findrew Marchand
OP Contributor

When you listen to Bitch and Animal, you might
feel that their music is beyond your average
definition. Asked how they describe it, Bitch
responded, “I would call it tribal-titty-noedown-
funk-poetry with a political wedge and a baseline
edge.’

The irony of Bitch and Animal is that when you
watch them on stage, you become keenly aware
of their “political wedge” while it’s obvious that all
they're doing is being who they are. You get the
feeling that their politics stem from the desire to
be wholly free of society’s inhibitions—inhibitions
concerning language, apparel, sexuality and
gender.

“Pretty much anything anyone does is political,”
Bitch said, “like the clothes they wear and what
they talk about. But a lot of what we do is about
reclaiming words. Women for years and years
have been called a bitch, and it’s usually been
used to humiliate them for speaking their minds.
And that’s something we're really into: —endowing
women and men with power to be who they are
and not be ashamed of it. | feel like young girls are
constantly being stifled and being told that they’re
too big. With [our song] ‘The Pussy Manifesto’, it’s
all about using pussy as a compliment instead of

© "ither press. >>> CULTURE

Bitch and Animal:
Terms of Endearment

 

Bitch and Animal in action

using it to mean something weak. And that’s in a
nutshell what our culture does to people’s sexual-
ity and their own forms of expression. It seems like
it gets stifled most of the time.”

“And for me,” added Animal, “it’s about creating
a space where people feel they can express them-
selves sexually, through their gender or whatever.
[Take our song] ‘Best Cock on the Block’. You see
Will Smith driving in his car singing about his dick.
There are always guys with their booty dancers,
but there’s never any girls singing about that. [Our
song] is kind of a spoof on that,’ she smiled
and added, “but it’s also real because | have a dick
too.” ;

The Interview:

The Pussy Manifesto, what’s that about?

Bitch: It’s a song. It’s a manifesto, and there’s
eight points to it. When we perform it, we go
through every eight. ...Basically we say, ‘Manifest
this mother fucker number one, and then we go
through it: two, number three, number four. And we
use the word ‘pussy’ as a compliment, like ‘Pussy
hat you got on’

Animal: And we also say ‘eggs’ instead of ‘balls’
for courage. We say, ‘It took total eggs to do that;
or whatever.

Bitch: And ‘mother fucker is another thing you
hear being used all around the world as an insult.

But why is that an insult. | mean, besides fags,
who doesn’t like to fuck women? (laughs)

Where did your names come from?

Animal: It was kind of like a Newton’s apple kind
of thing. It just hit me over the head. I’ve been
asked this question before so I’ve had time to think
about it. For me the archetypes of bitch and animal
show, like we said before, that women are not
looked up upon. So it takes the power out of the
insult. That’s the traditional way that oppressed
people have reclaimed words. ‘We’re standing up
and saying, We're a bitch and an animal and that’s
who we are. Let your bitch and your animal come
out. It wasn’t planned. Bitch and Animal just hit
me. Except that our parents named us that when
we were born (laughs). We just decided to keep it.

Bitch: There’s a very limited source of where we
get our information, like from the television and all
of that. | don’t think that everybody wants people
to be weak. | think that there are a few people who
make a lot of impression on the world through the
form of TV. When people see our show, | think they
feel inspired by it because there’s not a sense of
inhibition about who we are and that inspires that
in other people. Any time someone gives me a
compliment | say, ‘It takes one to know one. It’s not
just about us; it’s about everyone. It’s what's in the
air.

Animal: | do have a political campaign that would
be good to print. It’s coming up with new words for
sexual orientation. Whether you’re a man or a
women, whatever your gender is, if you sleep with
only women you’re a shemosexual, if you sleep
with only men you’re a hemosexual, and if you
sleep with both you’re mosexual. That’s my sexual
revolution that we're trying to spread.

You guys are from New York. What role does
New York play in your music?

Bitch: Animal’s from there, and I’m a mut, I’m
sort of from all over. But we moved there together
after we started Bitch and Animal. We came back
to our turf. We wrote a lot songs there. New York
inspires me; it’s why | live there. | just love it there.

Animal: For me it’s simple. I’m from there, and
there’s an energy there that | relate to. So [New
York] is definitely a part of [our music].

Bitch: | just wanted to say something else about
our politics. We were hanging out with a couple
little girls a couple of weeks ago. | mentioned that
women get paid something like 70 per cent of

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