Mary
... because I'm fed up with gender ideologies and concomitant
essentialist constructions. I've determined that there is nothing more damaging
to relations between men and women than our cultural constructions of how men
and women are 'supposed' to be. One might call me a "Bitch", using this forum's
definition, because when it comes to gender essentialism, I turn into a Boudica.
I feel the urge to go on a Wagnerian rampage. Pass me my horned helmet, my spear
and my molded breast plate, damn it. I'll deconstruct the hell out of an
essentialist like some kind of infallible postmodern superhero.
Someone from the nightmarish cultural artifact known as "Answerology"
introduced me to this site. I was rather reticent to join in at first. My
attitude toward the [re]appropriation of the term 'Bitch' is ambivalent, at
best. I'm not totally convinced of that tactic's uniform efficacy. I consider it
a mission to point out that when the term is used against a woman, it's
frequently because she is displaying certain "masculine" qualities that are seen
as threatening, e.g. being strong, speaking her mind, not suffering fools
gladly, etc. Calling her a "Bitch" is intended to subordinate her, to let her
know that she is not being properly "feminine," to discredit and devalue her
words and actions.
While I have no beef with people pointing out that I speak my mind and do
not suffer fools gladly, I do object to people attempting to subsume me into a
classification of femininity that I find personally stifling and degrading. When
someone calls me a "Bitch," I do not get angry about the implications of that
word vis a vis my character; I do get angry about the presumption of the person
calling me a "Bitch." By using that term to describe my character, he or she is
presuming to be in a position of authority over me, giving him or her the right
to apply techniques of discipline and punishment in order to "correct" my
behavior to conform to a more acceptable (for him or her) version of the
feminine.
My ambivalent feelings toward a reappropriated usage of the term are based
on the fact that I've seen that very reappropriation whipped back around and
used as a weapon against women who have the chutzpah to think parity between all
humans is a good thing to strive toward. More often than not, the response to a
woman who claims ownership of the adjective is something along the lines of,
"See... she's a man-hating bitter old hag! She admits it!!"
It makes me sigh in despair.
Still, ambivalent feelings or not, this forum's general credo works for me,
so I have to assume mine works for it.
Country: United States
Yes! I want to read more from Real Life Heartless Bitches
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