What up, BITCHES!

If this opening to a professional magazine article doesn’t offend you, then keep reading. You, my misinformed friend, must be one of the millions of American women who dimly believe that being called a “bitch” is a good thing. It would not be surprising to me if you also take little to no offense to being called a “slut”, “whore”, “ho”, or even “prude”. I apologize for being so blunt, but drastic times call for drastic measures. 

I suppose it is not surprising that you are accustomed to these dirty derogatives. You’re accustomed to a culture in which female derogatives are run-of-the-mill, even popular. The clubs you frequent no doubt pump up jams full of catchy yet insulting lyrics like “Britney, bitch!” This is definitely a fun line to belt out, but think, my dear Cosmopolitans, do you really want to be called a bitch? Do you truly enjoy being compared to a hormonal female canine? Personally, the comparison is unattractive to me.

Don’t get me wrong, I love throwing out a good sassy “Bitch, please!” every now and then, but I despise being called one. Call me a hypocrite, but that’s how the world turns. Everyone seems to love “bitch”, it’s a social phenomenon. Perhaps it’s the edgy feel of the word, or the power that seems to accompany it, or the catchy ring of it, or - actually that might be it. The word “bitch” chimes in popular sayings and thumps excitingly throughout Grammy-winning songs to the extent that we soon associate the word itself with excitement and flare. It is this sort of abuse of popular media to popularize “bitch” that desensitizes us to the true meaning of the word: a female dog in heat. Not exactly the glamorous term we broadcast it as, huh? This pandemic of derogatory female pronouns has plagued our society to the point that it is now nearly impossible to find a song that fights “bitch”. Shockingly enough, such songs exist. In Lupe Fiasco’s song Bitch Bad the critically acclaimed artist addresses the overuse of female derogatives and the misconceptions that fuel their misogynistic popularity. 

Lupe Fiasco (born as Wasalu Jaco on February 17, 1982) grew up in Chicago, Illinois with his mother Shirley, a gourmet chef,  and his father Gregory, an engineer/professional African drummer. Raised as a Muslim, Fiasco often attributes his acute moral compass to his religious upbringing. Bitch Bad was originally released on his fourth album entitled, “Food and Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1”. The album’s title, he confides, is an analysis of American Urban life, with food representing necessities and liquor representing the desires his religion frowns upon. While discussing his hit album, Fiasco reveals that the inspiration for this title was derived from his religion’s abstinence from drink. 

From an early age, Fiasco was interested in rapping and started performing in 8th grade for fellow classmates. Fiasco often credits the band Nas’ Album “It Was Written” as his primary inspiration to join the Hip-Hop genre. However, Fiasco did not make it to show biz right away. It was not until 2006, at age 24, that the budding lyricist released his first solo album: “Food & Liquor”. Following this hit, Fiasco released “The Cool” just a year later in 2007. Fiasco went on to premier “Lasers” in 2011, and finally his groundbreaking “Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1” in 2012. 

Released in June of 2012, Fiasco’s atypically anti-”bitch” song was surrounded by relevant social issues. Four years preceding Fiasco’s invigorating tune, it was the Year of the Woman - politically. Political gender barriers were being smashed left and right; Hillary Clinton jumped in the race for Presidency as Sarah Palin vied for the VP spot. Although most citizens - male and female - across the nation reveled in the revolutionary events, there are some who took these women’s success in entirely the wrong way. 

As a witty SNL skit emphasizes, both candidates were frowned upon for their apparent faults. Clinton, for one, was considered a "'Harpy,' 'shrew' and 'boner shrinke

r'" (Daniel Kurtzman, 2008, para. 27) for her aggressive, masculine approach to politics. In contrast, Palin was portrayed as a MILF who was repeatedly disrespected by perverts “photoshopping [her] head on sexy bikini pictures." (Daniel Kurtzman, 2008, para. 22) 

In journalist Amanda Fortini’s article “The Bitch and the Ditz”, she bashes both parties in question, insisting that “the Year of the Woman reinforced the two most pernicious sexist stereotypes and actually set women back.” (Amanda Fortini, 2008, para. 1) Regarding Clinton, the infamous Glenn Beck provides us with a lovely insight to the mind of a stereotypical misogynist, joking “She's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?” (Matthew Biedlingmaier, 2007, para. 1)Is there no way to win? If you’re intelligent and take charge, you’re a bitch. If you’re attractive, you're a ditz. Overall, it was an impressive year for female politicians, but not for their misogynistic detractors.Just three months before Bitch Bad’s premier, the political boat was rocked when talk-show host Rush Limbaugh publicly slandered a student testifying in defense of birth control, accusing a certain Sandra Fluke of being a “slut” and “prostitute” for being in favor of contraceptives. Because obviously wanting to prevent unplanned pregnancies immediately makes a person promiscuous. Obviously.

