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Freyja [OP]September 29, 2022

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Thought this piece was timely considering how I'm increasingly hearing and seeing women in particular using 'bitch' in an allegedly friendly way and claims from both men and women that it isn't a slur against women. Nothing new, but have any of you noticed the same? I find how words change over time very interesting, so I appreciated this bit:

Consider what Melissa Febos argues in her book Girlhood: “In Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary (the precursor to the Oxford English) a slut is simply a dirty woman, without any sexual connotation. In the nineteenth century, a slut also becomes a female dog, and a rag dipped in lard to light in place of a candle. Though in the twentieth century its meaning solidifies as an immoral woman, "a woman who enjoys sex in a degree considered shamefully excessive."

I wish she had included similar detail for the origins of 'bitch', though. What I do know is that it used to be a honorific similar to goddess or queen, associated with goddesses like Artemis and Sarama - both having connections to female dogs or wolves. And then Christians started calling pagan devotees of Artemis "son of a bitch" to disparage them as devil worshippers. And so, it is a word that did used to be ours, but I don't think at this point there is any going back to that, nor do I think I really care to in the grand scheme of things..too pessimistic?

I also appreciated her drawing attention to how 'friendly' use amongst women never considers how there are likely women present who have had it used it against them preceding or during violence/abuse from men. I don't like the cognitive dissonance that 'friendly' usage of bitch generally encourages amongst women either - trying to 'soften' us to the severity of the word and that it IS a slur.

[Deleted]September 29, 2022

I agree. Even if its origins were honourable, they were far too long ago to be reintroduced to the understanding of the word now. It’s bad enough that even using it of actual female dogs elicits sniggers sometimes.

FeminaSeptember 30, 2022

Oh? Where did you hear about that Artemis connection to the word " bitch " ? I know that in Romance languages ( and Hebrew too interestingly enough ) the equivalent of calling someone a " son of a bitch " is to call them a " son of a whore " or " hijo/hija de puta " in Spanish or " ben zonah " in Hebrew...

Freyja [OP]September 30, 2022

The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker (1983)

FeminaSeptember 30, 2022

Interesting! I will check it out thanks! :)

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