Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

Would you go to jail for uttering the word “bitch”? Would you be fined, proceeds going to some bitch-related cause? (I hereby submit my name as a totally bitch-related cause that could use some proceeds.) Would there be a bitch hotline set up so you could report stray utterances? Would the police feel monitoring use of the word “bitch” was a productive use of their time? How about the courts? Is use of the word “bitch” to refer to female canines acceptable or no?

Stupid.

So this site would become “Smart Female Dogs”?

Just doesn’t have the same ring to it… I see Lassie telling the sherrif that Timmy is in the well.

Banning any speech is a slippery slope, and this one’s covered in Astroglide[tm].  Where does it end?  And why didn’t anyone in this article say this is a First Amendment and free speech issue as well as a matter of personal choice?

Would there be a task force set up to cleanse NYC of instances of “bitch” occurring in print, online, in music, on television, and in theaters to protect the delicate sensibilities of its residents?

Things like this makes me laugh. Why don’t they attack real issues instead of ones that are going to eat up time and not serve any real purpose.

As a writer I know words are extremely powerful. It’s why the First Amendment isn’t the 20th. Even if they pass the law it’ll probably end up in the Supreme Court as an unconsitutional law. Now they can control the school systems. (Don’t get me started on how often students rights are taken in the name of protecting them. HA!) You can’t dictate adults on somthing so frivilous.

Lastly, I’m proud to be amongst Smart Bitches and no I don’t mean that in a derogatory sense at all.

See the word can be used for good. What an asshat.

I just read the article. They are also trying to ban the word “ho”. I can see a jail cell full of Santa’s.

That’s just ridiculous.

Signed,

Babe In Total Control of Herself

Um, so, would this also ban the sale of the ‘feminist response to pop culture’ magazine, Bitch?

( http://www.bitchmagazine.com )

Sounds like the councilwoman has never been refered to as a bitch in the positive before.

I don’t see her being referred to in any positive sense from this point forward.

The whiny, first amendment-violating wad of crotch rot.

But that’s nowhere near as offensive as “bitch.”

I apologize. That was uncalled for. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, and attacking her genital health instead of her proposed civil rights violations was completely out of line.

I think the site should be renamed Smart Dogesses!  That sounds almost more obscene.

And my word verifier is “true15” so you have to agree with me!

First they came for the cigarettes, and I said nothing.

Then they came for my French fries, and still I said nothing.

Now they’ve come for my bitches, and there’s no one left to say anything.

GODDAMN IT, NEW YORK CITY. THE FUCKING SUBWAY IS UNDERWATER. DO SOMETHING USEFUL.

Save us from small minded people once again attempting to legislate thier opinion.  What do they propose to do with all the legitimate uses for the word “bitch” (unlike “n” that dosen’t have any)?

Ditto Melissa…don’t these people have anything more important to tackle, like laundry or bathroom cleaning?  yesh.

Another proud SB.

The subway is underwater?!?!

Spaminator word—
Southern18
Damn right.

Last one, and then I’m going to lobotomize myself so I can forget all about it and return my blood pressure to normal.

When “bitch” began to be used to refer to a powerful woman who stood up for herself, perhaps trodding on some tender masculine toes in the process, I, for one, decided it wasn’t such a bad thing to be. It lost all its power as a “bad word” for me at that point, some 20 years ago.

Where’s my ice pick?

Yeah, Najida, we’re having a bit of a flooding problem due to a thunderstorm around 6 a.m. All subway lines have been down for about five hours. And it’s ninety-four frickin’ degrees. But the city has nothing better to worry about than legislating thought. Shut up, council lady, and fix the pothole outside my damn apartment.

I think that reclaiming “bitch” works because it’s always been used to mean women who are “intelligent…outspoken, opinionated.” The change came about when women realized that being opinionated and outspoken is not, in fact, a bad thing. (This is also why I think reclaiming “nigger” is more difficult—it was created to be seriously hurtful with no redeeming qualities, and that’s much harder to wash away.”

And the damn subway forced me to walk forty blocks to work this morning. so I smell lovely.

leaders77…word.

Sara I am so sorry!

I hope you have AC where you are.  It floods here too (but more like “Guess which street today!?”)

Seems an international political problem. In Barcelona, nowadays, we have several neigbourhoods without light, funcioning with small transportable generators. The train today was a chaos due to a storm *sights* And so on. And they are discussing wether the generalitat has to pay to the highway for the loses thay had when they had to let cars pass without paying due to monumental traffic jams!
It seems that this kind of thinking process goes with the job

Oh, joy—*Legislated Censorship*.  Holy effing merde, what century is this?  Doesn’t she know you cannot legislate respect?  Respect has to be earned. 