 Throughout the song, Bitch Bad, Fiasco fights back against the usage of “bitch” in pop culture by narrating the life of a young boy and girl and how both come in contact with the pronoun “bitch”. The contexts of their first experiences with “bitch” are intriguing. 

As a child of seven, the girl first hears “bitch” with her friends while watching a youtube video of their favorite musician. Fiasco sings of this; Now being the internet, the content’s probably uncensored, They’re young, so they’re malleable, and probably unmentored (lines 32-33). Because of this uncensored environment, the malleable girls stumble upon an explicit music video featuring their heartthrob admiring “bad bitches” slender girls who dress and act promiscuously. Set upon impressing her Tiger Beat crush, the girl begins to change to emulate the glorified “bad bitch”. 

On the other side of town, our young boy is learning “bitch” with an entirely different definition. While driving round town at age 4, the youngling hears his mother singing along to a similar song, calling herself a ‘bad bitch’. Fiasco analyzes the impact of this event on the boys psyche; First he’s relatin’ the word “bitch” with his mama, comma, And because she’s relatin’ to herself, his most important source of help, And mental health, he may skew respect for dishonor (lines 17-19). Upon hearing his beloved mother calling herself such a name, the boy begins to think that women in general are “bad bitches” who are lesser than himself and not to be trusted. 

As fate would have it, these two souls meet a good while in the future, and while they both think of the girl as a “bad bitch” they are of different opinions as to what that means. Bad mean good to her, she really nice and smart, But bad mean bad to him, bitch don’t play her part, observes Fiasco (lines 61-62). This girl and many others like her think of bitch as a good thing, an empowering symbol, while that is only half of the social definition of “bitch”, and the less frequented meaning. 

In an interview with RapGenius, Fiasco explains the message of Bitch Bad with incredible insight, specifically addressing how the ‘reclaiming’ of “bitch” by womankind has confused the population. “The ‘Bitch’ historically in Hip-Hop has been a bad thing, it has been something not to aspire to in that sense, it has been a derogatory term.” (Tobias Spellman, interview, September 11, 2012)In spite of this, explains Fiasco, “Women have taken on the title as a sign of their aggressiveness or as a sign of their maturation.” (Tobias Spellman, interview, September 11, 2012)Unfortunately, the mere reclaiming of a word by the victim does not abolish the negative definition of it. The original abusers - as well as the majority of the world - still see “bitch” as a symbol of a lesser being and no degree of redefining of the word by the victims can change that. As Fiasco states in response to hostile backlash in the wake of Bitch Bad, “The point of the song was not to solve it, but to address it. To further the conversation, to deepen it and widen it and expose some of the hypocrisy behind it.” (Tobias Spellman, interview, September 11, 2012) 

To some, Fiasco may seem off-base with his comment about the hypocrisy of using the word “bitch”, but a recent survey conducted by yours truly suggests that he is onto something. In my survey of High School attendees, 80% of boys report that they hear girls call each other “bitch” at least once a day, whereas only 9.5% of girls admit to doing so. It would seem that we have an issue here, if the majority of males are reporting the daily bashing of girls by girls, and we are actively denying it, there is someone being untruthful here. The simplistic answer would be an insulted “the guys are lying!”, but why would they be inclined to do so? They stand to gain nothing from saying that we insult one-another daily. The answer would most likely be that women are deeming each other “bitches”, and then denying the world the truth that they are a major contributor to the problem. (I. Dally-Steele, survey, February 12, 2012) 

Even though it was nearly a year ago that Fiasco released Bitch Bad, the message is still relevant today and will be for years to come. For example, upon the unearthing of General Petraeus’ affair with Paula Broadwell, the biographist was slandered excessively by the public. While General Petraeus was sympathized with for the unsavory press and inevitable resignation (November 9th, 2012) Broadwell was subjected to brutal slander, relentlessly called a slut, a bitch, a whore, and a tease. As Petreas and Broadwell’s case proves, “bitch” is not a term reserved exclusively for snappy comebacks like “Bitch, please!” it is a real social weapon that is used to emotionally harm and harass women. 

It is clear in our society today that “bitch” has become something of a pop-culture term of the likes of our overused “omg”. However, “bitch” holds more meaning than a casual pronoun, it is a blunt insult. Lupe Fiasco’s Bitch Bad addresses how derogatory terms are thrown around too freely today, and how each sex interprets them differently, resulting in further disrespect of women. Our society has come to such a point that “bitch” is the poster-child of derogatives that fly too frequently in the 21st century.

So, my darling readers, the next time you’re feeling especially saucy, think twice about using that (not-so)friendly slur America holds so dear - and opt for something a little more supportive of your gender.