i am a great american bitch
the rumors are true, i am a rather difficult woman
at 16, i could barely read through elizabeth wurtzel’s bitch: in praise of difficult women. now, in my early twenties, wurtzel’s words ring true:
“…All this I'm really a lady, I'm really a nice girl crap- who needs it? It really is nothing more than surrender.
I don't think it's really about being bitchy or demanding or cold or calculating: those characteristics, after all, can be attached to most women with even the paltriest of evidence. I think, quite frankly, that the world simply does not care for the complicated girls, the ones who seem too dark, too deep, too vibrant, too opinionated...”
it’s a canon moment in every girl’s life when she realizes the world does not care for her complexity, just her complacency. thank god our foremothers did not accept the status quo.
tracing our matrilineal march for the right to vote, broadway actress shaina taub scripted suffs. the musical is not about bitches. but it is about women who refused to be regulated to second class citizenship within the united states on the basis of their sex. in protesting for their right to vote, many were heckled and verbally harassed. “bitch” was a frequent descriptor used, thus the musical had a tongue-in-check number about each one of these women being a GAB (great american bitch).
despite never having participated in a protest, i identify as a great american bitch. why? i echo wurtzel’s sentiment: surrender is not an option. not in a world that does not value pride in a woman. nor a woman with an opinion. or even one who seeks to make her own decisions, specifically regarding her own body.
although the world may not value these attributes in women, i do. in fact, my greatest inspirations in this life are women who are accomplished, fabulous, independent women. the intrigue of these women comes through in the soft aura that surrounds them; that pure elegance of freedom. the kind that’s hard-earned.
i am much more into slow productivity these days as opposed to the lean-in-burnout-culture of the girlbosses that came before me, but as a woman, i believe our responsibility to be two-fold. first, we must do the work of discovering who we are and then we must do something with this information. big or small, effort must be expensed towards the act of becoming. this is the only way we win. both as a collective and a singular unit.
so, go on, don’t be afraid to be a great american bitch.
sweet dreams,
a diouana woman