The argument goes like this: Although Batman: Arkham City is a game featuring massive violence and other dark themes, the frequent employment of the word “bitch” by male characters to describe female characters is one colorful epithet too far. I.e.: Just because we’re playing rough doesn’t mean we have to be sexist, too.

Kotaku’s Kirk Hamilton phrases the argument best:

[S]omething about the constant “Bitch” yelling turns me off more than Sexy Catwoman or Sexy Talia Al-Ghul. It’s said with such anger, and often screamed as an impotent threat just before Catwoman knocks a dude out. It comes off like the writers are either misjudging their audience, or possibly aren’t comfortable portraying fearsome female characters without having the male characters attempt to belittle them with the world’s most famous gendered insult.

To which I must reply: Fuck that. She was asking for it; wearing that cat suit, walking that way.

Hyperbole aside, let’s take a look at the offending word: Bitch. The word derives from the Old English “bicce” meaning “female of the dog,” and it retains that definition in modern usage, although it is not often employed that way.

More commonly the word bitch is used in modern English as an insult to either women or men. To call a man a bitch is to suggest he is subservient to another person (usually his girlfriend or wife). To call a woman a bitch is to suggest that she is strong-willed or insulting. Interestingly, the insult can be unisex as well, implying that a man or woman complains too much or, oddly, sits in the middle seat of a car.

In terms of gender-specific usage of the word bitch as an insult, women come first, chronologically. The use of the word bitch as an insult against women dates back to approximately 1400 AD. Meaning that when Columbus sailed the ocean blue, he or his sailors may have commented on the angry bitches they found in the New World. As an insult against men, the word fell into common usage about a century later, meaning Michelangelo might have been called a bitch for sucking up to the Medicis. No one knows for sure when it became bitch-worthy to sit in the middle seat of a car. One must assume this began no earlier than the 20th Century.

So there’s your history lesson. Now it’s not exactly a secret that women have had it rough for the past several million years, but as far as use of the word “bitch” as an insult to women goes, I think it’s safe to say that it’s not a new phenomenon. What’s interesting about its use, however, is not how frequently it’s used, but toward whom.

Urban Dictionary lists several definitions of the word bitch, but this one is the most intriguing:

A woman that doesn’t give a flying f*ck anymore and that can and will be cruel to men.

This suggests that’s it not a random insult used indiscriminately, but rather an epithet employed against specific women behaving in a specific way: Aggressively.

Contrast this to the definition UD lists for the use of the word as an insult to men:

An exceedingly whipped guy who does/wears/thinks/says whatever his girlfriend tells him to.

This suggests the insult takes a radical shift in tone as it shifts genders, describing a man who is acting submissively.

And then there’s this alternate definition:

A woman who would say things that if she were a man, she would be confronted or assaulted. (using her position as a woman as a shield)

And here we get to the crux of the overt gender assualt inherent in the use of the word bitch. It is employed by men against women at whom they would throw a punch were the woman not a woman. It is a recognition by that man (rightly or wrongly) that men should not employ violence against women no matter how much she may piss him off. This is absolutely sexist, to be sure, but in more ways than one.

For an aggressive man to hurl an epithet (instead of throwing a punch) at a woman whose only crime is to act like an aggressive man is to suggest that A) women should not act like men, and B) women do not deserve to be treated like men. It is overtly as well as subtextually demeaning. It implies that aggression and strength are the sole dominions of the male members of the species and that women are as unfit to display these characteristics as they are to have aggression and strength employed against them. It is a tacit admission that women are not considered equal and are not to be permitted to compete with men on male terms. It is a subtle subjugation that allows a man to persist in perceiving woman as weaker than and subservient to men without allowing women the opportunity to prove that perception wrong. Further, it suggests that the man in question is entitled to set the rules for this interaction.

If the argument against the use of the word bitch in Batman: Arkham City is that the word is over-used and inaccurate, then the argument is flawed. As employed by male characters who are hardened criminals and inveterate thugs against a woman who is acting aggressively toward them, it is perhaps the most perfect embodiment of true language possible. It is exactly what these men would say to this woman in that situation. It may not be good writing in terms of creating a dialogue tree that will not distract from enjoyment of the game as a whole, but it is not bad writing in the sense that it is employing language that is entirely appropriate to the situation and the characters being presented.

If the argument is that the frequent use of the word bitch does not fit the overall tone of the creative work, then that’s harder to argue against, but not impossible. We are, after all, talking about a videogame in which the player, as Batman, frequently dislocates, chokes, pummels, stomps, electrocutes, interrogates and beats the living crap out of hundreds of men. It is a game in which people are poisoned, hit with hammers and dangled over pits of acid. A game in which every female character is presented as a lascivious sex object (and relishes the role) and every male character is presented as aggressive, dominant and capable of superhuman menace – even the hero. Batman may be a comic book hero presented, in some forms, to children, but this game is not a child’s game, and in this context, the use of a 600 year old word that appears on prime time television is entirely fair.

