If You Think That Females Are Generally More Bitchy Than Males...

[member]

does that mean you can't be a feminist?

[SeaHouses]

Possibly you could still be a feminist, but your explanation of how you were reconciling feminism with a. such a bizarre belief and b. using the term 'bitchy' with all its connotations would be so tortorous to have read that I think a lot of people might give up trying.

[grimbletart]

No, but it may mean that you move in the wrong circles and are rather prone to make massive and inaccurate over generalisations.......

[FoodUnit]

It means you are very new to feminism and have a long way to go! Enjoy the journey :)

[HandMadeTail]

Bitchy is a word usually applied to women for behaviour which would be labelled differently if a man did it. Same behaviour, different name.

[AyeRobot]

It means you're not really listening to men. Or labelling the same types of comments in different ways depending on the sex of the person making them. Probably. Or not.

[member]

I'm not denying that men can be bitchy/catty btw - but aren't women more likely to indulge in whispering campaign-type antics?

FoodUnit that obvious eh?

[LemonTurd]

I used to work in an all-male office as the only woman. I was the administrator and was there all the time, the others were sales reps and would be in and out of the office all day on appointments.

Whenever anyone left, the other men would immediately start slagging them off, not limited to their work performance, but their physical appearance, their OHs, etc.

Would you call that bitching? Or is it different when men do it?

I always cite the above when I hear anyone say that women are 'bitchy' and men are not/less so.

[LemonTurd]

In the same workplace, there was very much a whispering campaign (again, all men).

[CrunchyFrog]

IME bitching and gossiping is a human pursuit, not an exclusively female one.

Wherever there are groups, there are group dynamics.

[messyisthenewtidy]

Define bitchy? If it's criticizing a woman, dissecting her looks, calling her a slut and making all kinds of personal comments in order to diminish her arguments then look no further than twitter to see how men are just as capable of bitchiness as women.

[Wheezo]

Bitchy to me is just another word like hysterical - pejorative and seemingly only applicable to women - and then you look at the world of politics (male dominated) and you don't get much further on the scale than whispering campaigns and backstabbing in that world - and as for hysterical, in the sense of losing control of one's emotions, well the only difference there between genders appears to be that when some men lose control of their emotions someone other than themselves gets physically hurt. I can't think of anything more hysterical than punching inanimate objects or physically attacking someone to shut them up. We're just socially trained to view the male version of those kind of activities or attributes as 'manly' = logical = reasonable. All a wonderfully socially constructed phallacy (sic intended).

[grimbletart]

If it's called bitching when women do it is it dogging when men do it.....ah, no wait a minute....oops

It's the same sort of thing as saying women gossip. Men of course, discuss.

Just another way to slag off women.

[Latara]

I've met PLENTY of bitchy men; the vast majority were straight (a lot of people expect gay men to be bitchy but IME sexuality has nothing to do with it).
The thing I've noticed is that men tend to get away with their 'bitchiness' by referring to it as 'banter'. If the target of the banter complains then they 'can't take a joke'. Basically I think that's a form of bullying.
I can't think of another word than 'bitching' sorry.
Some men can be incredibly nasty & personal about other peoples' looks - particularly about womens' looks - they seem to do this as a way to 'dehumanise' the victim of their bullying for whatever reason.
On a positive note I would like to add that there are quite a few men and women around who aren't like this & don't have a bitchy bone in their body.
I'm lucky to have close relatives & good friends who don't bitch.
I prefer to not get involved with bitchy types.
If a person is bitchy about others then you can guarantee they will be bitchy about you in the end.