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Welcome, bitches,
to the History of Swear Words.

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It felt kinda weird
saying that word, "bitch,"

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since I aspire to be the utmost gentleman.

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Thankfully, there are
so many ways to say the b-word

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without directly insulting a woman.

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For instance, I could say,

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"I know we all like to bitch
and moan about air travel.

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But if you think about it,
airplanes are totally bitchin'!"

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-Fly!
-I can't!

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[gunfire]

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Fly, bitch!

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[sighing] Still, we can't deny
that the b-word holds great power,

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and with it comes great responsibility.

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"Bitch" is a slur.

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I said, "Biiiiitch!
I'm the man of the house."

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It's used of women
because they're uncontrollable,

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they're too loud, they're too opinionated.

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No one's ever
called me a bitch to my face.

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You bitch!

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Probably behind my back.

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I think it can be a really hurtful,
misogynistic, damaging word.

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You called your wife a bitch?

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[woman] Darryl? Where are those guys?

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I would advise any straight man
to never call a woman a bitch.

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I don't use that word. I say "the b-word."

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It's a way to disempower,
but it's also a way to empower.

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Yeah, I call myself a bitch.
My female friends can call me a bitch.

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Even my grandma
can call me a bitch, if she wants to.

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But if a guy calls me a bitch,

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I'mma burn his motherfucking house down.

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Join me on a journey
as we explore the word,

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its origin and its impact.

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[bleep]

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[cat meows]

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[Nicolas] "Bitch."

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It can be sexist, racist,
empowering, offensive, funny.

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This word does it all.

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[typing]

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People use the word "bitch" nowadays
for a bunch of different reasons.

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It's used still as a slur against women.

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So it's used to denigrate women.

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You goddamn bitch!

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It's used to bring women down to size.

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She wants to be some
immature little bitch and blow everybody.

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It's still used to refer
to a malicious or domineering woman.

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What kind of cold, heartless bitch
would do that to someone they love?

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My name's Mireille Miller-Young,
and I'm a professor

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of feminist studies at UC Santa Barbara.

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And my specialty is sexuality and race.

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"Bitch" is used
to really disempower women.

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When you say someone's a bitch,
you're trying to take their power away,

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and their voice away,
trying to make them shut up.

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Women hate to be called "bitch"
because it is just so dismissive.

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And it's actually punishing us
for speaking up for ourselves.

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If a woman is addressed as a bitch,
that's obviously defamatory.

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When addressed to a male…

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You're a filthy bitch
and I bust your balls.

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…it is defaming that male.

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"You are bad.
But also, the way that you're bad

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is in a way that is female-like."

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So it's insulting the male
and it's insulting women in general.

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Because to be female is to be bad.

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So, basically, it's a shotgun word.
It hits everyone.

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When you hear the word "bitch,"

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what comes to mind?

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Okay, maybe don't say her name out loud.
And hey, maybe it's not even a woman.

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Men can be bitches too,
when we want to emasculate them.

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But how did this word become

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the English language's
most frequent gendered insult?

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[typing]

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[Kory] "Bitch" is a really old word.

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It was first used around 1000 A.D.
So it's about a thousand years old.

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It comes from an Old English word,
"bicce," which means the female dog.

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There was a time
when we were all growing up,

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when we would go around and,
any time we'd meet a lady dog,

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we'd be like, "Look at that bitch."

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And be like,
"You can't send me to jail for that!

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That's just the meaning of the word!"

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I like dogs.

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[laughing]
So it doesn't bother me. "Bitch" is fine.

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My dog's a bitch.

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Literally. It's a female dog.
But I never call her that.

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Um…

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I call her a cunt.

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[Nicolas] However,
the evolution from dog to woman

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is just the beginning
of this, uh, complex story.

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In the history of "bitch,"
we think that it largely

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was transported from dogs to humans

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through the idea of dogs in heat.

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You really start seeing it
taking on a new meaning

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around 1400s.

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That sense of a dog in heat,

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you add in wordplay,
you add in sort of this in-joke,

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and it's really easy to…
to see then how "bitch" gets applied

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to women that are thought
to be lewd or immoral

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or who want sex too much.

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And from there, it grows
and gains this other meaning

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to refer to a woman who is uncontrollable,

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too loud, too forceful, too opinionated.

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So "bitch" does spike in use

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through the suffrage movement
during the 20th century,

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and then later
during second-wave feminism.