Lakoff spewed forth:  “If what the City Council wants to do is increase civility, it would have to be able to contextualize it,” said Ms. Lakoff, who studies language and gender. “You forbid the uses that drive people apart, but encourage the ones that drive people together. Which is not easy.”

“Contextualize”?  WTF?  Context isn’t about the words you use, it’s about the way the words are used together.

“Forbid”?  Extra WTF!  Who the hell does she think she is to go around editting anybody’s vocabulary?!  Is this walking brain-dead unaware of our right to the Freedom of Speech?

~ sigh ~

When words are outlawed, only outlaws will use them.

Oh, I’m just fine here on the air-conditioned 29th floor. People who live uptown, in Brooklyn, Queens, Connecticut, and New Jersey are just trickling in. I live about a mile and a half from my office, so I usually walk, which comes in handy when the city’s infrastructure starts falling apart.

Here, let me make a list of things more important than “symbolically” banning the word bitch (like Giuliani totally banned jaywalking, uh huh):

— Exploding steam pipes
— The MTA wanting to raise subway fares (but not on the day passes for tourists, oh no, never the precious tourists)
— The laughably inadequate emergency plans (evacuate via subway? SURE!)
— The public school system…

Don’t get me started on why we also need two new major league baseball stadiums, but goddammit I better be able to holler that Alex Rodriguez is a candy-ass bitch when he strikes out in them. Whores.

Pretty much disagreeing.

Oddly enough we were watching the US version of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’ the other night, and a male contestant was put out, leaving two female contestants - he stormed out, calling them both bitches. I just was offended on their behalf, and I did think it sexist.

Wouldn’t want to ban the word, but it does have perjorative overtones for me.

Probably it’s just that words change their overtones gradually - and when a word is in mid-change different groups hear it differently.

(There was a mild furore when a Radio 1 DJ here used the word ‘gay’ to mean pathetic, and some people were offended by what they saw as a slur on homosexuals. Until I read about it, I somehow hadn’t realised that my teenager routinely used the word ‘gay’ that way. Word had completely changed it’s meaning for the second time in my life, and I hadn’t even noticed.)

What world is this woman living in, that there’s nothing more offensive to be called as a woman than bitch?  Because, dude!  That’s got to be a much better world than this one.  I mean, I can think of at least a dozen words that are much more offensive, starting with “stupid”.

Yes, words have power.  But trying to ban words?  Never going to work.  Ever.  One of my coworkers used to breed dogs.  He will not refer to a female dog as anything other than a bitch.  Because that’s their official moniker.  The more I think of it, the more I go, “What the hell was this woman *thinking*???”

*proud to be a bitch*

Poor Meredith Brooks would lose out on a lot of royalties, too.  She could probably sue.  So could Bitch magazine.  So, in point of fact, could Sarah and Candy—loss of revenue caused by a law with its thumb up its butt.

To quote someone who would, if he’d been female, have been a smart bitch: “What an infantile idea.  What a heartless, wicked, brainless thing to do.”

But give me this chick’s address (is she could to ban the c-word, too?) and I’ll send her a copy of my t-shirt.  It says, “You call me a bitch like it’s a bad thing.”

Sad but true. I would rather my politicians changed the “disadvantatges of being woman”: earning less for the same job (compared to a man salary), reaching power positions in business and being able to work and have a family!

Word, Deb. When the worst thing facing women in this city, country, and world is being called a slur that really doesn’t have much meaning left, I’ll throw a party.

Yes, it’s a problem with our culture that so many slurs are sexual in nature, and that implying a man is feminine is the worst thing one can do, verbally, and both of these issues say a lot about our sexually repressed, male-centered culture, but there are much more important things. Like getting SB Sarah a seat on the train.

If you do away with Bitch are they going to eliminate Bastard too?

Didn’t Elizabeth Wurtzel try to reclaim the word “bitch” by writing “Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women”? Granted, it’s not a fantastic book since she wrote it while in the throes of her intense coke/adderall/dexedrine addiction. But her intent was the same—to repurpose “bitch.” (Although when she went on tour for “Bitch” and tried to explain that she was attempting to attach a new meaning to the word, she pretty much made a fool of herself because she was taking coke the entire time and couldn’t string together two full, coherent sentences. Which definitely undermined her attempt at repurposing “bitch.”)

This is a perfect example of our government having its thumb up its butt.

46 million Americans are under-insured or don’t have any insurance at all and this tight-assed bitch is worried about a proper, anglo-saxon word?

