Meow moments: from worm to cobra

Listen up, ladies! Remember the time when you and your man bumped into his ex at the movies and you gave the woman the chilly once over then acted utterly disinterested?
Or that time at work when the suits tried to push you over in a meeting and you stood tall, spoke sense and put them in their place?
You may not know it but pop psychologists have a name for your behaviour-that sudden rush of power that made you want to show 'em who's the boss.Let's just say that you'd flicked on the bitch switch and that the delicious bolt of voltage beat anything you've felt before.
"When a woman acts assertive, makes demands and gets what she wants, she is labelled a bitch,'' writes American reality TV star Omarosa, in her new book, cleverly titled The Bitch Switch (Jaico Books). "The secret is to know how to turn on (and off) that bitch switch.'' The self-help book has a series of exercises that help make a woman go straight from worm to cobra in 2.5 seconds. "It is imperative that you're always ready, willing and able to access your switch in any situation,'' says Omarosa.
What is the bitch switch really? "The bitch switch is a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality with the gender signals reversed,'' explains sociologist Shiv Viswanathan. "She is the straitlaced woman who discovers the `other' in her life-the girlfriend who meets the old rival, the wife who confronts a rising threat. Faced with such events there is a gestalt shift in her personality from simplicity to vileness and from passiveness to violence. The idea of Medusa's Gorgon was a classic myth of the rage and power of a woman. Modern psychology and marketing have not been as successful at myths so they resort to the hyphen and the hybrid to create a new cast of characters.''
But, says writer Shobhaa De, it's men more than women who suddenly have a meow moment. "Women remain the world's most neglected minority,'' she says. "Which is why it is easy to target them, label them, damn them. Men are by far the masters of the bitch-switch game. Except that in their case, this sort of conduct is called `ambition' and entirely condoned by society at large.''
Still can't identify with the bitch switch? Think Shabana Azmi's character in Arth, says film-maker Mahesh Bhatt. "The one defining scene that has endured for years is when Shabana Azmi's character meets her husband (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) and his mistress (Smita Patil) at a party and goes straight for Patil's jugular, berating her for being a whore. Shabana's character switches from being a passive doormat to a fiend, as she publicly takes on her husband and his mistress. Something definitely turned the switch on in Shabana in that scene.''
At a more primeval level, ferocity is about survival and protecting what is precious from a perceived predator. "It's known as survival instinct-when under threat, attack!'' says De. "Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind comes to mind. So do the characters of the two protagonists in the film Chicago-Roxy and Velma. In the old days, it was always about fighting over a man. Today it is over perks and promotions-and the boss need not be a guy.''
In shrink-speak, most women have a dormant feral instinct that springs to life if something or someone rubs them up the wrong way. The most honeyed tones can turn into acid. This is usually the result of the accumulation of lifelong resentment, says psychiatrist Sanjay Chugh. "Once a woman has insight into her own patterns, she can use it to her advantage, i.e. control the switch herself,'' he says. "This becomes particularly relevant if we keep in mind the times that we live in, where women are at par with men and competing with them in every way.''
And hell hath no fury like a woman who's turned her bitch switch on. "A woman can often be misunderstood-thought of as `the softer gender'-read meek and submissive,'' says Chugh. "In such situations, the switch can be the rescue route. Just a peek into this side of the woman can put a man in his place and let him know who's in charge.''
The drama comes from the unpredictability, the fact that the kitten-to-cat shift takes place without any warning. "It is a way of projecting the primordial survivor in all of us,'' says Viswanathan. "The lamb becomes the wolf when cornered. Stereotypes may insist that the lamb remain a lamb in lamb's clothing. But competition and threat create a tough survivor named the switch bitch. The sadness is that everyone talks of the type, few analyse the context that creates it. The switch bitch is a facile name, more a product of a superficial psychology and an absentee sociology.''