By Thea Voutiristsas
Washington Post opinion writer, Alexandra Petri, released an article last Tuesday on Jennifer Lawrence’s recent office experience. The actress explained:
A few weeks ago at work… I spoke my mind and gave my opinion in a clear and no-[BS] way; no aggression, just blunt. The man I was working with (actually, he was working for me) said, ‘Whoa! We’re all on the same team here’ As if I was yelling at him. I was so shocked because nothing I said was personal, offensive, or to be honest, wrong. All I hear and see all day are men speaking their opinions, and I give mine in the exact same manner, and you would have thought I had said something offensive.
In response, Petri took famous sentences from history and translated into the phrasing a woman would be expected to use in a meeting to avoid being called bitchy.
“Give me liberty, or give me death.”
“Dave, if I could, I could just – I just really feel like if we had liberty it would be terrific, and the alternative would just be awful, you know? That’s just how it strikes me. I don’t know.”
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“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“I have to say – I’m sorry – I have to say this. I don’t think we should be as scared of non-fear things as maybe we are? If that makes sense? Sorry, I feel like I’m rambling.”
The apologetic, round-a-bout language here points out exactly what’s wrong with our rhetorical expectations of women in the workplace. Sure, many women have gone from secretaries to CEO’s since the fifties, but we are still expecting the same passive, submissive, indirect language of a secretary. Does direct language from a woman make people that uncomfortable? If that’s bitchy, let’s be bitchy. Let’s be bitchy until we change the standard of what bitchy is.