General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: On "Bitch" and other Misogynist language [View all]TorchTheWitch
(11,065 posts)The only reason anyone considers it different is because of such common use. Unless one is using that word in identifying a female dog it is STILL a gender slur. It's just a gender slur that for some reason started being used for other reasons usually to describe something difficult, hence why the word was chosen as "difficult" is just a milder term then the ones it has always connotated. So long ago the word was only meant to identify a female dog and why it was chosen to be used as a gender slur against women to mean cranky, mean, nasty, evil, DIFFICULT, etc. There is a reason this word started being used a gender slur against women (which occurred of course during the middle ages around the 1400's - the most repressive time in history for European women)... female dogs ARE cranky or mean or difficult when in heat, pregnant or protecting pups, and reproduction was their major function then.
What I particularly dislike about it's modern usage that are not meant as a gender slur but to describe something difficult or painful, etc. is that it only serves to make hearing, using, writing and viewing the written word that much more mundane and thus that much more mundane when used specifically as a gender slur.
That word for me personally causes far more visceral reaction and anger than any other gender slur including the c-word that is what is generally the most vile of gender slurs to most women and it's because of my going through life being insulted FAR more with that word by both men and women than any other and the one more than any other that I'm considered "too sensitive" for objecting to it and that others throw at me that it's no big deal. All of that plus the ridiculously common use of it in society is what sets off my "fuck you" meter more than any other.