According to the New York Times, The use of the word, “bitch,” tripled in the last decade alone, growing to 1,277 uses on 685 shows in 2007 from 431 uses on 103 prime-time episodes in 1998 (Wyatt, 2009). Several years later, the use of the term has increased tremendously since 2007. Today the term has been found not only in television, but in popular music, literary works, online media, and daily conversations. What will be studied and analyzed in order to find a better understanding of the complexities provided by the term will include every day conversations, especially between women; as well as some popular culture texts that include misogynistic lyrics, specifically in the hip hop and rap genres.
How has the term “bitch” evolved to the point of desensitization? What are the flexibilities of its meanings and the rules of usage? Why and how do women reclaim the word towards themselves and each other? The term is mainly used towards women when they show qualities of being honest, outspoken, assertiveness, strong. It is also used towards men that do not fit the hegemonic masculinity standards society has created. Lastly, it is used to describe a person or object that may be subordinate to another such as “Work is a bitch!” or “You're my bitch!” As mentioned, women also have started to use the word “bitch” towards each other to express friendship or empowerment with phrases such as “I'm that bitch/I'm the head bitch in charge”.
The fact that there is a correlation between a female dog (bitch) and a female is highly critical. The excessive uses of the word and the contexts behind them do not benefit women in any shape or form. In fact, it oppresses women although it has become much more common for women to use it in a ...
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...rough history and has become its own culture. The word has major influence and is powerful in meaning. It is important because the word is gradually transforming to something normal in our vocabularies. Even though feminists from earlier years have stressed the negativity that comes with “bitch”, modern feminists are appropriating the term and challenging society to improve the definition(s). It also is important because the word is mainly used and applied to women who are a large population of our demographics. The growing usage of the word leads to the future of our society labeling people and objects as bitches without understanding the meaning behind the rich and colorful, yet sexist and reinforcing term that it historically is.
References
Haber, T. (1965). CANINE TERMS APPLIED TO HUMAN BEINGS AND HUMAN EVENTS: PART I. American Speech, 40(2), 83
In his most recent album, Kanye West raps, “Now if I fuck this model/ And she just bleached her asshole/ And I get bleach on my T-shirt/ I 'mma feel like an asshole.” He suggests that it is the girl’s fault for getting bleach on his tee shirt, which she only did to make herself more sexually appealing. This misogyny in hip-hop culture is recognized to bring about problems. For instance, the women around these rappers believe they can only do well in life if they submit themselves to the men and allow themselves to be cared for in exchange for physical pleasure. In her essay, “From Fly-Girls to Bitches and Hoes”, Joan Morgan argues that the same rap music that dehumanizes women can be a powerful platform for gender equality if implemented correctly.
Women have been forced to conform to social and gender stereotypes for centuries. In part of that, they some times re-enforce those stereotypes by being the personification of those stereotypes. Saying that women belong in the kitchen or that they are less intellectual than males creates an inappropriate expectation towards women. These stereotypes cause women to be the stepping stools for men making women seems inferior when they are compared to males. This affects women by being unable to reach the higher standards that men possess. In “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture” written by Ariel Levy, she speaks of women who have become aware of these higher standards; thus, conform to male stereotypes. This causes them to become female chauvinist pigs. Contrasting Levy would be Jayme Poisson and her article “Parents Keep Child’s Gender Secret”. In her article she details a baby named Storm and his/hers parents push to create a genderless baby. Making Storm this way is their desire to have their child be free of social and gender stereotypes. Whether a female is conforming to stereotypes or simply disregarding them, they will
In the article “ From Fly to Bitches and Hoes” by Joan Morgan, she often speaks about the positive and negative ideas associated with hip-hop music. Black men display their manhood with full on violence, crime, hidden guilt, and secret escapes through drugs and alcohol. Joan Morgan’s article views the root causes of the advantage of misogyny in rap music lyrics. In the beginning of the incitement her desires shift to focus on from rap culture condemnation to a deeper analysis of the root causes. She shows the hidden causes of unpleasant sexism in rap music and argues that we need to look deeper into understanding misogyny. I agree with Joan Morgan with the stance that black men show their emotions in a different way that is seen a different perspective.
