Tango Bango

The way women treat each other

I’m not all hyper-sensitive about everything, but I’ve definitely noticed something.  I live with my best friend now, and I’ve noticed that she is constantly referring to women as bitches.  Whether it’s someone in another car while driving, someone on TV, someone in the hypothetical sense.  I’m fairly certain she doesn’t even realize she’s doing it, or doesn’t see it as a big deal.  And every time she does it, I’m aware of it.  I haven’t pointed it out to her, because I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it and don’t want to seem “judgey”.  Maybe I’ll show her this blog post. :)

The word “bitch” seems to be controversial.  Traditionally, the word is offensive to women, meaning “a spiteful, lude, or overbearing woman”.  The latest new-wave feminism seems to be in favor of reclaiming that word to be empowering.  Some disagree.  Either way, that’s sort of irrelevant in this situation because my friend doesn’t use the word in an empowering way.  She uses it in casual conversation to refer to women that are doing something she doesn’t like.

Now, something generic (and not related to my best friend necessarily) is simply how women treat each other.  I’ve been really trying to improve the way I judge other people for the things they do.  Women can be downright mean to each other, in a totally degrading way.  ”How can she wear that thing?” or “Look at her fat rolls, glad I don’t have that” or “Man, she is ugly.”  Admittedly, I’ve been guilty of this quite often in the past.  But hopefully I’m guilty of it less often…as I really am trying to get to the root of why women treat each other this way.  Is it jealousy?  Is it internalized sexism?

Should I just ignore it?