#WordsMatter

In 1993 Queen Latifah released an album called Black Reign, this disc birthed the song U.N.I.T.Y, which pregnated society with more contemporary discourse regarding the word B***h. Not only did it win a Grammy in 1995, but it challenged the moral consciousness of urban America by discussing the issues of street harassment, domestic violence, and slurs against women in hip-hop culture.

 

Every generation we seem to notice a fecundity of people that are liberated by the tongue with their use of the word b****h, especially from those that happen to be male. One can argue that even when women attempt at reclaiming the word they are still in a sense reinforcing sexismn and patriarchy in which the word derives from. However, I feel that when we try to reprimand women for their usage we begin to commit erasure against the oppressive nature in which men use the word. 

 

Folklores taught us, ‘stick and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt me,’ which happens to promote a dangerous narrative. We must begin to teach that words aren't coterminous with physical pain. Words matter! Too often we focus on a litany of arguments that focus on the images that our presented, while ignoring the words that are associated with them. Images are meaningless when we extract the words that become ingrained in our heads when we view them. Images become osmosis in how we encapsulate on the meaning of words and the subjects that they are related to. How we identify words are salient to our generally consensus of identity, the term bitch may seem innocuous on the surface, but it erases the existential permanence of a woman's being. 

 

We live in not only a nation, but a world that is male-dominated and that provides spaces  of authority that are generally reserved for men. One can always argue that women are rapidly creating individual agency and occupying spaces that were prehistorically reserved for males, even though patriarchy isn’t explicit at times and can come off as innocuous, it’s very legerdemain in its functions. When things are centered around the male guise then everything that is masculine is considered normal, good, and the unequivocal standard. Even if you’re not explicitly referring to a woman as bitch, if you subordinate a woman to a man made restriction you may not be calling her that epithet, but you are treating her like one. So, even though all men may not be in higher positions than all women, patriarchy reinforces this notion that they are their superior. So when we look at how the word bitch is articulated from a sociological context on the premise of patriarchy and within the constraints of the inequalities that women face we begin to understand how words operate on a functional equivalence to that of physical harm that women also endure. 

 

Words aren’t just messages that can be jotted down on a piece of paper or heard through a radio, but words can make or break the self-esteem of a person. So when we look at the words queen, women, girls, and female they are seem to describe essentially the same thing. In a sense they do that, but when we look at each word individually and begin to a create a more concrete analysis we begin to notice their subtle difference and the nuances amongst them. Queen can describe a woman of royalty, or of a high social apparatus. A woman is generally used to describe a lady that is of an adult age, while girls is used to identify groups of ladies that are young. When we look at the word female it doesn’t define a human in absolute terms, but instead it can describe any organism that happens to be female. So we look at the word bitch, people always attempt to justify its meaning. Some will argue that all women aren’t bitches, and if a woman knows she isn’t one then she has no reason to be offended. From an etymological perspective the word bitch was used to describe female foxes, otters, and most knowingly, dogs. No matter how we view man’s proverbial best friend, at the end of the day man and the dog knows that they don’t eat at the same table. Once we commit to allowing women to be acknowledge by something other than human then we begin to erase their human nature and deplete their existence. We are using words as a way to systematically erase them. Sociology teaches that the more names we have for things shows how much value they have, but by having several words that are derogatory towards women we also showing how much we feel they are beneath us. 

 

In this system of patriarchy that emcompasses us, bitch can seen as the lowest of lows, even when it’s not directly referred to a woman it is also referred to moments of destitute and sexual slavery. In rap we often hear how bitch is used as a metaphor or a colloquialism for troubles  of life. Whether if it’s Nas articulating about how Life’s A Bitch, or Kanye speaking on how life is a bitch and he wants to make  it cum. Either bitches make our life difficult, or they are used for some sort of sexual gratification. Even when Pac metaphorically spoke on song, “Me & My Bitch,” a song in which bitch was used as colloquialism for a gun, a gun in which he had property ownership of. 

 

In the previous examples that are talked about those uses of the word bitch were for ownership, struggle, and dominance. 

 

When we look at this term we must be perspicacious in how it works as a machination in how women are viewed and valued. Previously I talked about how people, men especially attempt to argue that women shouldn’t get offended if they know they are not bitches, but the language predisposes you to believe a certain type of value is attached to the person in question. For example what makes a woman a bitch or a non-bitch? What factors are at play that allow you to determine how one is defined. In most instances it seems as those these labels are attached to women once they step outside of the boundaries or realms of what men expect of them. Women can be referred as such when they don't cooperate with men, or ones that are seen as manipulative and deviant in why they are attracted to certain men. When bitch is used synonymously with the word women, this makes females looked at as something that must be conquered. 

 

This essay is just an abstract of bigger issues that revolved around a word that was uncomfortable for me write because of the social implications that it places on women in the context of patriarchy and heteronormativity. I took a personal vow that i would never refer to any person, especially any woman by this term because of my hatred for it. Even though in writing I reference it, I however refuse to speak it. I remember in elementary school, I probably was in the third grade when I first referred to a classmate as one in conversation with a male counterpart. I had no issue with her, but as child the proverbial cool thing to do was to treat girls like the grass beneath your shoe, but looking back in retrospect I am still ashamed for that choice of language because it was random and even till this day I have no justification for it. Even though no reasons exist for me to use it period, on that day after school it flowed off of my lips very causally. In a sense at the young of an age I became desensitized to the word. 

 

Even though words change and carry different connotations that word is still deep rooted in hurt, trauma, and desecration. Sexism in the world has become the norm, even though women are making great strides within the male consciousness we as men are still allowing those tears that women have cried to turn into sexist oceans that we swim in freely. How can we fight for freedom for all when we ignore the lack of liberation for some? Words matter, bitch still promotes the notion that women are different from men and will always remain his proverbial best friend. Good enough to love, pet, care for, but never good enough to eat from the same table from him. Bitches are only allowed his scraps.