Bitch: More Than Just A Word

On a mission trying to shift the culture...

TheRadioShaq: How many times in your life have you been called a “Bitch” to your face?

Anonymous Female: About 3 times

TheRadioShaq: How did you feel each of those times?

Anonymous Female: Terrible feeling each time, horrible.

TheRadioShaq: How many times have you, and your friends called each other “Bitches”?

Anonymous Female: Oh (laughter) all of the time, we mean no harm by it though.

In some of my older writings, I spoke about how certain words take on lives of their own. A word such as nigga, used commonly amongst many demographics, sometimes with ill intentions, sometimes to signify companionship. The word bitch seems to be no different, although some time ago, calling a female a bitch was completely heinous, and derogatory. Now being a “Bad Bitch” is an amazing, and often strived for thing amongst some new age females. Amongst some males, it’s just another term used to describe the female species. Why has this word taken on a brand new meaning, why has its life gained prestige, and dignity? Can we blame this one on rap? Or is it because a lack of self-esteem in females, particularly females of color, has caused them to let their guards down on the situation.

Letting your guard down due to lack of confidence, and low self-esteem, seems unforeseen right? Well it’s not actually. Often times when individuals feel threatened by a situation, and that situation seems uncontrollable, they choose to loosen all restriction against that situation, and “go with the flow.” Just like a young lady who is pressured, and fearful of sex, a combination of lack of knowledge, lack of confidence, and lack of hope, leads her into having sex…over, and over, and over to feel some sort of acceptance. Allowing anyone to call you a “Bitch” is no different. These Mega Urban Words such as bitch and nigga, with their larger than life personas, seem unstoppable, like they’re impossible to eliminate from your own vernacular, nevertheless the vernacular of others. So to catch up, and keep pace with the world, females use the word against each other, and fake care, and raise fake hell when it’s called to them by a member of the male species. If you find the word to be demeaning, find it to be demeaning from all demographics. Find your confidence, and your self-esteem, and understand that females are beautiful creatures, your body is a temple, your mind is magnificent, and you’re a queen, not a bitch.

Of course it would be impossible to eliminate the word from music, that’s where it lives at most, and that’s where it gained its power from. But how much easier would it be to take control of the mental plague if Hip Hop supported the cause? Things would switch up swiftly, and the word would lose its life. The world underestimates how much of an influence Hip Hop, and Rap Artist have on the culture, but the things that they say in their music represent the mental state of a large number of individuals.

Bitch is more than just a word, more than just a commonly used phrase in a rap lyric, more than just something girls call their female friends. Bitch is a mind state, a mental plague, an obscenity dating back to slavery days when black women were being called ugly black bitches as they were being raped, a piercing slur thrown a toddler black girls who were referred to as “nappy headed bitches.” Nigga we can handle, black men exemplify strength, and courage, and confidence, being called a nigga doesn’t rattle me, but we must protect our women both physically, and mentally, and anybody call a woman I love a bitch, I’m going 0-100 real quick. For that very reason, I try to eliminate the word completely out of my vocabulary, I’ll even try my hardest not to recite it when it’s included in a rap song that I love. But no hypocrisies, we all fall short, and need to make a more diligent effort to eliminate that word, and not label our beautiful queens as such. It’s more than just a word.