Women are given the name from the past. This is why women became independent. Females don’t want to seem different from men, we can do everything a man can do. Alexandra Petri mentions “women made great progress (Petri, 2013).” This meaning we are being independent going around obstacles and leaning away from the word feminism. Also Marlori Fuchs makes a statement that “feminism is becoming dangerous and a negative mindset (Fuchs, 2010).” She is implying that “women aren’t good enough, you have to be a man in order to be equal to him (Fuchs, 2010).” This is what Chesler meant by is feminism dead. The fact that feminism has gotten out of hand. Females are growing not to like the word because of the way it is implied towards
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Sexism is still very much real and ongoing. It is being dealt with and is bettering compared to previous generations, yet, there is still left to take care of and inequality is an issue without a doubt. Feminism is the advocacy of women 's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men. It is an old movement, but recently started rapidly growing worldwide. We live in a mans world ruled by men whether everyone would like to admit it or not. As feminism grows and more join the movement, ‘matriarchy’ is a term that comes up often. Matriarchy is what’s defined as a society ruled by women. This plays in the gender roles of society, and the expectations and stereotypes set on one based off their gender. One is expected to
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Society is so focused on discrimination against women, on the crimes against women that injustices towards men are overlooked, ignored, or completely denied. Men are so stereotyped as the villain that no one sees how they are becoming the victims. Misandry is real, misandry is pervasive, and in many ways misandry is more dangerous than misogyny. People recognize misogyny, we see it, hate it, and fight it. But misandry is more of a threat because it is unseen, it corrupts society, relationships, futures and no one seems to know it exists. No one sees it, so no one stops it.
Through the society imaginations of genders, the society character can be depicted and captured in this imagery. This virtual representation, the study of an enduring public attitude deceptive in the widespread images of a gender and the ways of representing gender, has proved a productive and enlightening field of research. The stylistic dynamics at work in the genesis and propagating of gender images in the linguistic discourses, and their explicit function, and how they are received is a crucial source in forming a base for the female status in any society. Simone De Beauvoir (2011) addresses the ambiguous imagined femininity by saying “to be considered [as women] she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity”. Such ‘mysterious and threatened reality’ is indeed independent of facts as this paper shall revel, and they neither mirror the female reality nor provide a truthful reflection of the female, but purely part of the cultural imagination.
A huge controversy within society today is the debate between gender equality. I view gender equality is necessary to sustain a stable community. Some may disagree and say social status between men and women are infrequent because they say men have more power than women. According to Roxane Gay’s article, Bad Feminist, she states that good women adhere to standards of wearing make up, specific clothing, being charming, polite, and earning 77 percent of what men earn. If women do not fall under these categories, they maybe considered as bad women to society. Women are already subjugated as deteriorate to men regardless if they are considered as good or bad. Over time, the word feminism, which means women’s rights of economic, political, and social status should be equal to men, has taken on a negative view. Comparing with Julia Serano’s article, Why Nice Guys Finish Last, she explains how women and men are categorized when involved in rap culture. Rape is horrible, and how society normally views
It is no secret that in history women have been generally looked down upon, in the United States women were not allowed to own property (seeing as they were already considered such), vote, or sign legal contracts (Henslin 2011). Of course, over time women have gained more rights and have worked towards an equal footing with their opposite sex shown with the rise of feminism. This, of course, doesn 't mean that the footing is equal. Being a woman still comes with negative connotations seen in casual sexist sayings such as: "you throw like a girl", "she 's just PMSing", and "do not be such a drama queen" all meant to demean and portray females in a negative light. It 's these types of comments that illustrate why girls can typically be too "mean" to each other. Internalized misogyny perpetuated through negative female stereotypes creates a competitive attitude between females. The sociological concept that best fits this hypothesis is symbolic interactionism, the textbook definition being "a theoretical perspective in which society is viewed as composed of symbols that
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The oppressive picture displaying the sexual objectification of women that most hip-hop artists paint while rapping can only be described as appalling. Many artists imply that a woman?s sole purpose is to gratify a man?s every sexual desire. For instance, ?Nelly?s ?Tip Drill? goes as far to portray scantily clad women as sexual appliances? (Weisstuch). Though Nelly is relatively mild when contrasted to other hip-hop artists, his actualization of women cannot be ignored. By calling women ?sexual appliances,? Nelly essentially promotes the idea that it is customary to view all women solely as sexual objects. Moreover, the generic ?sex appe...
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