The word "b****" (ryhmes with witch) used in popular media...

[Archae]

On the early Saturday Night Live, Gilda Radner (playing "Emily Litella&quot would get a word wrong, be corrected by Jane Curtain and then would call Curtain a bitch.

The word was used at least once, maybe more on "MASH."

Back in the 70's, Elton John did a song called "The Bitch Is Back" and Hall and Oates did a song called "Rich Girl" that used the phrase "Bitch Girl."

Mostly nowadays I only hear the word used by "gangsta rappers."

Can a woman who is going out of their way to be a (you know what) be called a "bitch?"
Like Anne Coulter?
Michelle Malkin?
Most of the blondes on Faux "news?"

[TreasonousBastard]

1. Most anywhere but here.

[Nye Bevan]

2. No. There are plenty of non-misogynistic insults that can be used

against the likes of Coulter.

[Gravitycollapse]

3. I try to use gender neutral insults. Like asshole or piece of shit.

I find the question of whether or not you can call a woman a bitch in a given circumstance unanswerable. I advise only that you make every effort possible to avoid implicating gender identity in insult.

I'm even handed in this as well. I try to avoid using dick as an insult.

However, and this is why the question you ask is unanswerable, there is much debate over the issue of reappropriation and how women can reclaim the word bitch to mean something different from insult. For instance, Bitch Magazine is a prominent feminist publication.

I oppose most essentialist interpretations of language instead favoring contextualization.

[1000words]

4. One of my favorites from an underrated band:

WARNING: The "B-word" is used in this song.

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Also, I have to ask, what do you mean by "a you know what?"

What are the women you reference going out of there way to be if we disregard your innuendo?

[Archae]

13. "You know what" = "bitch."

I threw that in for the heck of it.

Looks though like you and others here are right, we can use gender-neutral terms that still are quite descriptive.

I like the one "RWNJ," describes a lot of conservatives nowadays.

[Mojorabbit]

6. My fav tshirt has a quote by Richard Dawkins (I Am a Woman)

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[ancianita]

7. Rhetoric 101: Intent, Content, Audience. Favorite site these days: "Bitches Gotta Eat" by

Chicago's Samantha Irby.

Check it out, bitchez.

http://bitchesgottaeat.blogspot.com/2014/01/you-need-to-stop-fucking-dudes-who-dont.html

[Igel]

21. Meh.

Intent doesn't count in many situations, unless the listener wants it to.

Content counts for little in many situations; the listener gets to decide the content, whatever other listeners or the speaker may think.

Audience is the offended listener with a platform in many situations. Even if 99.9% of the audience understands it one way, the offended person is the One True Audience and will find a number of supporters in the disenfranchised part of the audience. "Now that you've explained it, yes, it must mean that. I'm now enlightened, I'm hip, I'm in solidarity, you're perfectly correct that the idiot speaking meant ... Uh ... What was that obvious meaning again?"

Play a snip of audio with a community member saying something but sounding like he's from a white middle-class family and it can be interpreted as wildly offensive. Take the same snip with the video and it's suddenly not offensive. Insider/outsider status says more than intent, content, and listening audience. To a large extent, when race/sex and even class are involved--when there are strong group boundaries--the group boundary has a strong influence on what intent, content, and audience must be.

[ancianita]

22. Yes.Yes, it does.Thanks. Boundaries are important, and so are openness and intent. Different

audiences have varied levels of openness, and stretching boundaries is either the mutual intention of the sender and audience or it's not. Tolerance maintains boundaries.

I like the boundaries idea, and it feeds into the idea of how big one wants to grow in 'finding common ground' with the speaker. Sure, the one offended might keep up distance and boundaries, but that's often the price of others having more 'food for thought.'

Communication depends on some openness and porosity of boundaries, based on mutuality of sender/audience goals. It's not the audience's job to figure out what a speaker means, as long as they're listening (or reading). Acceptance is hearts and minds communication, and thus the sender's meaning is successful.

Thank you for your post.

[ancianita]

8. Oh well, guess people didn't get what I did to 'meta' the point about insulting language on the

other thread.

