I can hardly get through a conversation without one of my friends exasperatingly name-calling another girl for some mild inconvenience that has disrupted the otherwise positive flow of her day. A female teacher surprises the class with a pop quiz? Bitch. A random girl on the street wears a low-cut top and flirts with a guy or two? Slut.
These words have one thing in common: they’re all used to put down women. Think about how many curse words are girl-specific: bitch, whore, slut, cunt, pussy, twat. The list goes on.
Her Campus writer Katie Crivellaro recently discussed how she feels when she’s called out for her “bitchy” behavior. Maybe this word falls toward the lower end of the cruelty spectrum, but what does calling a girl a bitch imply in conversation? “Bitches” are girls who are demanding and bossy. Bitches have spoken their minds. Bitches are aggressive about what they want and disregard what other people think of them. Bitches have therefore disturbed the archaic expectation that girls should remain quiet, delicate flowers with no worthwhile thoughts or opinions whatsoever. Bitches have “stepped out of line”—the line being the patriarchal definition of what femininity entails.
Calling a girl a cunt or a twat suggests the same idea: that she should not have spoken her mind. And like these words, the word “pussy” punishes femininity by punishing the one thing that distinguishes girls as biologically female to begin with: their genitalia. Ironically—or maybe not at all—the majority of people called p***y are not actually girls, but guys. Guys accuse each other of being p***ies when they see them express weakness and fear, or when they’re not being “man enough”—in other words, they’re acting like women. This perpetuates an unhealthy stereotype of what it means to be feminine—that first of all, female biology is inferior and thus basis for marginalization, and second of all, that all girls are weaker, softer, and more submissive than guys in our male-dominated society.
The way typical men and male artists normalize this oppressive language in mainstream culture and multimedia only worsens the problem. Jay-Z raps about having, “99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one.” Dude, how are you married to Beyoncé when you reduce girls to bitches? Even today, the song remains incredibly popular, going so far as to establishing credibility to the most musically literate—the song was ranked #2 in Rolling Stone’s “Top 100 Songs of the 2000’s.”
Many girls argue that all misogynistic curse words should be one hundred percent removed from conversation. Sexist language is not okay, and nothing should encourage the degradation of girls. Something truly fascinating and worth noting, however, is the way girls have recently begun to reclaim this oppressive language for ourselves. The Kardashian sisters have assimilated words like “bitch” and “slut” into their everyday vocabulary endearingly and playfully rather than maliciously. You’ve probably heard of the MTV hit Girl Code, whose hilarious leading ladies are constantly redefining the connotations of these curse words. Alice Wetterlund, a comedian featured on the show, actually feels complimented when people label her as a slut—after all, there’s zero shame in having sex and feeling like a total babe while doing it! Maybe the Kardashians are encouraging sexist language, and maybe there are better nicknames for our sisters and gal pals. But if speaking my mind or hooking up on my own terms makes me a bitch, whore, or cunt, then I will gladly embrace whichever names are thrown at me. Like Tina Fey says, bitches get stuff done.
What do you think? Should girls feel empowered by newly reshaped definitions of curse words? Or should we stop using this sexist language altogether until people stop using it against us?