to ask really nicely that people think twice before referring to other women as bitches?

[FlouncingMintyy]

Even the ones you hate?

It is so vile and, I believe, the ultimate women-hating word.

I've done a quick search and its been used on here nearly 400 times this week.

Pretty please

[ledkr]

Thing is right. If you want to insult someone who you dislike the choice of word will of course be offensive. If someone has pissed you off you aren't going to call them nice names are you?

[LineRunner]

I agree with you, OP. It's not a word I allow to be used in my own home and my teenage DCs respect that around me. They 'get' that it's a word that only actually gets used to denigrate women; and thus is A Bad Thing.

[BinksToEnlightenment]

It's slut or slag I hate. I'm fine with bitch.

[chocoluvva]

Hmmm. Bitchy = nasty?

[redlac]

I hate the word bint - maybe a local/Scottish insult but I bloody hate it

bawbag is the best insult for a man IMO

[Pagwatch]

Cunts are wonderful things. I wouldn't be without mine.

[NopeStillNothing]

I agree that slut or slag is the only insult I would never use. Mainly because it's a cop-out and says nothing about a persons character. I couldn't give a shit about anyones sex life but my own.
I do use bitch, but that is because some actions are bitchy and the cunts should be called up on it

[MechanicalTheatre]

I hate bitch, slut, slag, slapper.

Totally fine with cunt and use it liberally, as well as cock and dick and dickhead and bawbag.

And rocket.

[FlouncingMintyy]

Also hate slut and slag but its not such an issue on Mumsnet. "Slut" was only used 20 times last week (and some of that was people referring to themselves as "housework sluts" or TWI sluts) whereas bitch was used nearly 400 times.

Daren't advanced search cunt .

[Sugarice]

But 'bitch' conveys just the right amount of distain and contempt when one might be referring to a particularly unpleasant individual deserving of the word.

[willesden]

Wasn't it Madonna who said if a woman calls you a bitch then you have really pissed her off?!

[lurkedtoolong]

Bitch and cunt are fine imo, I use liberally with both sexes. Whore and slut I hate - never use at all.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Surely so long as we are all thinking about what the words mean, that is all to the good?

Personally I am trying to avoid 'bitch' at the moment as for me it's not gender-neutral and I hear too much about how women 'bitch' at each other. But I am sure that is partly situational, as the way people use words changes.

Again, personally, I think 'cunt' is a fantastic word. Especially in the phrase 'I'd call you a cunt, but you don't have the warmth or depth'.

I agree with everyone else about 'slut' and 'slag'.

[WorraLiberty]

I don't like cunt, slag, slut, whore, slapper.

But bitch is fine with me and quite a mild insult imo.

I use it both both sexes anyway as DH works mainly with men and when he tells me what 'so and so says behind so and so's back', I normally reply with "OMG what a bitch he is!"

[Januarymadness]

I am one of the people who came up on the advanced search for this week. The use was deserved and appropriate. The male counterpart of the person I called a bitch I would call a cock. The use of that word would be approoriate too. I have not dished out those insults without thinking.

[Mia4]

YANBU to ask but it's one of those things whereby words have different connotations- some people use them gender neutrally, some people have reclaimed the words and use them to empower themselves and some people just don't care because to them the word fits.

I hate the words slut and whore-those were words I heard daily when verbally and emotionally abused. Cunt, I dislike but i use where I believe it's applicable when someone is really that bad in my eyes.

Bitch I will happily use to describe myself because the day I stood up to my abuser shouting at me he used the term bitch to try and insult me and instead it really really pushed me to stand up to him. I told him he could go fuck himself, that I wasn't a slut or cunt, that I was the bitch that would get his arse thrown in jail if he didn't back off.

I don't tend to use it insults, more the ther way

[SkinnybitchWannabe]

My username is a no no then?
Or can I calling myself a bitch allowed..?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I think the argument against 'bitch' being used for both genders it that its origins are gender specific, right?

I do think it is interesting to try to work out how much influence 'submerged' gender-based insults have on atttitudes towards gender. But I think one thing is, once you learn the original meaning, there is a bit of a shock, even if you don't realize it in ordinary conversation.

[ExitPursuedByABear]

I feel quaite faint with all this swearing.

[Tee2072]

You can ask. But I'll still use it.

[Muminwestlondon]

I have used "bitchy" to describe something on another thread . I do see OP's point, but I use bitch for males and females. To me it describes a particularly vicious form of nastyness and I haven't found another word I prefer.

BTW I never use the word "slut" to describe other women or girls although my DDs seem to use it regularly - I tell them off. I also use the word "twat" regularly but I do get told off by my daughters.

[rainrainandmorerain]

I loathe 'bitch.'

It's one of those words that marks out a special woman hating element of dislike, IME. I saw that woman from the Richard III doc that was on the other night (a lot of people found her irritating, and fair enough) routinely referred to on fb and elsewhere as a 'silly bitch'/'stupid bitch' etc.

There isn't an equivalent for men. Nasty words but nothing with the same misogynist edge.

[KenLeeeeeee]

I am not nearly as offended by bitch as I am by whore, slut, slag and slapper.

I wonder how many more times the word bitch will appear on MN as a direct result of this thread

[acceptableinthe80s]

Oops, i've just done it on another thread. In all fairness though the bitch almost killed my son!

[SaladIsMyFriend]

YANBU to ask, but I don't mind being called a bitch - it usually means I have stood my ground over something and pissed someone who is not very nice anyway off. I have been called a bitch to my face by a man and took it as a compliment.

I think slag/slut etc. are much worse.