxonisms, is in fairly common use.  It is still disrespectful and there isn't an equivalent term for males.  I never used the term, pre or post full time, even among women who use it themselves.

Like other words of it's kind, to me, it normalizes a disrespect that is uncalled for.  Ever!

-Sandy

[lady amarant]

Once a word has been tainted by hatred and intollerance and stuff, it's irretrievable. It should be left in the pages of the past, where it belongs.

[NicholeW.]

I really like word reclamation

I understand the idea. The practice usually is less, much less, effective than the idea. I just watched a documentary this afternoon about Hip-hop and its world. I believe it was called Hip-hop: Music and Rhymes, but not sure.

Our Women's Issues class discussed a segment of it where at BET's Spring-Break in Daytona males were interviewed about objectifying women and using the 'b' word and 'ho.' They seemed to have very decided ideas about both what they could do vis-a-vis the women they 'thought' of as 'B's and 'ho's. It became very physical and quite honestly showed a disregard of any sense of allowing those women to remain human. It was maybe eight minutes long and showed an incredible lack of any sort of recognition that such women were useful for anything other than a 'quickie.'

Reclaiming a word that allows men, or women, to denigrate others based solely on the application of a word to them is much more than just the effect of the 'word' itself. It shows an entire attitude that for these guys seemed to objectify every woman but the women they see back-home in their neighborhoods, and I suspect the attitude ranges there as well.

My take, the word is yet another way that allows us to be commodified, clinching the deal made by Playboy-culture, TV adverts and shows and a general distance that western culture appears to have ingrained in us all, at least since WWII.

So, Redfish, you think all that can be dusted-off and the word itself can be reclaimed? An awfully large task that would have to change entire cultures! The 'n' word has never been 'reclaimed' no matter what some say. It remains derogatory, at least in certain usages, even among those who have done the 'reclaiming.'

Nichole

[NicholeW.]

I think young black men, especially the men, have reclaimed the 'n' word. The women, not so much. The ones I interact with use the 'n' word to describe those very same young men who have 'reclaimed' the word for themselves. The women use the term, at least when they've been around me, in the very old sense in which it was used by whites: a shiftless, lazy, ne'er-do-well and even criminal and stupid person.

"Queer" is not only used by young people and the gay community, but also by the straight community as well, and generally speaking when I have heard it used by younger males and other straight people I find it has not been at all redeemed by those people.

And, it's one thing to used the 'b' word in the way you do up there, redfish. Bitch magazine uses it that way, yet those young black men in the hip-hop culture, young and older white men and women, etc use it in the old way and in using it do with it exactly what has been done with it for the past 200 years: use it to demean and dehumanize the recipient/s of the slur.

As long as the dominants continue to use the term disparagingly, the 'reclaimers' have reclaimed nothing at all. In fact, invariably what I have seen is that for the 'minority' to try to 'reclaim' those long-used slur-words is to allow an argument from the dominants to be allowed to use the word as well: "After all, They (blacks) use the 'n' word themselves. They (women) use the 'b' word themselves. And the queers use the 'q' word themselves. Why shouldn't I? Why is it different when I use it?"

I'll maintain that none of those three words has ever been 'reclaimed' at all. The attempts fail because the dominants do not not use the words anymore -- they simply take them out of their 'public' discourse when they feel someone might be around who will call them on the usage.

That's not reclamation, that's merely the dominants trying to hide the power they refuse to give up. To be honest I would prefer they be open in their prejudices and attempts at dehumanization. At least that way I get the picture without a lot of explanation. While they simply hide their true thoughts that have never changed anyhow.

I'll still maintain these words CANNOT be reclaimed. And if a reclamation IS possible it has to come through the majority 'community,' the dominants. Otherwise, it is in no sense reclaimed at all. 

N~