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So through the '60s and '70s,
you see this huge bump.

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And you do see the word "bitch"
applied specifically to feminists

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because it's like, "You said
it's fine for us to call you bitches."

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Over time, the definition of "bitch"

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expanded to include
basically any woman we don't like.

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A sexist slur.

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[typing]

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It's not that complicated
to avoid being called a bitch.

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All you have to do is…
Well, don't… smile, don't… talk.

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Don't be too pretty. Don't ask
for a manager at a restaurant.

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Don't turn a guy down.

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Don't walk down the street
with confidence.

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Don't hold a job.
Don't stay at home with your kids.

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Don't be loud. Don't be quiet.

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Don't be mean.
Don't stand up for yourself.

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Be a congresswoman.
Don't be a congresswoman.

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Don't stand up.

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Don't sit down.

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Don't drive. Don't frown. Am I a poet?

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[laughs]

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"Bitch.

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A female dog."

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No mention of how 99.99%
of the people use the word.

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I mean, what year is this from?
1885? No. It's from 2015.

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That's right.

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The Merriam-Webster dictionary
didn't label the word "bitch" offensive

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until the same year
it added the word "twerk."

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The job of every lexicographer
isn't just to enter new words.

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It's to also to make sure that words
that are already in the dictionary

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have as many meanings
as we currently use them with.

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When I was working at Merriam-Webster,
I noticed that the entry for "bitch"

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in one of our dictionaries had no labels.

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It just said that the word "bitch"

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meant "a female dog"
and "a domineering woman."

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So it didn't say that "bitch"
was an offensive word.

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It didn't say that it was
a disapproving or disparaging word.

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So that really is kind of what sent me
down the rabbit hole of… of "bitch,"

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and how did it end up
not having a label in the dictionary?

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It now does. I put one in.

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It was high time the dictionary
recognized "bitch" for its true meaning.

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For over a thousand years,

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we've been using it
to bitch about humans we don't like.

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So, let's honor and remember
some of our…

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♪ Bygone bitches! ♪

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Nefertiti, queen of Kemet.
14th century B.C.

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Famous queen bitch.

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Known as one of the most despised women
in human history.

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Elizabeth Báthory. Famous crazy bitch.

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A real Hungarian noblewoman

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who killed more people
than Bram Stoker's fictional Dracula.

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But you don't see her bragging about it.

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Lizzie Borden.

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Famous axe-murdering bitch
who was acquitted.

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That's kinda bitchin'.

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Anna Wintour.

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Legendary editor of Vogue.
Ice-cold bitch.

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[Kory] "Bitch" is one of the few slurs

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that is undergoing
the process of reclamation.

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Reclaiming of language
seeks to empower women

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through their experiences
of repression and discrimination.

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My friends are allowed to call me a bitch,
if they do it in, like, a loving way.

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If I got, like, a promotion or something,
and someone's like, "This bitch, yay!"

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I remember the first time I called
a group of women "bitches" from the stage.

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Someone told me,
"Just call them bitches. They'll love it."

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And I was like, "No, they won't."
And they did.

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"Yo, my bitches."

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"Yeah. Bitches, make some noise!"

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I know that when I was finding
my sense of feminism,

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I was like, "I'll never use
the word 'bitch' again,

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and I'll never let anyone use
the word 'bitch' or call someone a bitch."

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Um, and now
it's one of the words I use most.

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[London] It's powerful, it's feminist,
it's sexy, it's quick, it's snappy.

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You can put things before and after it
to make it better or worse.

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We need "bitch."
It's so important to the English language.

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Don't get rid of "bitch."

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You call yourself a bitch…

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-I'm a bitch.
-I'm a bad bitch.

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I am a bitch.

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…people who see you
and hear you will think,

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"I guess it's not
such a bad word after all."

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You don't get called a bitch as a woman
unless you're making a man realize

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that he's a little bitch.

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You are such a bitch.

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I think that
there's a certain weird magic to slurs,

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that make it so that
only people in that targeted group

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have the right to play with it
and try to make it into something else.

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"Bitch" has seen a little bit of uneven,

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not-quite-negative use
in the 20th century.

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Ernest Hemingway used it of his mom
to refer to her strength.

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For Hemingway, "bitch" was a way
of separating men from the women.

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Sort of say, "Men are these people,
and women can be bitches."