Just fabulous…

Nothing like watching our government in action…or inaction…

Speaking as a vet, I use the word “bitch” legitimately ALL THE TIME, and am currently struggling with my 12 year old daughter to encourage her to do the same rather than refer to her upcoming puppy as a “girl dog”, which strikes me as the worst sort of namby-pamby mealy-mouthed spineless circumlocution. It’s a perfectly good word which has never gone out of use in vet/dog breeder circles.
And for many years there has been intermittent trouble on dog email lists when overkeen filtering software has eaten people’s posts because of completely correct use of the b-word.
Is it ruder in the US than the UK? Over here it’s used all the time as slang, and also as a verb and adjective (“If those bitches don’t stop bitching about it in such a bitchy way…”)

Well, I don’t care what y’all in NY do about the b word.  I’m still the alpha bitch in MY household (me and 2 female dogs.)

P.S.  Yes, we’re all spayed.

Bitch is quoting from The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue!

BITCH. A she dog, or doggess; the most offensive appellation that can be given to an English woman, even more   provoking than that of whore, as may he gathered from the regular Billinsgate or St. Giles’s answer—“I may be a whore, but can’t be a bitch.”

How freaken funny is that?

When I used to take my dog (Dr. Buddy Valetine, Rest in Peace)to the dog park, occasionally someone would call me “Buddy’s mom.”  They always looked appalled when I said, “I may be a bitch, but my child is human.”

Am I the only one wondering what the heck would happen when the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show takes over Madison Square Garden for a week next year?  That event brings in millions to the NYC economy every winter and the city council is going to outlaw a word that they use frequently and properly?  I can see it now, “that standard poodle doggess is a three year old.”  I don’t know, it doesn’t have the same tone and it looks foolish as if David Frei can’t be trusted to use the correct word for a female dog. 

Not to mention the millions of women around the world who have proudly reclaimed the word bitch.  How dare she tell us we are wrong to embrace it.  I’ve got news for her, I’m a bitch and a broad!

My issue with this is that bitch isn’t a word that gets used only in a pejorative manner.  The women I work with toss around the word all the time, and with an empowering vibe to it, much like the Smart Bitches.  We work in a lab with a bunch of guys, so it’s important sometimes to “own” the word.

In some ways, though, I think that it’s like the n-word.  African Americans can get away with calling each other by that term, whereas a white person would get reamed.  In the same way, I think women will use it where I guy would hesitate.

As an example, I was sitting around with a bunch of guys at work, when another man walked over and said, “Yo, bitches…and Jess.”  I thought it was hysterical, but it also underscored the idea that guys using it might come across as perjorative, so they back away.

She must not have anything better to do, like weigh her navel lint, if she’s spending time on this.

My word - knew51 - You know I know it!

Silly twat!

Alison S, the phrase “namby-pamby mealy-mouthed spineless circumlocution” is possibly the finest use of the English language that I have read in quite a while.  Bravo.

This woman should move to Dallas and take her rightful place on the City Council there.  She would fit right in.  I think the city charter here mandates “all councilors shall introduce no fewer than 12 (twelve) items of meaningless legislation per year”.

Okay, I just read an article where the government is quoted “as following protocol and doing nothing wrong.”

They deported an American citizen. He tried to get back into America several times. When he missed his court date on the same violation that got him deported they put a warrant out on him.

Our tax dollars at work.

my spam word: greater

Maybe these officials are working towards the greater good. Who knew?

Okay.  I’m a 37 year old black chick and have always found the word nigger to be dreadful.  My Jamaican parents found it to be vulgar in the extreme and when friends said it in front of me as a teenager—meant as a term of endearment of course—I was repulsed for reasons I couldn’t name then, but can now.  So flash forward to Italy 3 years ago and being called that by someone (a foreigner, but not an Italian) thinking they were doing the cool/right thing based on what they gleaned from US pop culture.  It felt absolutely wretched.  But how could I explain that using this word was/is inappropriate when it is still a functioning bit of the lexicon?

Okay so now bitch.  Love Smart Bitches, use the word bitch empoweringly.  But would I be so pleased if some German or Spanish or African out of the blue came up to me as said, “hello, hello?  Bitch!  You bitch!”?  Maybe it wouldn’t bother me.  I don’t know.  We (tried) explained the about the n-word to the guy in Italy and he was very apologetic.  Also confused.

We (tried) explained the about the n-word to the guy in Italy and he was very apologetic.  Also confused.

It is strange, trying to explain that it’s okay (sort of) for one group to use a word but completely inappropriate for another group to use the same word.

Reminds me a Daily Show segement about the use of the n-word where John Oliver (white) had to bring Larry Wilmore(black) to an interview, just so Larry Wilmore could say the n-word because John Oliver didn’t dare.

Melissa’s post:

“They deported an American citizen. He tried to get back into America several times. When he missed his court date on the same violation that got him deported they put a warrant out on him.”

I’d love to know how this guy got deported in the first place.  I didn’t know they COULD deport citizens.  I’d better watch my step.

Question is, would NY city government get up to something even dumber than the b-word ban if they didn’t have that to worry about?

