Due to the personal acceptance of my own demanding nature I have concluded that I no longer accept the term ‘bitch’ as an insult. In fact it has taken on an altogether more attractive quality, one of enigmatic delight and authority. Such a name has my perspective all skewed and re-arranged to allow downright rude behaviour a customary attachment to my normal day to day routine. To be frank the callousness is sexy and alluring. To some they may seem cold yet to me there’s nothing better than the harsh yet brilliantly timed words of a nasty bitch. Observe the chant of women sticking together quieten and proclaim the sweetly seductive notes of the bitch do overtake.

While I swoop solo in my hunt to devour anything and everything that irritates I still reference those that inspire my inner bitch. A set of females that have refined the art so beautifully that they may even transcend the simple heights of ‘bitch’, in fact I’d both happily and suitably crown each one of these females- a Super Bitch. One particularly close to my heart is Polanski’s Teresa in the sixties short film Cul-De-Sac. Reflect now on Teresa, a brilliantly powerful nymphomaniac with cascading blonde locks of hair and impeccable wit . A girl who gets off scot free when she hurls a pot of freshly made coffee out of the window because the adoration of the men surrounding her restrain any attempt to conflict. One who juggles the task of being both a wife to one man and a lover to many.

She is not alone a bitch because she is not sensitive, but because she is able to manipulate the men around her into believing she is for her own gain. This tactic is adopted several times throughout the film and I believe it to be intrinsic to what sets Teresa apart from other mere bitches. Teresa evidently influences her husband George with her calculated childlike charm. The film sees George, dress up as a woman, dig a stranger’s grave and in the climax to the entire film murder another man, all to impress Teresa, all to meet her unrealistic demands. One might argue that George takes a certain pleasure in the control she gives, that certain men in life are just looking for a SuperBitch. I should mention here that it is Dickie the representation of machismo that displays evidence of a conversion to liking a woman that he proclaims early on he just won’t take to :‘I don’t dig chicks like you’. Maybe you Dickies out there think you are able to resist the sting of the SuperBitch, but I’d watch your backs. Here’s a hint, what woos him over I believe, is Teresa’s ability to compete with the men around her.

She artfully humiliates George the submissive type, endlessly throughout the duration of the film but any bitch can do that. However, in true SuperBitch style she is able to turn the head of a gangster on the run, by her tour de force performance when she climbs out of her bedroom window (Dickie locks her in) and runs into the garden to help him with his manly duties. She creeps back into the house, only to return with her homemade vodka and two glasses. It’s a behaviour that appeals to Dickie, Teresa is able to be one of the men, without actually being a man. She injects surprise, mystery and playfulness into all that she does, she is unable to be controlled yet can wear a mask of gentleness . A SuperBitch does not operate merely by action, (a 40 stone woman would have greater difficulty in achieving reign over several men at a time, unless of course she sits on them); but perhaps by the most initial importance- her looks. In fact the SuperBitch’s appearance is absolutely vital to the whole ensemble.

Francoise Dorleac sister to Catherine Deneuve was cast to play the role of Teresa. With her deep menacing eyes, powerful lips and knock-out figure it is not true to say that she has the gentle features of a Natalie Portman or the warmth of a Jennifer Connelly; we must understand that she is a different breed entirely. It’s no wonder you ask any female what they think of Francoise Dorleac and they immediately retort ‘lucky bitch’. It is the looks of the SuperBitch which undoubtedly continue to drive the men around them wild, but it is also the willingness of the SuperBitch to exhibit their looks. Topless countless times throughout Cul-De-Sac Teresa shows no sign of inhibition. And the men do delight!

Polanski’s piece of art work is simply that of a film. Perhaps Teresa is an exaggerated form of the dominate female, created to explore ideas of gender control. Polanski had suffered recent heartbreak and the film has been suggested to be a type of revenge. I suggest he may have felt he was insulting the superficiality of the SuperBitch.
Polanski nearly cast himself to play George after suffering a recent heartbreak, this sheds light on a completely different aspect. George is eventually driven insane by Teresa and when drunk confesses that he is simply ‘mad for her’. Polanski may recognise the cruelty of such women’s ways but he does not deny the truth that he has fallen for them. George is left cuddling his knees is in the middle of the tide, sat upon a rock sqwarking the name ‘Agnes, Agnes, Agnes!’- one can only assume the SuperBitch of a previous time.

However, while I continue to draw such inspiration from women such as Teresa and my list is truly endless of all the others that fill me with wonder and drive I’d like to confess that I really have no desire to cause such the destruction of a SuperBitch.
I like that I am not a push-over, that I am able to dent the enthusiasm of over-zealous little-girl-student-types and could deliver your party an uninvited awkward silence any day of the year. But I’m happier to observe and take light-heartedly the behaviour of the SuperBitch, rather than cause a pre-meditated insanity in the malekind.
For now at least, I’ll stick to my simple, hard-ass approach to life and continue to take the insult turned compliment ‘bitch’ in my aggressive stride.

I leave you with the lyrics of my lycra wearing Labyrinth friend David Bowie taken from his song ‘Queen Bitch’:

She's an old-time ambassador/Of sweet talking, night walking games/And she's known in the darkest clubs/For pushing ahead of the dames/If she says she can do it/Then she can do it,she don't make false claims/But she's a Queen,and such are queens/That your laughter is sucked in their brains/Now she's leading him on/And she'll lay him right down/But it could have been me/Yes, it could have been me

- Plain