One Word and LIberation

The word “bitch” is being thrown about a lot lately. It used to be an offensive term thrown at females. Primarily it still is, but I know of several recent episodes where it has been thrown at male persons also lately. I guess that is equal opportunity.

But it is still offensive. And because it is offensive and is still in disproportionate frequency toward women, its use needs to cease.

Leonard Pitts, jr. in a recent column notes a recent incident in Iowa where a woman asked the senior senator from Arizona a question about the junior senator from New York, using that word.

Pitts notes

Can you imagine if the Democratic front runner were Sen. Joe Lieberman and the woman said, ``So, how do we beat this Hebe?''

Can you imagine if it were Gov. Bill Richardson and the woman said, ``So, how do we beat this spic?''

Can you imagine if it were Sen. Barack Obama and the woman said, ``So, how do we beat this coon?''

I guarantee you, McCain would not have laughed and if he had, we would now be writing his political epitaph.

I think he has a good point. Senator McCain may well be taken to task for this.

Pitts goes on to note that women who have succeeded in politics and in business have taken on the traits traditionally associated with men.

We demand certain ''feminine'' traits from women -- nurturing, caring, submission -- and the woman in whom those traits are either not present or subordinated to her drive, ambition and competence will pay a social price

.

When I first began hearing of “women’s lib” about three and a half decades or so ago, I wondered if it might be an opportunity to liberate men also. I wondered if opening opportunities for women would create a world in which men did not always have to do the things which seemed to make them men. Ideally nurturing and caring would be gender-neutral qualities and not regarded in lower esteem than drive and ambition and would be manifested in persons of both genders.

It obviously has not happened. We have made more opportunities available to women, but only if they seem to be more like men. There are successful women in almost every area of life now, but they are still considered successes only if they do not seem what we have somehow behave in ways we think feminine.

And we still regard men in what were women’s professions and trades with a strange eye. Men who are nurses, flight attendants, or elementary school teachers are not seen as totally male.

It doesn’t mean that “women’s lib” is a failure. It has indeed been a success, even if only a partial one. But it still means that we are a long way from liberating everybody.

And “bitch” is still not a nice word, except perhaps in certain dog-owner groups.