Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have let my 5-year-old listen to Lizzo. Or Madonna. But please, she’s my child so she has to listen to Madonna.
I LOVE “Truth Hurts,” and honestly think the song has a great message of female empowerment. And anyone who knows me even a little knows about the pivotal role Madonna plays in my life. So how can I help it if Eva’s favorite track from Madame X is “B**** I’m Loca”? I have a very liberal attitude about language and always have. Bad words to me are modes of expression. I’m much more strict about violence or news of the latest shooting that takes place in our country – I block these things completely in our household. I haven’t worried so much about blocking bad words. I’ve taken an enlightened approach, bringing it to Eva’s awareness that these songs aren’t “kid-friendly” for summer camp but in our house, we can listen to them. It’s just the b-word, right? I like to think about the feminist aspects of these artists reclaiming the word, and how that will help empower Eva in our patriarchal society.
Flash forward to last night when I asked Eva to clean up her toys, and she smiled, looking straight at me as she delivered the words with an amused expression on her face, “Mommy, you’re a bad b****.” Clearly I am an idiot. For the record, I then had a talk with her about how Mommy made a mistake letting her hear bad language and if she wants to use those words (the cat is out of the bag after all) she can go into the bathroom and close the door. Alas, the next 20 minutes was spent with Eva making a “bad b**** smoothie” in the bathroom for her babydoll. Lesson learned.
Infinity Prose 