I called my mom a “bitch” once. She spun and dropped as if to shoulder my head against the stove.
“Don’t ever call a woman that,” she warned, her finger in my face. “It means you hate women. Only idiots use that word.”
I panicked and thought Wait, I don’t hate women!
Her signature door-slammer, “idiot,” was always effective too. As in, “If you stick a needle in your arm – you’re an idiot.”
And my mom’s lesson had legs: I soon learned it also applied to the other words boys around me were using to describe women and their parts.
Read more
