The b-word

For the record, I don't think Belinda Stronach is a bitch. I don't think she's a dog, either. I do think she's been ill advised in her career choices, but that's neither here nor there. It's not a word I would use about anyone. Well, not in public, at any rate.

I will, however, defend to the death Norman Spector's right to call her that, or any name he chooses, as ill advised as that career choice may prove to be. "Bitch" may be specific to women, but it has its analogues in "prick," "asshole," or perhaps most precisely, "bastard," along with a host of other insults that are reserved exclusively to men. It is not exactly gentlemanly language, but it's not particularly offensive, as these things go. Nor is it necessarily sexist -- indeed, outside of rap videos, it is most often used by women to describe other women. Some use it to describe themselves, as a kind of "dont mess with me" boast. You can buy t-shirts with "Certified Bitch" proudly emblazoned on them. (See also here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here and ...) I can't imagine a man saying "I'm a prick," except in the throes of the most abject self-recrimination.

The predictable attempt to elevate this into an attack on all women, or indeed to portray any criticism of a female politician as sexist slander, is gender-baiting, pure and simple. So perhaps it's best to have this out now. Either female politicians are the equals of their male counterparts, able to dish it out and take it, or they are not. But let's stop pretending that Sheila Copps or Carolyn Parrish or Alexa McDonough or Deb Grey -- or Belinda Stronach -- are some sort of hothouse flowers, who can be trusted to battle terrorists and murderers but swoon at a little rough language. POSTSCRIPT: The more I think about this, the more bizarre it seems. Can the Opposition really be demanding Spector be dismissed from his job, that he be barred from all future government employment, over a word women wear on t-shirts? Is this where this sudden outbreak of linguistic puritanism is taking us? Fines in Parliament, and blacklists everywhere else? One final question: if "bitch" -- a word that has appeared 103 times this year in the National Post alone -- is so unmentionable, what about "son of a bitch"?