[NuclearDem]

9. Ann Coulter's an evil piece of shit.

But frankly I get sick of people using that to justify using utterly horrific slurs when talking about her.

Every damn time a thread about her pops up, there's some transphobic or misogynistic slur used. It's old, and pathetic.

[Archae]

10. How about I use "conservakook?"

That fits...

[Gravitycollapse]

12. You never answered my question upthread.

[chknltl]

11. No, let's move forward, away from gender inequality.

It is all about a person's desire to live in a society where equality is not based on race, religion, political leanings or gender. Of course we are all different but the equality I speak of does not mean everyone is the same. It recognizes those differences and takes full advantage of them. How much has our society lost due to inequality in it's short history?

The vulgar use of words like 'bitch' 'pussy' 'dick' 'douch-bag' and etc are gender specific and each promotes a meme that one gender is better than the other. Subtle? Yes indeed subtle individually but in combination devastating to our society in that it does promote the meme that one gender is better than the other. With this meme in mind look back at our history, how different could it have been had the opinions of men and women been treated equally? Less warfare and more social service comes easily to mind.

I love and greatly miss the late great Gilda Radner as much as anyone, I even paraphrase her humor here. I believe that were she alive today she would be on the forefront of those condemning the vulgar use of gender specific terms. As Progressives, one would think we would be right by her side in this matter too.

[phleshdef]

14. I use "bitch" and so does my wife, lol.

I've heard the word "cunt" come out of her mouth quite a few times too, moreso than I've ever used it. And she is quite the feminist when it comes down to the brass tax of policy. She certainly wouldn't tolerate actual misogyny from me, like if I were to try to play the "dominate husband/submissive wife" card, I'd probably wake up without a penis.

People get too hung up on this kind of shit. It today's mainstream culture, "bitch" has lost a lot of its gender-centric connotations.

Like seriously, if I stub my toe and say "sonuva bitch!", if someone wants to accuse me of being sexist, that's their own silly problem. No one with a drop of common sense would come to that conclusion.

Now if I go around and refer to women in general as "bitches", that's a sexist context. Its really about context and the mainstream understanding of what words in certain context's mean. English is a hell of a language.

[pintobean]

24. I wonder what would happen

if the top 10 DU word police's DU mail was scanned looking for all the words that they want to forbid. I bet it would be hilarious.

[TheFrenchRazor]

15. sure, if you consider the fact that she is female to be part of the offense. it's up to you. nt

[Behind the Aegis]

16. Context matters.

"Bitch", IMO, is similar to "queer." How it is used, and who is the target, and, in some cases, why it is used makes a difference. Though the history of the words are different, its uses seem to be somewhat similar. Directing the word at someone is meant to be offensive, and usually because the person is either female or GLB. Referring to a group of said people, can be positive or negative, but if someone finds it offensive, then I usually accept it and find an alternative word.

[pintobean]

17. I'll never vote to hide it

unless it's a direct attack on a DUer.

[Major Nikon]

19. Whatever "community standard" that exists is a double standard

A site search on "limp dick" yields 22,800 results. So when these types of slurs are aimed at men, nobody really seems to care. When one such slur is aimed at a woman, suddenly multiple 200+ post count threads appear.

When you point out the disparity to the peanut gallery, they try to put the monkey on your back as if people should be alerting on those things (as if anyone would vote to hide it even if you did).

So either the response to female directed slurs is greatly overstated, or the response to male directed slurs is greatly understated.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

18. Gangsta rappers, obviously, are also (in)famous for using the n-word.

But they do so in a self-referential way so as to turn a slur into a display of bravado.

The situations in which This-word might be used in Some-way are too many. We can't keep up with it all so all that happens is our language gets smaller and people engage each other less. The heckler's veto usurps all conversations making society more segregated, not less.

I refuse to allow anyone but me define who I am.

[treestar]

20. I recall some attempt at taking it over

by women. A T-shirt, for instance, saying "Classic Bitch" in curvy pink letters on a black shirt.

Recently I am most amused at it being used to refer to a man.

[LittleBlue]

23. People think about this stuff when swearing?

If I'm swearing, it's not like I sit there and plan which word to use.