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But it can also be that combination
of the… the sacred and profane.

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It could be a bitch goddess.

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It became almost a proprietary thing
for him,

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and he would use it
as his way of acknowledging your presence,

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that you had power,
that you inflamed him in some way.

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A bitch is a bitch.

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He was so attached to the idea of

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giving the ascendancy to the ideal
of American masculinity,

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that nothing else
could live up to it, I mean--

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And by that,
white male American masculinity.

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So anything else was,
at best, second-rate.

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If you were lucky,
you were a bitch goddess.

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"Bitch" got paired with "goddess,"
so you would see "bitch goddess" used

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to refer to anything changeable
and uncontrollable.

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Um, Fate was often called a bitch goddess.

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But these uses were also done by men.
By the people who use "bitch" as a slur.

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So it's not really reclamation.

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It is setting up a usage pattern
that reclamation can go off of.

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[Nicolas] Some of the earliest examples
of women empowering themselves

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using the word "bitch" was in music.

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Curse words are something
that we've been using

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in the Black community for generations.

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In street corners, in the jazz clubs.

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I mean, even going back
to, like, the '20s and '30s,

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it was a sanctuary where people
could say what they wanted to say.

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And part of people saying
what they wanted to say

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was women using the "bitch" word
and really embracing their sexuality.

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And a great example of that
is Lucille Bogan.

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♪ They know I'm a bitch from Baltimore ♪

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Anybody who's a real blues fan

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knows who she is
and has sung some of her songs.

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In fact, the last line
of The Rolling Stones' song "Start Me Up,"

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"You make a dead man come,"

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is a tribute to Lucille Bogan's song
"When the Cows Come Home."

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♪ You can fuck my cock or suck my cock
Baby, until the cows come home ♪

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You actually felt like you wanted
to have a cigarette

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after you heard a Lucille Bogan song.

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I mean, she completely owned who she was,

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let you know who she was,
let you know what she could do.

233
00:12:09,854 --> 00:12:14,114
♪ If you suck my pussy, baby
I'll suck your dick ♪

234
00:12:14,191 --> 00:12:16,151
-♪ I'll do it to you, honey ♪
-[laughing]

235
00:12:16,235 --> 00:12:18,485
-♪ Till I make you shit ♪
-Oh!

236
00:12:18,571 --> 00:12:20,201
-What year is this from?
-♪ Oh, baby ♪

237
00:12:20,281 --> 00:12:23,201
This is like listening
to my grandma do porn.

238
00:12:23,284 --> 00:12:25,664
This would make Cardi B blush!

239
00:12:25,745 --> 00:12:27,325
If "bitch" meant promiscuous,

240
00:12:27,413 --> 00:12:29,213
-this lady was a bitch!
-♪ Do it to me, Papa ♪

241
00:12:29,290 --> 00:12:31,670
♪ Break me in until tomorrow come ♪

242
00:12:34,420 --> 00:12:36,510
"Bitch" really begins this reclamation

243
00:12:36,589 --> 00:12:38,969
in earnest in the 1960s.

244
00:12:39,049 --> 00:12:43,889
So, 1968, Jo Freeman publishes
The Bitch Manifesto,

245
00:12:43,971 --> 00:12:49,021
about what it means to be a bitch
and what it means to live into bitchhood.

246
00:12:49,101 --> 00:12:51,651
What you start seeing in the '90s
and in the 2000s

247
00:12:51,729 --> 00:12:56,859
is "bitch" being used positively
in TV and in music.

248
00:12:57,610 --> 00:13:00,650
Meredith Brooks' song "Bitch"

249
00:13:00,738 --> 00:13:02,868
was, like, so exciting.

250
00:13:02,948 --> 00:13:05,788
"I'm a bitch, I'm a lover,
I'm a child, I'm a mother,

251
00:13:05,868 --> 00:13:07,698
I'm a sinner, I'm a saint,

252
00:13:07,787 --> 00:13:11,207
I'm your hell, I'm your dream,
I'm nothing in between."

253
00:13:11,290 --> 00:13:12,920
"Bitch" is an intelligent song.

254
00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,540
It's not something
I would have written when I was 19.

255
00:13:15,628 --> 00:13:18,758
You got to say the word
and your parents couldn't get mad,

256
00:13:18,839 --> 00:13:20,969
"'Cause it's in the song, Mom and Dad!"

