{"id":291,"date":"2014-05-06T14:44:25","date_gmt":"2014-05-06T14:44:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/?p=291"},"modified":"2019-10-07T14:15:54","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T19:15:54","slug":"on-being-basic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/2014\/05\/06\/on-being-basic\/","title":{"rendered":"On Being &#8220;Basic&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_2682\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2682\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2014\/05\/pumpkin-spice-latte.jpg\" data-rel=\"lightbox-image-0\" data-rl_title=\"\" data-rl_caption=\"\" title=\"\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2682\" src=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2014\/05\/pumpkin-spice-latte-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2014\/05\/pumpkin-spice-latte-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2014\/05\/pumpkin-spice-latte.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2682\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Recently, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.collegehumor.com\/video\/6960693\/how-to-tell-if-youre-a-basic-bitch\">CollegeHumor released a video clip<\/a>\u00a0illustrating the symptoms of being a basic bitch, which they define as \u201can extra regular female.\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.urbandictionary.com\/define.php?term=basic+bitch\">Other references<\/a>\u00a0to this term within popular culture are plenty: many cite\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dKY0FsUEMyw\" data-rel=\"lightbox-video-0\">loanthony\u2019s youtube video<\/a>\u00a0for popularizing the whispered insult \u201cyou\u2019re basic,\u201d and additional uses throughout the past <a href=\"http:\/\/nymag.com\/thecut\/2014\/04\/basic-bitch-who-is-she.html\">several years<\/a>.\u00a0How can we sociologically understand this phenomenon? Is it okay for the term bitches to be used casually within popular culture? What\u2019s the harm?<\/p>\n<h5>A term derogatory to all women can be difficult to \u201creclaim\u201d or use ironically. Instead, when women use &#8220;bitch&#8221; to refer to themselves or their friends (as in, \u201cwhat\u2019s up my bitches\u201d) they are experiencing false power. They may feel included by using popular terminology, but they\u2019re actually reinforcing gender essentialism and inequality by doing so.<\/h5>\n<div title=\"Page 1\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/sociology.unc.edu\/people\/faculty\/sherryl-kleinman\">Sherryl Kleinman<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jmu.edu\/socanth\/sociology\/ezzellmb.shtml\">Matthew B. Ezzell<\/a> and A. Corey Frost. 2009. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jmu.edu\/socanth\/sociology\/wm_library\/ Ezzell.Reclaiming_Critical_Analysis.pdf\">Reclaiming Critical Analysis: The Social Harms of \u201cBitch.\u201d<\/a> <em>Sociological Analysis<\/em> 3(1): 47-68.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5>Categorizing women as different forms of bitches\u2014the bad bitch, dope bitch or boss bitch\u2014creates a typography of all women as bitches, just different kinds. Symbolic interactionists note that the language and phrasing that we use to describe things can dramatically change our ways interacting with them.<\/h5>\n<p>For example, scientists working on nuclear weapons use benign terminology\u2014the \u201cexchange\u201d of warheads with enemy countries or the \u201cfootprint\u201d for an area of the &#8220;delivered&#8221; explosion\u2014which allows them to distance themselves from the reality of their work. Using terms like basic bitch to describe a regular woman may allow us to do the same.<\/p>\n<div title=\"Page 1\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<div>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.genderandsecurity.org\/who-we-are\/staff\/carol-cohn\">Carol Cohn<\/a>. 1987. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.genderandsecurity.org\/sites\/default\/files\/carol_cohn_sex_and_death_in_the_world_of_rational_defense_intellectuals.pdf\">Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals.<\/a>\u201d <em>Signs<\/em>\u00a012: 687-720.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div title=\"Page 1\">\n<h5>However, not all sociological analyses of language find that contemporary use of terminology previously viewed as derogatory is problematic.<\/h5>\n<p>Within social movements, collective identities such as \u201cqueer\u201d can be seen as functional in drawing a variety of communities together and uniting around a cause.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.usfca.edu\/facultydetails.aspx?id=4294969632\">Joshua Gamson<\/a>. 1995. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.usfca.edu\/uploadedFiles\/Destinations\/College_of_Arts_and_Sciences\/Undergraduate_Programs\/Sociology\/docs\/IDMovements_Gamson.pdf\">Must Identity Movement Self-Destruct? A Queer Dilemma.<\/a>\u201d <em>Social Problems<\/em> 42(3): 390-407.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/sbs.mnsu.edu\/soccorr\/faculty\/\">Emily M. Boyd<\/a> is an Associate Professor in the Sociology and Corrections department at Minnesota State University-Mankato. She studies gender, social interaction and popular culture.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\" async=\"\"><\/script><!-- TSP testing --> <ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 234px; height: 60px;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-4670099812817063\" data-ad-slot=\"1069646635\"><\/ins><script>\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<br \/>\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recently, CollegeHumor released a video clip\u00a0illustrating the symptoms of being a basic bitch, which they define as \u201can extra regular female.\u201d Other references\u00a0to this term within popular culture are plenty: many cite\u00a0loanthony\u2019s youtube video\u00a0for popularizing the whispered insult \u201cyou\u2019re basic,\u201d and additional uses throughout the past several years.\u00a0How can we sociologically understand this phenomenon? Is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1893,"featured_media":556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,55],"tags":[38543,38545],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-gender","tag-culture","tag-gender"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/files\/2014\/05\/9353764323_291d7f505b_z.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1893"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2684,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/2684"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/trot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}