BITCH

One of Beverly Gross' main point in her piece, Bitch, is that this label on women is a way of keeping women "in their place."  The label solidifies the idea that men are dominant and women are submissive.  She states definitions of the word from many different dictionaries and in almost all of the definitions, it is referring to a female who is bossy, selfish, or cruel.  She says that men feel threatened by women who are successful and that they use it to keep their power over women.  The label is a demeaning term that is incredibly offensive to women in any circumstances.
I believe that this piece is very outdated.  Today, many women embrace being a bitch and even call themselves one, proudly.  Being a bitch to a woman means that they are successful and powerful and don't let anything stand in their way. As in, "Hell yeah! I'm one powerful bitch!"  Personally, I do not think that the term is used by men to show that they are more powerful.  I hear men being called bitches or referred to as bitchy just as often as i hear it about women.  I think that because women use it proudly, it has turned the word around completely and the word has lost it's hurtful meaning, which Gross does refer to with the example of Madonna at the end of her piece.  It is definitely still used in a negative way, but it is used in a positive or humorous way much more often in my generation and age group.  But, in reviewing this article as a piece of writing, I thought it was very effective to use all of the definitions throughout the piece to truly get her point across. Her piece would have been more convincing if I were from an older generation I believe.