257
00:13:21,050 --> 00:13:22,680
If you don't wanna be called a bitch,

258
00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:26,350
definitely don't listen
to rap or rock from the '90s.

259
00:13:26,430 --> 00:13:31,190
The majority of rap music
in the '90s on through the 2000s

260
00:13:31,268 --> 00:13:32,558
was really male-oriented.

261
00:13:32,645 --> 00:13:36,645
I think hip-hop gets way too much lenience

262
00:13:36,732 --> 00:13:38,982
when it comes
to using that kind of language.

263
00:13:39,068 --> 00:13:41,948
Any song with Snoop Dogg,
any song with Tupac.

264
00:13:42,029 --> 00:13:43,319
"Smack my bitch up…"

265
00:13:43,405 --> 00:13:46,615
[laughs] Why did I think of that one?
That one's brutal.

266
00:13:47,201 --> 00:13:51,001
I don't… I don't condone that song!
It's a horrible song, it's a bad song!

267
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:55,170
Men use the word "bitch"
to kind of claim their power over women.

268
00:13:55,251 --> 00:13:58,091
And, in that way, it's often misogynistic.

269
00:13:58,170 --> 00:14:01,220
A lot of hip-hop lyrics
can really be demeaning.

270
00:14:01,298 --> 00:14:05,428
You know, the b-word, uh… at times,
is definitely, you know, demeaning.

271
00:14:05,511 --> 00:14:09,681
I feel like people who normally
would not allow that type of talk

272
00:14:09,765 --> 00:14:13,555
in… in any other media
or any other kind of conversation

273
00:14:14,144 --> 00:14:15,694
are okay with it in hip-hop.

274
00:14:15,771 --> 00:14:18,771
That okayness makes me uncomfortable
in some ways.

275
00:14:18,858 --> 00:14:23,278
Because I wonder if there's not
some underlying racism to that okayness.

276
00:14:23,362 --> 00:14:26,322
I'm definitely not, you know,
the type of guy that demeans women.

277
00:14:26,407 --> 00:14:29,447
And I think that sometimes
you just need to chalk it up as hip-hop.

278
00:14:29,535 --> 00:14:33,455
I think it's something that I'd…
I'd like to challenge people not to do.

279
00:14:33,539 --> 00:14:36,039
Women pretty early on in hip-hop…

280
00:14:36,750 --> 00:14:38,290
stake the claim for themselves.

281
00:14:38,377 --> 00:14:43,507
There's a call to reclaim "bitch"
among feminist rap in the mid '90s.

282
00:14:43,591 --> 00:14:45,761
That sort of pushes it forward.

283
00:14:45,843 --> 00:14:49,643
Earliest memory of "bitch" is,
of course, Queen Latifah's "U.N.I.T.Y."

284
00:14:49,722 --> 00:14:52,562
She has this really strong lyric
that just says,

285
00:14:52,641 --> 00:14:54,231
"Who you callin' a bitch?"

286
00:14:54,310 --> 00:14:57,560
I'm like, "Yeah." I was so young,
but I'm like, "That ain't right."

287
00:14:57,646 --> 00:15:03,026
Since Queen Latifah through the present,
we see the use of "bitch" evolve.

288
00:15:03,110 --> 00:15:06,280
I honestly like when someone
who's angry with me calls me a bitch

289
00:15:06,363 --> 00:15:09,123
because it means I stood up for myself.

290
00:15:09,199 --> 00:15:13,659
♪ Took a DNA test, turns out
I'm 100% that bitch ♪

291
00:15:13,746 --> 00:15:16,616
Lizzo says she's "100% that bitch."

292
00:15:16,707 --> 00:15:19,627
If she said she was 100% a bitch,
that would be a negative thing,

293
00:15:19,710 --> 00:15:23,010
because being a bitch is bad,
but being that bitch is good.

294
00:15:23,088 --> 00:15:25,378
Okay, so my DNA test
for that bitch came back,

295
00:15:25,466 --> 00:15:29,046
and I am 92% that bitch,

296
00:15:29,136 --> 00:15:32,386
and I am eight percent empathetic,
nice, and caring,

297
00:15:32,473 --> 00:15:35,143
and sweet, and so charming.

298
00:15:35,225 --> 00:15:39,225
I am 50% that bitch. That's great.

299
00:15:39,313 --> 00:15:42,443
I am 30% some whore.

