The Power of the Word “Bitch”: A Qualitative Assessment of the Societal Impact of Anti-female Slang through a Gendered Lens in Regard to Social Reclamation

The interplay of anti-female slang, queer identity, and patriarchal power structures provides an opportunity to explore feminist critiques of our society at a deeper level. Data for this project was obtained with a survey and interviews from a sample population of UVM students surrounding the social reformative capability of the word “bitch”. The linguistic overlap of this word within both queer and female communities establishes “bitch” as a focal point in the analysis of anti-female slang, among both genderqueer and cisgender populations, and impacts the larger discussion of gender inequity in our society.