"**Because we know that BITCH means: B**eing **I**n **T**otal **C**ontrol, **H**oney!" (Heartless-Bitches.com)
"**I'm tough, ambitious, and I know what I want. If that makes me a bitch, OK."** (Madonna)
"**I found my inner bitch and ran with her."** (Courtney Love)
Listening to and reading the words of women, you can't help but notice how some of us aren't fighting words like "bitch" anymore - as a matter of fact, we're embracing it.
My good friend Lisa (of LisaBindaCity.com) not only refers to herself as an occasional "Bitch on Wheels" in her candid, to-the-point post, "Best in Show," she also describes this:
"**In the right moodI can take on anyone. Patronize the crap out of me? I will publicly geteven. Kick me when I’m down? I will hold a grudge until HELL freezesover. Cut me off in traffic? You will hear me swear like a sailor onshore leave. Steal my cab in the pouring rain? Take THAT asshole."**
I know that Lisa is a strong, capable woman - and if I had to face two armed muggers in an alley in NYC, I'd want her by my side - but I also know what a loving, loyal friend she is.
That's why I struggled a bit, reading through her post. People who don't know that loving, loyal side of Lisa might just zero in on the "Bitch on Wheels" part. And then they might think that she's, well.......kind of a bitch.
But so what?
Part of "claiming" that title of bitch, for some women anyway, is about being real and being heard - rather than worrying about being liked. I'm not speaking for Lisa's motivations, of course, and hopefully she'll weigh in on this.
It's just that I've been wondering recently...
...how well DO we get heard, and who's our audience, when we run with that inner bitch?
~~~
And how about the title of "whore."
Here's what Teri (of CathouseTeri.blogspot.com) claimed for herself in the post, "Oh Dear...What Can the Matter Be?":
"**So if, in order to be free to express myself sexually, I have to becalled a whore, so be it. In fact, I shall embrace it, thorns and all.I spent a great many years trying to be a 'good woman.' I found thatthis brought only bondage and despair. I shan't live under that darkshadow any longer..."**
If words are just words, and are only as powerful - for good or bad - as we allow them to be, why would any name for a woman (or for her body parts...) be "worse" than another?
Yet it seems to me that many women do find some words directed at our gender to be more like "fighting words" than others.
Is that true for you?
~~~
Back to the word "bitch" for a minute - as in, I'd like to complain about something.
There's this commercial website (with Google Ads) that has so far pilfered around TWENTY of my blog posts to pad out their "Relationships," "Dating," and, get this, "Annie Dennison" categories.
Without my consent.
Last year, when they weren't even bothering to credit or link anything back to my blog, I wrote to their webmaster (in Eastern Europe) and clearly stated that I didn't want be a "contributor" of any sort to their website. And I added that blatantly stealing content is WRONG.
Their response?
They now use large excerpts from my posts - sometimes harvesting several a week - along with the groovy pictures I pay for.
But now, they do provide links back to my blog in a clever format that makes it look like readers are still on their website.
Is there anything I can do about this?...