Finally, if the argument is that the use of the word bitch is sexist, then the argument is correct, but irrelevant. It is quite right – supremely correct, even – to consider the use of the word bitch to be sexist. It is, in fact, the most sexist of all sexist insults. But it is overt sexism, at its core, and its employment in this game is not a subtextual assault against the sanctity of the female race or a subtle assertion that women are inferior to men, or should not play this game.

The word bitch, as employed in Batman: Arkham City by male characters against the strong, aggressive female characters who are kicking those men’s asses, is a candid acknowledgement that these men are classless thugs who are weaker than the women they would subjugate. It is a recognition that might does not make right or that testosterone does not equal triumph. The fact that these female characters are called “bitch” and yet keep on fighting is a celebration of the determination of strong, capable women, and their ability to overcome traditional gender roles and male oppression. It is not an insult, it is a compliment.

The game is not saying “these women are bitches.” The game is saying “these women are badass, ” and “the men calling them bitches are thugs.”

There is a growing trend toward voluntary self-emasculation among men in modern geek culture and this manufactured controversy is but one symptom. I would argue that the suggestion that geek women can’t stand up for their own gender rights and need well-meaning but misled geek men to fight their etymological battles for them is a less obvious but more insidious form of sexism. It suggests that in order for women to feel comfortable, men must first pave the way for their arrival. That women can not, or will not, independently either adjust to or rally against the slings and arrows the gaming world may throw at them. It presupposes that women are not native to our culture and must be protected from it. It is, in other words, merely an extension of the Victorian-esque form of sexism employed by supposed gentlemen in the alleged pursuit of sheltering the “fairer sex.”

This argument against the use of the word bitch in Batman: Arkham Asylum, in other words, is a sexist insult, not an argument against sexism insults. The existence of videogame dialogue in which a videogame character calls another videogame character a “bitch” is not demeaning to women. The argument that this is somehow a crisis of culture that a man must rally against on behalf of all women, however, is.

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I set myself a goal this week of writing at least one saleable article per day, writing one blog post per day, pitching at least one article per day and doing one WILDCARD (to be defined). I honestly can’t tell if this is an aggressive goal or taking it easy, but I need to start somewhere.

I’m used to having a LOT more on my plate than I do now and the lack of adrenaline is starting to make me go bonkers. I figure, worst case, I’ll miss the mark some day and get to feel bad at myself and that that then would provide motivation for doing better the next day. And then maybe I’ll over-achieve and get to feel good about myself.

Yes. I know. I know.

Listen, when you’re working with steel, your leverage is strength. Apply enough of it to the problem and the solution will present itself. When you’re working with the mind, the leverage is psychology and the same rule applies.

Anyone who has written for a living will eventually face the miserable question “Where do your ideas come from?” This question is unanswerable because ideas come from the same place as everything else that you are, will be and will ever want to be, which is to say “everywhere and nowhere.” May as well ask where the urge to ask that question came from, or the decision to wear that horrible pair of shoes (I’m sorry, but they are horrible).

Where do my ideas come from? They come from the dark recesses of my mind. The motivation to write comes from the place of insecurity that also motivates me to mow the lawn. My ideas come from the same source of strength that enervates me to keep trying to better myself in the face of failure and disappointment. They come from the same place as my desires, my passions, my loves, hates, wishes, dreams, hopes, fantasies, frustrations and angry, angry thoughts. They come from me, yet I can’t touch them or feel them or build them out of clever combinations of everyday household objects and chewing gum. They have to be mentally manhandled and psychically cajoled. They have to be sown and tended and harvested in ways that even I do not fully understand, but the process begins with opening the door to the mind and placing a piece of metaphorical cheese in just the right spot, then waiting. Meanwhile, one constructs the maze.

Or at least that’s how it works for me. Your mileage may vary.

So it’s Tuesday and how are we doing? Well, you’re reading the blog post. Congratulations! The saleable piece of writing is still a no-show, but I’ve pitched an article and today’s WILDCARD is also taken care of: I applied for a handful of jobs that looked good. I’m also going to be editing a podcast later today. So, all-in-all, I’m feeling like I’m on-target.

And so, after a few more bits of housekeeping, perhaps another attempt at writing something I can sell and a short run on the treadmill, I’m going to play a fuck ton of Batman: Arkham City. Because as much as the idea garden needs tending, Daddy needs his candy.

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