"A Pit Bull With Lipstick"? I'm Sorry, But That Is The English Language's Definition of A "Bitch"

[David Zephyr]

Why would Sarah Palin choose such an offensive metaphor to describe herself?

From the American Heritage Dictionary:

Bitch:

1.) A female canine animal, especially a dog.
2.) Offensive. A woman considered to be spiteful or overbearing.
3.) A lewd woman.
4.) A man considered to be weak or contemptible.

[TwilightZone]

1. Because she's trying to look "tough"

[tridim]

2. We have to take back that word on DU

It's the only word in the English language that perfectly defines Palin's attitude.

I prefer "bitch with puppet strings".

[poiuytsister]

3. You beat me to it!

I thought of this at work this morning and have been laughing all day. At least she agrees with what the rest of us thought.

Other adjectives for her speech: mean spirited, sarcastic, juvenile, snarky.

[BeatleBoot]

4. Ain't no pitbull

Just a dawg.

That's all.

And a skanky dawg at that.

[seabeyond]

5. poodle with lipstick... all bark, tail between legs with media. n/t

[underpants]

6. My best firend had a pitbull

it couldn't pull of that Hot Librarian look

[cwydro]

7. Hey, let's rethink this

and attack her on ligitimate issues. OK?

Leave the b word out.

[stolivodka]

8. Um, because bitch is the new black?

She chose an offensive metaphor because she is a low class hick from the sticks, and doesn't know better.

[neomonkey]

9. Oh lookie!!

They covered Johnny Mac with #4 also!! Thing of beauty.

[my2sense]

10. Surely if she calls herself a bitch so can we

I call Bush a bastard quite often - why should I not call her a bitch?

[rainbow4321]

11. From an Alaskan blog: that may not have played well back home

http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/palins-pitbull-problem/#comments

Just so you get the idea, here are a few headline, front page news stories from the past few weeks:

-Electronic scarecrows haze ravens from utility equipment
-Orphaned Bear Cub Eludes Fish & Game Agents
-Missing Hikers Found in Denali

In a small community, these are the kinds of things that really ARE news.

So last night, as I watched Palin’s debut on the national stage, something struck me. First, of course, she was polished and poised and handling her new found celebrity with confidence. She even pulled off an ad lib that was her greatest laugh line of the night. In response to the homemade “Hockey Moms for Palin” signs that were being held aloft, she said, “I love those hockey moms. You know the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick!” (thunderous laughter and applause from the crowd)

Now let me share with you another of those headline stories from three weeks ago:

Child Taken Off Life Support After Pit Bull Attack.

This was the big news story in Alaska for several days that week. A child and her babysitter were viciously attacked by the family pet pit bull. The owner surrendered the dog, waited for the girls father to return from his deployment in Iraq, and watched as his six-year-old daughter was taken off life support after she went into an irreversably vegetative state.

I don’t know how other Alaska residents felt about the pit bull joke, and obviously her audience loved it, but most of us here in “small town America” probably didn’t find it particularly funny.

[rebel with a cause]

12. That is an insult to pit bulls

that like to wear lipstick. ;)

I would not use the word 'bitch' when I talked about her even if it works as an adverb, as 'She is bitching a lot.', or as an adjective as 'She has a bitching bad attitude.'

I also would not use the term 'white trash' when I spoke about her family and friends, although I was on a republican's web site yesterday that does not like her and did just that.

Why I will not use those terms is because for seventeen years my Latino husband called me 'bitch' and for fifteen of those years he added on 'white trash' and so for that period I became 'white trash bitch'. During the same period my brothers refereed to me as a Puerto Rican Bitch' for a while when I did something, I don't know what, that angered them. So to call anyone a bitch is personal to me, and I have used it for some who anger me. But I also don't want the use of this title to come back to haunt us or our candidate.

By the way, I have not seen my brothers for almost twenty years and I divorced my then husband seventeen years ago. I quit being anyones 'bitch' then.

[LVjinx]

13. Is Palin the new Hillary on these boards, or is bitch just a label applied to all female candidates?