For a long time, every
Friday, my friend Sarah would write this in the tab book at the pub.
I would always giggle and love that she did that. She would often
walk into the room and ask 'What up Bitches?' When Sarah left and
the staff were boys, they couldn't figure out who was adding Bitches
after Friday in the book. When the did figure it out, they didn't
get it. You see very slowly women are reclaiming the word bitch.
Its a term of endearment, hardly ever an insult these days. Or maybe
that is just me. I have found much worse/unusual words to insult
people with these days. Bitch seems old hand and more embraced these
days.
Recently I ventured to
Greece, with the bitches. I will have to write a whole blog about
how amazing Greece is. The day that we were flying out and meeting
our friend Tahnee, in Athens, she messaged, saying that she would be
waiting for us at the airport with a sign that said 'Hey Bitches'.
And that is how the girls trip continued. My birthday postcard was
signed The Bitches, from Caz, Alex and Tahnee. That night we danced
to Will I Am's, Scream and Shout and took great pleasure in singing
along to the part where you are rocking with Britney Bitch. We
farewelled each other at the airport with see you later bitches.
My bitches have left me
now, although I am sure I will find some more, but they might not
appreciate being called bitches. I am not sure that everyone woman I
know has embraced this word as readily as I and a select group of my
friends have. In fact I know that they haven't. If I spoke that way
to some of my friends back home they would be surprised, and
horrified.
This is what makes
language funny and interesting – what offends one person, rolls
of another's back. To me, language is evolving at an alarming rate.
Text speak is coming into play a lot more. I am routinely told off
by Caroline for my abbreviations, both when I speak and when I text
her. Words such as Totes Amaze (Totally Amazing) or even worse
Amazeballs. Or my new fav (favourite) Speny – when something is
expensive. I can understand her point of view, I really can, but I
don't speak as fast as she does, so I have to abbreviate to keep up!
With the event of more communication in print rather than voice,
there is so much room for interpretation. Emails and texts can be
misconstrued. 1001 meanings can be read into a sentence, that can be
a throw away to the person who wrote it. Or the lack of an email or
text can be read into as well. We can spend hours analysing what
someone meant by that text or lack of text. (I will often dash off a
text on the bus, and not have a chance to read or reply to the reply
for a couple of hours, when I will pick up the conversation again. I
am getting very rubbish at emailing and texting, life is getting
really rather busy at the moment. Or having time to write this blog
really!) It was a simpler time when you just picked up the phone and
heard the persons voice and the intonations in it. For example –
Bitch said with venom is a clear insult. Where as, bitch said in a
lighthearted, breezy way, is not offensive at all.
There is still an
obvious pleasure when someone takes the time to send you a written
letter or a postcard or just a long email. They have taken time to
write to you, not just a few lines dashed off when they have a spare
5 minutes. I love sending postcards when I am traveling. I think of
my not so wee nephew receiving them, getting excited about the mail,
reading it, and maybe some day wanting to travel to the far off
places that I have been. In the same way that I send them to my
friends kids, in the hopes that when I return home that they will
have some idea as to who I am and where I have been in the world. I
still laugh at one postcard from Turkey arriving six months after I
sent it. I like to think that it was delivered by a man in a fez,
who had been going to extreme lengths to get it to them. I see him
rowing, biking, flying, running to get it in their letter box. I am
sure that there is a much more boring explanation then that, but mine
is more fun.
Its clear that I enjoy
language, I like writing, playing with words, and making them sound
poetic and flowy, or juxtaposed and interesting. I guess that having
a librarian for a mother, I appreciated reading and writing at an
early age. I am taken with the classics, Shakespeare and I are old
friends, I love the way his sonnets read and the way that he uses
language. I love poetry and used to write a lot of awful, maudlin
poems when I was growing up. When the mood takes me I will still
write, but they tend to be more personal than my other writing. They
are where I play with the way words sound, match and really say what
I am feeling. I would be mortified if anyone else read them. I love
a good novel or my absolute favourite is listening to song lyrics,
which I can pick up very quickly. I love hearing the way they can
express so much emotion in such an accessible way. I am a sucker for
a good singer/songwriter, one person and a guitar and I am hooked.
It is a source of amusement to a number of my friends, that I can
recite songs back to them after hearing them a few times. I used to
have great fun at our jam sessions, in the pub, my job was to
remember the words and direct the people who had actual talent in
singing or playing an instrument.
So there you go, that
was a rather rambly blog. It has been a great distraction from what
I am supposed to be doing – studying for my Life in the UK test, I
have already done two hours today so I am ok.
Later's Bitches, this
bitch needs to get her some sleep.
xx
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