Oh, the B-word. We’ve all heard it thrown around and who can deny how colloquial it’s become for American women? Even Rihanna is making it super catchy to sing with her latest single “Betta Have My Money.”
You guessed right, I’m talking about the word “bitch.” Some women embrace it and some flat out hate it, but we can all agree that it’s a loaded word.
I remember the first time a stranger decided to call me a “bitch.” I was a junior in college. I was walking the streets of downtown San Francisco on my way to work. With SF being the super cramped city it is, the sidewalks are always crammed with people. In attempt to dodge a group of tourists that blocked my pathway, I decided to use the sidewalk parallel to my normal route. And that’s when I encountered the man who totally wrecked my day. A dark brooding man looked at me with a smirk of cockiness and started walking by my side. He greeted me with a “Hey, Mama” in the most machismo way you can imagine. To return his air of arrogance I gave him a face of disgust and a big strong “NO.” His smile turned into a frown and furrowed brows. He stopped in his tracks and yelled, “F– you, bitch. You ain’t cute anyway.” to my back. My blood was BOILING.
I spent my time at work with clenched fists, contemplating what right he had to call me a “bitch.” But once I had time to cool down, I came to the realization that I let his words control me and define me. If I was a “bitch” for serving my community while being a full-time student working towards graduation, then I would be the “baddest bitch” I could be.
But not all women associate “bitch” with positivity as we see in Cut‘s latest video. In fact, a majority of women find it truly hurtful. Aside from Cut’s 100 Years of Beauty series, they have another series called One Word where people are asked to take part in a word association activity. This time women ranging from ages 15 to 50 were asked to say the first thing that comes to mind when they hear the word “bitch.”
