Bad bitch

For the French Montana song, see Bad Bitch.

A bad bitch is a strong, sexualized, self-reliant and materialistic woman.

In hip hop culture, the term bitch may "signify a hardcore woman who makes money and proudly flaunts her sexual libido and sexuality" and a woman who can hold her own with rap's gangsta thugs.[1]

Characters such as those portrayed by Pam Grier in 1970s blaxploitation films were created in axiological opposition to male heroes of the era and provided a template for a "Black bitch". That persona was later reappropriated in hip hop music as the bad bitch. Grierian imagery and narratives feature prominently in the works of rappers such as Foxy Brown.[2] Brown, along with artists Lil' Kim and Da Brat, furthered the bad bitch aesthetic through their videos and music. While certain portrayals of the bad bitch are empowering, they often reinscribe sex and materialism as commodity exchange, serving up Black women's bodies as purchasable goods before the male gaze.[3]

In Sister Souljah's 1999 novel The Coldest Winter Ever, Winter's mother is a self-proclaimed "bad bitch".[4] In her book Black Sexual Politics, Patricia Hill Collins writes that she regards Souljah's depiction of a bad bitch as one of the best descriptions.[5]

“ Now a bad bitch is a woman who handles her business without making it seem like business. Only dumb girls let love get them delirious to the point where they let things that really count go undone. For example, you see a good-looking nigga walking down the avenue, you get excited. You wet just thinking about him. You step to him, size him up, and you think, Looks good. You slide you eyes down to his zipper, check for the print. Inside you scream, Yes, it's all there! But then you realize he's not wearing a watch, ain't carrying no car keys, no jewels, and he's sporting last month's sneakers. He's broke as hell. ”
— Winter Santiago, The Coldest Winter Ever[6]

Zora Neale Hurston's character Janie from Their Eyes Were Watching God has been described as meeting the modern definition of bad bitch.[7] The term is examined in hip hop songs such as Lupe Fiasco's "Bitch Bad", French Montana's "Bad Bitch".[8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Dunn, Stephane (2008). Baad Bitches and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. pp. 26–27. ISBN 0-252-09104-3.
  2. ↑ Boone, William Edward (2008). "New(er) Hip Hop Iconography and Archetypes". The Beautiful Struggle: An Analysis of Hip Hop Icons, Archetypes, and Aesthetics. ProQuest. pp. 275–276. ISBN 0-549-70596-1.
  3. ↑ Smith-Shomade, Beretta E. (2002). Shaded Lives: African-American Women and Television. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. pp. 93–96, 181. ISBN 0-8135-3105-5.
  4. ↑ Dunn, Stephane (2012). "The New Black Cultural Studies: Hip Hop Ghetto Lit, Feminism, Afro-Womanism, and Black Love in The Coldest Winter Ever". Fire!!!. 1 (1): 83–99. doi:10.5323/fire.1.1.0083. JSTOR 10.5323/fire.1.1.0083.
  5. ↑ Hill Collins, Patricia (2004). Black Sexual Politics: African Americans, Gender, and the New Racism. Routledge. ISBN 1-135-95537-9.
  6. ↑ Souljah, Sister (2010). The Coldest Winter Ever. [S.l.]: Washington Square Press. ISBN 1-4391-1997-X.
  7. ↑ Randle, Kemeshia (2013). "Gang Wars: The Academy versus the Streets". Street Lit: Representing the Urban Landscape. Scarecrow Press. p. 12. ISBN 0-8108-9263-4.
  8. ↑ Trier-Bieniek, Adrienne; Pullum, Amanda (2014). "From Lady Gaga to Consciousness Rap: The Impact of Music on Gender and Social Activism". Gender & Pop Culture: A Text-Reader. Rotterdam: SensePublishers. p. 92. ISBN 9462095752.
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