Kleinman's text analyzes the link between increased use of the word bitch and the proportionally increasing obscurity of the link between the word's patriarchal origins and its modern context. The word's origins as an insult against women, specifically one with a connotation of sexual impurity, date back to the middle ages. Bitch was also used to reinforce the European Christian idea of difference between the sexes with regard to an entirely-male divinity, it was used for "...suppressing images of women as powerful and divine," negating past cultures' images of women as goddesses. With such a long and complicated history behind the word, feminist efforts to reclaim it have encountered difficulty in finding universal support (as they should). Kleinman's article sheds light onto the ways that feminist reclamation of the word bitch is problematic, and in fact leads to reinforcement of the very stereotypes and power structures that it is meant to break down.
When women say 'bitch,' they typically fall into the trap of using the word as they grew up hearing it, as a word that splits the female population into two distinct parts: those who are bitches, and those who are not. This is the real danger of reclaiming words that have widely been used to dehumanize in the past--often the connotations of the word are taught through socialization and even when reclaimers strive to use the word bitch in a context that emphasizes the positive traits they seek to reinforce, the casual listener hears only a slur that brings along with it a working memory of other negative experiences and traits that "bitches" all have in common. I won't argue that reclamation is always unsuccessful, for example, "queer" has (I believe) been reclaimed and realigned within society to take on a positive and inclusive connotation, completely shedding its discriminatory origins. Bitch, however, has not been successfully transformed, and I would argue that is because the misogynistic roots of the word are simply dug in too deep. Changing hundreds of years of socially constructed sexism just so Tina Fey can call herself a bitch seems like kind of a waste of time when that same effort could be applied to more pressing women's issues like stalking, domestic violence, and rape.
Kleinman, Sherryl et al. "Reclaiming Critical Analysis: The Social Harms of 'Bitch.'" Sociological Analysis, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2009, pp. 47-68.
When women say 'bitch,' they typically fall into the trap of using the word as they grew up hearing it, as a word that splits the female population into two distinct parts: those who are bitches, and those who are not. This is the real danger of reclaiming words that have widely been used to dehumanize in the past--often the connotations of the word are taught through socialization and even when reclaimers strive to use the word bitch in a context that emphasizes the positive traits they seek to reinforce, the casual listener hears only a slur that brings along with it a working memory of other negative experiences and traits that "bitches" all have in common. I won't argue that reclamation is always unsuccessful, for example, "queer" has (I believe) been reclaimed and realigned within society to take on a positive and inclusive connotation, completely shedding its discriminatory origins. Bitch, however, has not been successfully transformed, and I would argue that is because the misogynistic roots of the word are simply dug in too deep. Changing hundreds of years of socially constructed sexism just so Tina Fey can call herself a bitch seems like kind of a waste of time when that same effort could be applied to more pressing women's issues like stalking, domestic violence, and rape.
Kleinman, Sherryl et al. "Reclaiming Critical Analysis: The Social Harms of 'Bitch.'" Sociological Analysis, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2009, pp. 47-68.
Comments
Post a Comment