Author: Amy Nicole
“Instinct leads me to another flow
Everytime I hear a brother call a girl a bitch or a hoe
Trying to make a sister feel low
You know all of that gots to go”
These are lyrics from Queen Latifah’s 1994 single “U.N.I.T.Y” which spoke out against the disrespect of women in society. Back in the early 90’s and prior decades calling a woman a bitch was an ultimate form of disrespect. Today, for some people the word bitch has turned into a term of empowerment more so among African American women.
The phrase “bad bitch” was coined in the early 2000s and is used to refer to a beautiful female who is successful and independent. Today it is hard to listen to a rap song without hearing the term. Many females gladly accept the title of being a bad bitch, but I’m just not one of them. No matter how you use or say the word bitch, it is degrading and disrespectful. Why do we always have to turn something positive into something negative? Why can’t men just say, “Baby you look beautiful” or “Girl you are bad!”? Why does the word bitch even have to be used?
I’m not going to lie: When I was younger, I would dance my butt off to degrading songs that disrespected women, but now that I’m older, I am more conscious about what type of music I listen to and the message behind the music. Personally I don’t see a difference between “bitch” and “bad bitch.” When you look up the word “bitch” in the dictionary it is defined as a female dog, and I am not a dog!
Ladies, have some class and respect for yourselves; don’t let a man degrade you by calling you outside of your name because chances are if he calls you a bitch, he doesn’t have much respect for you anyway.
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This article was also featured in Inspire Magazine.