"To ___ slap"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

><No, a _bitch slap_ is a slap given _to_ a bitch, and is synonymous
>with _pimp slap,_ a slap given _from_ a pimp. I assume _dope slap_
>refers to the recipient.>
>
>That could very well be the normal meaning of "bitch slap" (I'm not
>contesting that), but the context in which the expression was used was a
>female judge putting down a male lawyer.

As I've already noted, the Cassell dictionary seems to think "bitch slap"
is a slap BY a bitch. My other dictionaries seem to lack the expression.

I did a quick Web search. I found "bitch slap" referring to a man hitting a
man (apparently the expression is used in pro wrestling?), a man hitting a
woman, a woman hitting a man, and a woman hitting a woman, plus a LOT of
cases where I couldn't tell exactly what it meant, or where it was
figurative. Whatever the original sense may have been, the expression is
commonly being used both ways, I think (with "bitch" as slapper OR slappee).

Note the use of "Bitch Slap" as the name of a feminist publication:

http://www.students.rhodes.edu/sw/3~28~96/scene/woman.html

... a double-entendre?

-- Doug Wilson