300
00:15:43,025 --> 00:15:46,025
And 20% Cherokee.

301
00:15:46,612 --> 00:15:49,782
Oh, my God, I had no idea! Fun!

302
00:15:51,283 --> 00:15:54,333
The reclamation of the word
also happens for gay men,

303
00:15:54,411 --> 00:15:57,211
who take a word
traditionally used to hurt them

304
00:15:57,289 --> 00:16:01,379
and turn it into a way of fostering
community and friendship.

305
00:16:02,461 --> 00:16:05,011
I was called a bitch growing up so much.

306
00:16:05,089 --> 00:16:09,929
It was a workaround for a lot of people
who didn't want to call me a faggot.

307
00:16:10,010 --> 00:16:11,890
In the homosexual male community,

308
00:16:11,971 --> 00:16:15,141
in… over the last 40 years,
it's taken on a special status

309
00:16:15,224 --> 00:16:19,194
where it's a joking term of affection
for another homosexual male.

310
00:16:19,269 --> 00:16:22,059
It is… sort of like, "I recognize you."

311
00:16:22,147 --> 00:16:26,067
Like, "We had the same, like, shit
growing up together.

312
00:16:26,151 --> 00:16:28,571
You were called a bitch
like I was called a bitch."

313
00:16:28,654 --> 00:16:30,244
In terms of my gay friends,

314
00:16:30,322 --> 00:16:33,622
a lot of these are gay men
who absolutely worship women,

315
00:16:33,701 --> 00:16:35,911
and, like, all their idols are women.

316
00:16:35,995 --> 00:16:39,785
All of my best friends are bitches. Like,
"Hey, bitch, you did an amazing job."

317
00:16:39,873 --> 00:16:44,043
"Bitch, your workplace is elevated
because you show up every day, bitch."

318
00:16:44,128 --> 00:16:47,458
There's nothing better
than a gay man calling you a bitch.

319
00:16:47,548 --> 00:16:50,178
The word "bitch" has been
on an interesting journey

320
00:16:50,259 --> 00:16:52,049
as feminism has progressed.

321
00:16:52,136 --> 00:16:56,216
There's, like, you know, internal debate
of how it can be reclaimed.

322
00:16:56,306 --> 00:16:59,596
I have a boy and a girl,
and they both use "bitch" all the time.

323
00:16:59,685 --> 00:17:02,645
Like, "Bitch!" And it's just
what they call their friends.

324
00:17:02,730 --> 00:17:06,480
For me, it's still a bad word,
and something you don't call women.

325
00:17:06,567 --> 00:17:09,027
It does disturb an older generation

326
00:17:09,111 --> 00:17:12,611
that feels that
they had to fight for respect,

327
00:17:12,698 --> 00:17:15,738
and that there's something
ultimately disrespectful

328
00:17:15,826 --> 00:17:16,946
about the word "bitch."

329
00:17:17,036 --> 00:17:20,326
I don't think we can ever fully reclaim
the word "bitch," unfortunately,

330
00:17:20,414 --> 00:17:22,214
because it's a man's world.

331
00:17:22,291 --> 00:17:23,831
We may think we've reclaimed it,

332
00:17:23,917 --> 00:17:27,707
but then they'll have a little man group
and say it to their friends.

333
00:17:27,796 --> 00:17:32,676
But people like Lizzo and myself are doing
their best to make it sound good. [laughs]

334
00:17:34,094 --> 00:17:36,604
So, where do we land
with the word "bitch"?

335
00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:38,350
Are we allowed to use it or not?

336
00:17:38,932 --> 00:17:41,232
Can someone please just clear this up?

337
00:17:41,310 --> 00:17:43,100
[typing]

338
00:17:43,854 --> 00:17:47,614
The reclamation deals with
an area of linguistics called semiotics.

339
00:17:47,691 --> 00:17:50,991
And that is really,
what's the intention of the speaker

340
00:17:51,070 --> 00:17:53,070
and what's the reception of the hearer?

341
00:17:53,155 --> 00:17:56,365
"Bitch" can mean one thing
when spoken by one person,

342
00:17:56,450 --> 00:18:00,160
in one context,
to one particular listener,

343
00:18:00,245 --> 00:18:04,665
and it can mean a totally opposite thing
when spoken by that same person,

344
00:18:04,750 --> 00:18:07,920
in the same context, to a second listener.