And yes, Joe’s right - the Dallas city council is just as bad. That’s why I didn’t even considering buying a house in the city of Dallas.

The authorities are claiming he told them he is an illegal alien. Okay, when they ran his name in the system you’d think they see his place of birth.

This is how I explain these tricky words to my ESOL students: when you’re family, you can complain about eachother, tease eachother, and say bad things about eachother.  It’s family and you know you love eachother.  When a stranger starts saying the exact same things, though, you don’t like it, you stick up for your family because only you get to be the one to say that sort of stuff about your family.  Same goes for the “n-word” and bitch and honky and cracker and etc.  Oh yes, we hit them all in ESOL. 

I would also say, because that linguit’s opinion rather annoyed me, that you can’t force context and acceptance thereof any more than you can force or legislate any kind of language change.  If we could, more people would be speaking Esperanta.

Me, I’m happy to be a bitch in any language.

[...]I think our method of redefining is a bit more effective than outlawing, though the alteration of definition, if it happens, takes longer[...]

Education takes longer too, but I still prefer it to brute force and “because I said so”.

Interesting responses, I was going to pass on commenting,this issue was bothering me and I am chicken shit about voicing a lone opinion. But after cleaning out the cat box it came to me.

Bare with me please.

I love Smartbitches too and don’t have a problem viewing myself as one - truly. If you run into me at any one of these conferences you can call me a bitch - it’s cool.

And yes, this city councilwoman is wrong and wasting everybody’s time. I agree. That kind of legislation doesn’t work. But I think I can put myself in her place and understand where she’s coming from.

A few stories:

I was riding the city bus one day. Two men were behind me talking. One of them told the other that he was big on ‘beer and bitches’. I didn’t feel empowered, in fact I felt threatened and not at all intrigued.

One day I was walking my dog around the park where I live. I watched an exchange between a young girl, probably around 13 or 14, and her younger sister, maybe 9 or 10. The older girl, in front of her friends, her sister’s friends, in front of me, called her little sister a “fucking bitch.” Her sister looked crushed. I wish I had known where these girls lived. I would have loved to have given their parents a piece of my mind - of course they probably would have called me a bitch and there would have been a smackdown.

My point is that the word is still used to hurt and degrade in many places (like my neighborhood).  It’s a word of empowerment where you live but not where I live maybe not where that councilwoman lives either.

“A woman is called a bitch as soon as she does anything to differentiate herself from a doormat.” Don’t know to whom it should be attributed, but it’s my standard response to name-calling.

Reacting badly to bitch just hands over power to the name-caller. Thpppp. I am a writer; I control words, they don’t control me.

How does she propose to enforce the ban?  For a dose of reality, may I suggest she begin with rappers…

Many words have an appropriate & an inappropriate use.  I remember attempting to explain to a jr wrestling coach my disgust at hearing 8 year old children referred to as “stud”.  From a rural upbringing “stud” refers to breeding stock…a totally sick and wrong when applied to small children.

Have just realised I typed the sentence: ‘is she could to ban the c-word, too?’ above.  I think those LOLcats are having an effect on me.

I can has grammer.

I’m never offended by being called one. Actually it’s part of how I describe myself, I have a greeting card “Are you a good bitch or a bad bitch?” with a picture of glenda from the wizard of oz on it!

On the doggess front:

My mother once called in a classified ad to the local newspaper. The conversation went something like this:

“Hi. I’d like to place a lost and found ad.”

“OK, go ahead.”

“Lost: between 4 pm and 10 pm Tuesday night in Central Village section of [our small town], one black bitch, four years….”

CLICK!

The operator hung up on her. She had to call back to explain herself.

It’s become something of a family joke: “Where are my keys?” “Did the black bitch take them with her when she went?”

Sounds totally dreadful to those who do not know the backstory.

My initial response is a total heart attack that someone would consider legislating words. This country already legislates too much of our personal actions: what we can eat, what we can drink, what we can smoke; many still try to legislate what we can read or write or photograph or sculpt. Now…now they try to legislate speech. I find this horrifying in the extreme. I wish I could be witty and clever about my reaction; but really I’m just speechless.

On another note: I’m 33 and don’t at all mind being called a bitch. I take it as a compliment. Even in high school I took it as a compliment; because it’s true-words only hurt when you let them. But most things in this world can be used for good or for ill. Does that require banning everything? How about spatulas? My mom used spank me with a spatula. That makes it a weapon. Should they be banned just because she decided to use it as one? How about cellphones? Smart, clever people (not like me) can make bombs out of cellphones. Should they be banned? How about the internet? Hackers make all sorts of bad, nasty, annoying viruses that cause all sorts of chaos. Should we outlaw the internet? Contextualize that.

-Randi