All Hail the B**ch Archetype

We’ve all seen it: from Why Men Love Bitches, to Mean Girls (2004) to the song “Maneater.” The world and its women are captivated by the bitch archetype, and our generation is no better. She is the antithesis of what women were taught to be like. While many women only speak up in the comfort of closed doors, she confronts people in real time. What once was a fantastical pipedream, a deep, dark desire for control, is now a double-edged reality. 

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“You always like the bitches,” said my mother. We had just watched my favorite movie, Emma (2020), which is far superior to its predecessor, starring Gwyneth Paltrow. As a lifelong Jane Austen lover, my mother had always gravitated towards the meek and kind Anne in Persuasion, while I found Emma’s abrasiveness embarrassingly entertaining and almost admirable. Through conversations with my mother and friends, I have realized the generational differences in how we value women in media and, consequently, in real life. Older generations respect those who adhere to the strict criteria of womanly behavior, while young adults seem to prefer those who upset these norms – the bitches. 

A prime example of this is The Vampire Diaries, a show watched by practically every person I know (including a boy I worked with in corporate who watched it with a girl, then quickly became overinvested). The show debuted a cast with a variety of backgrounds and personalities. Two that stick out are Elena Gilbert and her doubleganger Katherine Pierce. The two serve as foils of one another, highlighting each other’s faults and successes. Elena Gilbert was the classic 2000s heroine, being kind, loyal, and considerate; Katherine Pierce, however, was objectively selfish, vengeful, and mean, constantly endangering the main cast. Yet, when stumbling upon Gen-Z fan forums, Katherine is their fan-favorite character. One fan even wrote a blog post entitled Why Women Should Look Up to Katherine Pierce. When reading through the countless fan threads, all the comments ruminate along a similar theme – Katherine defies the expectations set out for women. 

I believe many women don’t remember the first baby doll they were ever given; it’s because it seems like we are born and then handed our own baby to practice on for the next thirty or so years. From birth, women are taught to take care of others before themselves. Now, perhaps in defiance of what they were taught, contemporary women prefer to choose something new and perverse. Being a bitch, seems to be the most minor protest one can take up in the framework of the patriarchy. 

Recently, there have been similar counter-culture movements surrounding women’s behavior. Being a bitch is now an empowering trait that represents non-conformity in online feminist circles, and it's applied to every aspect of life. In Nice Girls Don’t Get Corner Offices, Dr. Louis P. Frankel lists how women’s conditioning to be kind can sabotage their careers. It’s hailed by women readers, bolstering a 4.5-star rating on Amazon. Why Men Love Bitches, by Sherry Argov, is another staple in the community that addresses nice women’s dating life. 

The world seems to tell women to be a certain way yet rewards women when they are bitches. Gender roles were never meant to capture the full spectrum of being a woman; instead, they praised select traits like being submissive, meek, and quiet in the home of one’s own. Hence, when women are up for promotions and exhibit these behaviors, the bitches beat them. 

Another cultural moment we can look at that is the fraternal twin to the bitch is the brat. If your head hasn't been under a rock, you know this summer was deemed "brat summer." The term "brat summer" originated from Charli XCX's studio album BRAT, which captured the essence of the season with its rebellious and carefree spirit. As the album gained popularity, fans and social media users embraced the concept of the term "brat" in a very feminist way to describe a mood of unapologetic wild self-expression, bold fashion, and playful rejection of conventional norms. Similar to the term bitch, brat has always been known to have a negative and insufferable connotation, and as a generation, we are flipping it to mean something else – something more positive.

As a woman, it is hard to go through life without being called a bitch. As much as we’d like to view our separation from them through a veil, when we step out of what society expects of us, we become one as well. Perhaps that is something to be celebrated. Finally, women have the power to act out in ways that were previously unheard of. That is the most indicative point of the obsession; the bitch is granted great power of choice. She is not cruel for cruelty's sake, instead she breaks the boundaries the world has to build anew.