345
00:18:08,003 --> 00:18:10,633
I may say to one of my closest friends,

346
00:18:10,714 --> 00:18:13,434
like, "Bitch, I gotta tell you something,"
you know?

347
00:18:13,509 --> 00:18:15,509
But if a woman who I don't know

348
00:18:15,594 --> 00:18:19,184
comes up just wanting to, like, gossip
and she's like, "Bitch, I wanna--"

349
00:18:19,264 --> 00:18:22,184
I'm gonna immediately be like,
"I don't-- I don't know you."

350
00:18:22,267 --> 00:18:25,347
It's a word that we can use
for each other,

351
00:18:25,437 --> 00:18:27,357
and we can be empowered by it,

352
00:18:27,439 --> 00:18:31,149
but it's not a word that men
will ever be able to freely call us

353
00:18:31,235 --> 00:18:34,315
and have it be like, "Oh, thanks, John!"

354
00:18:35,864 --> 00:18:38,584
It seems to me that "bitch" isn't a word.

355
00:18:39,159 --> 00:18:41,579
It's a moment, an experience.

356
00:18:41,662 --> 00:18:44,542
Other swear words
like "shit," "fuck," "damn,"

357
00:18:44,623 --> 00:18:46,713
are reactionary and universal.

358
00:18:47,459 --> 00:18:50,209
But "bitch" can be used like a weapon.

359
00:18:51,255 --> 00:18:52,545
And it's personal.

360
00:18:52,631 --> 00:18:54,171
I do still use the word "bitch,"

361
00:18:54,258 --> 00:18:57,048
though I use it
a whole lot less than I used to.

362
00:18:57,136 --> 00:19:01,176
You know, language is pattern,
and if you have learned the pattern

363
00:19:01,265 --> 00:19:03,515
of "bitch" being used
as a slur against women,

364
00:19:03,600 --> 00:19:06,980
it takes a lot of conscious effort
to unlearn that pattern,

365
00:19:07,062 --> 00:19:10,522
even if you're a recipient of that slur.

366
00:19:10,607 --> 00:19:15,777
Instead of using the word "bitch,"
I'd rather refer to women as "queens."

367
00:19:15,863 --> 00:19:18,453
But I do recognize
that "bitch" hits different.

368
00:19:18,532 --> 00:19:20,622
If you on a plane
and people start fighting,

369
00:19:20,701 --> 00:19:22,741
you gotta be like,
"Bitch, they was fightin'."

370
00:19:22,828 --> 00:19:24,868
You can't be like,
"Queen, they was fightin'."

371
00:19:24,955 --> 00:19:26,365
It just-- It doesn't go.

372
00:19:26,456 --> 00:19:29,836
You know what I'm saying?
You gotta show some discernment.

373
00:19:29,918 --> 00:19:31,128
[laughs]

374
00:19:31,211 --> 00:19:32,961
If I ever have a daughter someday,

375
00:19:33,046 --> 00:19:37,546
I would much rather her identify
as a bitch than a nice girl.

376
00:19:37,634 --> 00:19:41,684
I mean, I guess the ultimate goal
is for her to be a nice bitch.

377
00:19:41,763 --> 00:19:42,893
Like Malala.

378
00:19:43,390 --> 00:19:46,350
On my group thread with, like, 11 gay men,

379
00:19:46,435 --> 00:19:49,305
seven of which hate me
and three of which are close friends,

380
00:19:49,396 --> 00:19:50,976
will I continue to use the word?

381
00:19:51,064 --> 00:19:52,274
Yeah, probably.

382
00:19:52,357 --> 00:19:56,397
The word "bitch" has gone on a journey.
From meaning a female dog…

383
00:19:56,904 --> 00:19:59,704
to then, like, a slutty woman,

384
00:19:59,781 --> 00:20:02,241
and now to a great woman like myself.

385
00:20:02,326 --> 00:20:03,946
I like it! It's gone on a journey.

386
00:20:04,036 --> 00:20:06,656
It's really…
It's-- it's grown. It's growth.

387
00:20:06,747 --> 00:20:09,327
You know what that is? That's growth.
Good for you, bitch!

388
00:20:09,416 --> 00:20:12,126
You started off as a dog,
and now look at you, you're Cardi B.

389
00:20:12,211 --> 00:20:13,801
Good for you! [laughs]