I cannot even speak the word cunt , so my roommates and I thought of a clever alternative when wanting to use the strength of the word without having to say it- we would say… see you next tuesday.
I know, weak, but we thought it was brilliant and sly.
I remember when I was in junior-high school, and some of the girls thought it was cool to call me “dick”. They didn’t think my calling them “cunt” in return was nearly as cool.
The weird thing about “bitch” is that it has two opposite meanings. It can mean a powerful woman: “Watch out for that bitch.” Or it can mean someone who’s weak and easily dominated: “I’ll make you my bitch.”
I’ll second what TOChocolate says.
A lot of powerful, tough girls I know refer to themselves as a Bitch. One girl I knew had a bumper sticker that said “i am THE bitch”. A female manager I worked with referred to her tough no-nonsense management style as being a bitch.
Slut, on the other hand refers to someone being easy. I know some sluts but I don’t know of any girls that like to be called that.
“Slut,” is by far the more evil word. The first girl whose breast budded in Jr. High became the school slut. The unhappy girls and made themselves sexually available to uncaring males, or girls who simply goofed up sexually, were called sluts, too. It was a vicious word used by sexually frustrated boys and girls, like chickens singling one of themselves out and pecking her to death. As Dan Savage pointed out, every non-athletic boy was labeled a “fag,” and every working-class girl a “slut.”
I’ll use “bitch” under my breath, for behavior that would evoke “prick” from a male. But only under my breath, to tell myself “hey, I don’t deserve to be treated like this,” but not out loud, since, as noted, bitches and pricks tend to be proud of their behavior (so what? the Nuremberg rallies were mightily self-impressed, too).
I have no problem with Bitch. I don’t find it demeaning to women because there are many comparable words for men which don’t apply to women. Also, I’ve been known to call certain men Bitch.
Slut on the other hand is highly offensive. It implys that if a woman sleeps around, she is dirty and bad and isn’t the kind of person you want to be around. A man who sleeps around is cool. His friends want to be like him. BUT, if a female sleeps with him, she’s a slut while he just becomes cooler.
I’ve never heard a word for a man that even came close to Slut but even if it did, would they really be offended if someone called them by that name?