Bad bitch
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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]
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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".[8]
See also
References
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