Danez Smith on the Word 'Bitch'

"It’s an insult we’ve spun into coin," Danez Smith writes. The word "bitch" is the focus of their contribution to Paris Review's "One Word" column and the central theme in their poem "my bitch!" published in the magazine's Spring 2019 issue. "The femmes and queers I have known have saved my life." 

The deep wells of care from femmes; the ingenuity of queer love. Bitch is the passport to that nation. Or maybe it’s the national anthem, how we sing our love to each other. Maybe it’s our language.

When I am bitched by the homies, there is no threat on my life. There is no car following me as I hightail it home, bitch flung out the window, faggot close behind. There is no accusation like back in high school when bitch was a charge made by a fellow boy who could smell the girl in you, or a boy who loved/hated your girl-body or a boy whose only tongue was violence. I used to be scared of coming off bitch-made. You know: scary, sissy, punk, femme. All those words that I now wear as crowns lurked in the corners of boys’ mouths. I was terrified, trying to exact my walk and perfect a boy-tongue, scared someone would see through my act and spot the bitch in me.

Read on at Paris Review.