"Did you just call me a bitch? That's "Commander Bitch" to you, sir!"
Last night at the V Monologues at Toma's Restaurant here in Freetown I performed my original spoken word piece entitled Call me B.I.T.C.H.
In 1996 Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues inspired hundreds of women to share their stories of rape, incest, battery, sex slavery and female genital mutilation. A movement was born out of the untold stories of women, and in 1998, V-Day was established to end violence against women and girls worldwide. Today, V-Day is a global activist movement that has reached billions of people through performances, word of mouth, and the media.
Every year, volunteer activists from around the world produce The Vagina Monologues, the art piece from which the V-Day movement was born. V-Day also includes various activities such as films, exhibitions, workshops and fundraising activities dedicated to raising awareness about gender-based violence. All proceeds from V-Day events are donated to local charities and organizations that work to end violence against women and girls. Since 1998 The V-Day movement has supported the establishment and maintenance of safe houses and rape crisis centres, caused laws to be changed to protect women and girls, and organized large-scale benefits and campaigns to educate people and change social attitudes towards violence against women.
This is the second year Sierra Leone has participated alongside activists around the world. It debuted in Freetown last year by Femme Collective. This is a fundraising event where 90% of proceeds will be donated to the Advocaid in Sierra Leone, and 10% will be donated to the V-Day collective fund to support incarcerated women.
Call me B.I.T.C.H is dedicated for women and girls who have been called any other name than her own because she dared to question the status quo. She dared to speak. She dared to be. She dared to be human first before being female.
Yeah, I said it
Call me a bitch
Because a bitch is a term used by entitled men
To describe “difficult women”
and by difficult they mean assertive
Bitch is used to degrade and demean women for being outspoken
confident
unconventional
and forward thinking.
Women, how does this makes you feel?
I can only imagine how the venom in his words cut your crown so big
So so deep
I can imagine, 'cause I remember.
Women, when this happens, I need you to understand
You do not need a smaller crown
you need a man with bigger hands.
Hands that will embrace, empower and uplift you.
Hands that will celebrate you.
And to the men.
How does that make you feel?
Does it increase your manhood by calling me a bitch?
Because, it doesn’t decrease my womanhood or make me less than a woman by calling me a bitch
BITCH...
BITCH...
BITCH.
No matter how many times you say it...it just doesn’t faze me.
Don’t allow it to be used as a weapon for your destruction
because you’re better than that
you’re stronger than that.
But for the men out there who use BITCH to bring down women
What do those letters stand for you?
B - broad, bimbo, belligerent?
I - intrusive?
T - thot?
C - cunt, control freak?
H - hoe, hag?
Ladies, let’s reinvent the word
Take back the pain and hurt from it.
Let's reclaim and rejoice in it!
It has been done with cunt
Let’s do it with BITCH
BITCH
Best
Individual
That
Can’t Be
Handled
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes
I leave behind the trail of misogynistic tongues and sexist lip lashes
Call me BITCH
Bitch