Claiming Bitch

B I T C H.

It hung over my mom’s wrought iron shelving unit for years. The sign had the word Bitch written in red cursive and was given to her by one of her best girlfriends. She loved it.

My mom had claimed and repurposed that word into something that empowered her, possibly without her even realizing it. Now, call my mother a bitch in an argument and it was the red flag for my mom’s Taurus blood. And yes, she’d used it herself plenty of times to verbally assassinate any woman she felt was out of pocket and stepping on her values. Like the lady who stole a parking spot from her one time. But, then there were the times when I heard her use it in complete admiration of another woman. It’s like the word had a sliding scale of usage and meaning depending on the situation. 

“That’s a Bad Bitch.”

“I’m a 100% that bitch.”

My mom loved feeling like a bad bitch and she loved letting other women know they were bad bitches. If a woman was dressed to slay she was a bad bitch. If she didn’t take any shit from anyone she was a bad bitch. If she fought her way back from difficult circumstances she was a bad bitch. If she made money or ran her own company she was a boss bitch. In the world, I grew up in if you got called a bad bitch that meant you were tough, sexy, and direct. I know there are also many women who would disagree with this and object to any use of the word. I get that too. Are we really empowering ourselves by trying to flip what was and still is deemed a belittling derogatory term for a woman? Take the use of the N-word in black pop culture and hip hop with the argument being Black people took what was one of the ugliest hurtful slurs in our history and somehow made it a general reference to other Black people as family and a term of endearment. It’s never been ok with one group of Black people and yet its popularity continues with others who feel differently. Language is powerful and we give words their impact based on how we use them, interpret and receive them. So I actually do believe that a word can mean two different things to people depending on how it’s used and the intention behind it.

But let’s dig a little deeper into the origins of bitch because you may be as surprised as I was. After doing a little research I learned that Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt was also called The Great Bitch. She was depicted as having her hunting dogs with her, her bitches. Artemis represents hunting, wild animals, and children and birth and she is a complete badass. Her priestesses were called Sacred Bitches. Band name anyone??? Then as the world kept turning the word bitch came to represent something other than the primal, natural strength and connection that Artemis vibed on. Somewhere along the line the word was flipped to mean a difficult pain in the ass woman. Someone worthless and not worthy of having her voice heard. But y’all….ARTEMIS WAS NONE OF THOSE THINGS. I may be going out on a hypothetical historical limb here, but it makes sense that women who in any way we’re inspired by or imitated the strength and attributes of this goddess intimidated men who were stuck on women being submissive. Well, this made me love the word even more. Honestly, I don’t care how it’s used towards me because no one can take away my power unless I let them. What was the nursery rhyme? Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Well, there’s some truth to that isn’t there? Afterall, a word is just a word and will only have as much energy as you give it. 

And that’s on Artemis and her Sacred Bitches. 

Pure Mvmnt 6 Week Immersion is the perfect place to reconnect with your Great Bitch if you feel your inner fire has gone out. It’s not all softness in our Divine Feminine energy. We have anger and fierceness within us too that needs a place to be safely danced out and expressed. 

 We’ll be dropping into our sensual exploration and expression this Fall with the next Pure Mvmnt 6 Week Immersion ONLINE Live. Can’t commit to the Live ONLINE weekly? The Pure Mvmnt Immersion 6 Week Self Guided version will be available this winter!  

There is no better time to take care of you. Spark your fire now.