By bitch bullying, girls can express all their anger, insecurities and unhappiness at growing up, but in veiled ways. When you are unhappy, you feel much better if someone else hurts too. Envy also plays its part, for girls crave the goods that could shore up their deep insecurity but which they cannot afford. And all girls, or every age, seem scared of confrontation. When someone upsets us we cannot say so to their face or clear up any misunderstanding with an apology or an acceptance that we might have been over-sensitive. Instead we harbour resentments, often for years.

Girls need to know that they are not bad when they feel all these things. They are human beings with a range of negative as well as positive emotions, just like boys. But they also need to know that there is a big difference between being a strong bitch and a weak bitch.

A strong bitch is not afraid to say what she thinks, rather than what she feels she ought to say to be liked. She is not afraid to stand up for herself and ask for that pay rise because she knows she deserves it, and she is not afraid to stand up to injustice and abuse. A weak bitch puts other women down to feel stronger. It is lack of confidence and self-worth that has produced this explosion of bitch culture in our schools – and it is still feminism that can provide the solution.

Kate Fige

I lol'd hard