I Am Not Your B*%ch!

The Love and Hip Hop Atlanta reunion was pretty much about nothing.  No new revelations and definitely no healing or resolutions for the characters.  However, the thing that kept agitating the mess out of me was a stage full of women calling one another bitches and even calling themselves bitches.  When did the word bitch become okay?  When did it become flattering?  When did it replace the words independent, smart, aggressive, opinionated and focused?  Do we realize how foolish we look as women to men when we do not even blink at being called a bitch?

Now I know there is this whole belief that words only have power if you give them power and that if we claim the word and run with it it no longer holds power over us. Um, no --- we have tried this for decades with the "N" word and I am sorry it has not taken away the sting, the meaning or the plain ignorant way we as black people look using it casually with one another.  Words have power and words have meaning and you cannot dumb something down that at its core is meant to make you feel less than.

So no thanks to the trend of women calling each other bitches in a spiteful way, loving way or in a playful way --- I am taking a pass on that one.  That is not a word that places a woman in a positive light and I am not giving anyone permission to feel that it is a word that you can easily apply to me.  You will just have to step your dictionary/ thesaurus game up!

LaDawn Black is a relationship expert, author and media personality. Cocoa Mommalicious is her forum for sharing tales from the mommy lines, love lines and life lines. For more information visit www.ladawnblack.com .