An opinion that I hold, which is not widely regarded, is the use of the word “bitch”-or rather, opposition to its use. As someone who attended a public elementary school, I learned at a young age that, in its truest sense, a bitch is a female dog. It’s a dog breeding term. 

It’s also a term that has been used for centuries to demean women. And while in modern parlance it has taken on a less biting connotation, it cannot be entirely divorced from its original context. 

So when a woman is called a bitch, it’s not a singular insult. It is a comprehensive, gender-based slur. Whether intended or not (and generous as I am, I believe it’s rarely intended), that word is not simply synonymous with “annoying person.” 

When a woman is called a bitch, what is really being said is, “You are all the worst things a woman can be.” Loud, strong, opinionated, intelligent, assertive, sexually liberated, independent, confident, ugly―take your pick.

In 2022, Twitch streamer Vaush got into an online feud with author and notable “trans exclusionary radical feminist” (TERF) J.K. Rowling. To end his side of the argument, he tweeted, “Women be quieter and start apologizing challenge.” 

This author is surely not a fan, nor a defender of Rowling. Her entire body of work speaks to the bigotry of her worldview. But I am a feminist―a real radical feminist.

So when a man, who vocally proclaims he is on the left, says something so deliberately misogynistic as an “own” to a woman he does not like, it rankles me. However, it’s not exactly surprising.

In fact, I rarely expect men―whether left or right―to be anything more than passably feminist. Sure, they think that abortion should be legal, and women definitely deserve the right to vote and hold office. But if a woman says something they don’t like, well, she’s just a stupid bitch.

I’m not here to defend the actions of conservative women or to defend them at all. It’s not about these women in particular. It’s about women, period. It’s about the way we talk about women and women-adjacent people. And how the language that we use when we talk about women and women-adjacent people is incredibly important.

Political criticism does not always have to be well thought through and poignant. It would be a sorry kind of world where people could not loudly and often laugh at the terrible decisions the people in power are making. We can still criticize these women, and criticize them harshly, and criticize them jokingly, without resorting to blatant misogyny.

I want to make it clear that misogyny doesn’t just lead to my personal man-hating tirades. In a society that teaches young men that women are just objects for their own desire, women begin to occupy a weird sort of sub-space. She both is and is not a person. She both is and is not worthy of the same treatment a man is.

This country has never had a female president. There have only ever been 450 congresswomen. Only six women have ever served on the Supreme Court—the first being appointed in 1981.

Being a woman in politics is already a precarious position to be in. If you are a woman who seeks power, you are automatically a pariah.
On the right, women are especially taught that they must be docile and subservient. It is a contradiction for a woman on the right to hold any position of power in this country.

And yet under this Trump administration, roughly one-third of his cabinet is composed of women, including former South Dakota governor Kristi Noem.

This author finds these women to be detestable. I find only the smallest amount of sympathy for them, and even then, it is only because I detest misogyny more than I could ever hate these women.

Because a woman is still a woman, no matter her political party. And misogyny is always misogyny, no matter who is the victim of it. When did it become appropriate to resort to the same shock tactics our political opponents use to belittle and berate us? 

More importantly than the misogyny that these incredibly powerful and abhorrent women face is the fact that misogyny is a real, constant factor in women’s and femme’s lives. And if someone becomes comfortable calling a woman they don’t like a bitch, then it is incredibly easy for the goalposts to shift.

Also in 2022, actor Johnny Depp sued his ex-wife, actress Amber Heard, for defamation. Heard had written an opinion piece in the Washington Post about being a victim of abuse and an advocate for victims in the public eye. She did not name Depp.

To say that the trial had massive media attention is an understatement. People were calling Heard an assortment of things, bitch being one of the kinder terms. 

I was not on the jury for Heard’s trial. Legally, she was found guilty of defamation. But as someone with a pair of eyes, a pair of ears and a brain that is capable of critical thought, in my opinion (and in the opinion of a separate court), Heard is not only not guilty, she was the victim of abuse.

I take this diversion only to point out that it is so very easy for a woman to become a bitch, a whore, a liar and an abuser. Even when she is a victim, it’s easier to believe that the man is telling the truth.

If one woman is a bitch, then it is very easy for all of them to be the same.