Vivian Englund Copy Editor
“Slut,” “whore,” “skank,” we have all heard every variation of these words. Chances are you have even been called some kind of of slut as well. Chances also are that you probably have called someone a slut at some point in your life.
Generally speaking, men and women tend to gravitate towards two different definitions of what it means to be a slut.
Girls tend to view sluts as women who: wear revealing or tight clothing, wear makeup, have sex, get attention from boys etc.
Boys typically tend to define sluts as women who have sex frequently.
But why is it that women attack other women this way? Some say that one of the reasons may be because women tend to feel as though they feel threatened as in, these “sluts” are trying to steal their love interest. Others say it may be because women are threatened by the other woman’s confidence.
As for men, it is likely that people who think this way to know men who are just as sexually active as the women they are degrading. Yet, these sexually active men are probably not considered or called sluts by most standards.
Men are seen as “players,” and “having game” rather than being torn down and called a slut. The terms men are called are seen as words of endearment and praise instead. How about that for a double standard?
A lot of the denotation associated with calling someone a slut has to do with the societal idea that people who are called sluts do not respect themselves. However, the way one chooses to express their sexuality is not meant to be judged. This is a core, recurring problem that is based off of the fact that people, for whatever reason, do not approve of slut’s values or actions.
This notion could be based off of the fact that women, for the longest time, were taught in different outlets that sex before marriage is wrong. Thus a reflection of these thoughts have been carried into more modern times; now it is more common to think that you should at least be in a committed relationship in order to have sex.
For me, I never really thought twice about calling someone a slut until late high school. It wasn’t until I made a comment about someone being a slut when my close friend said, “Why does that make her a slut?”
It was a rather large revelation for me; it made me realize that the clothing someone chooses to wear, their makeup or number of sexual partners (not only is not my business), but it should not contribute to sources of degradation of women.
Calling someone a slut is directly shaming someone for being sexual– this is equally as demeaning as shaming them for not being sexual (e.g. calling someone a prude).
Using these profanities against women squashes any ounce of confidence in them, especially when they are young. This alone contributes to a larger issue.
When someone uses the word “slut,” they are contributing to rape culture. When a woman is called a slut she is being dehumanized.
This problem happens all too often, the dehumanization of women enforces the logic that women are “asking” to be raped and/or further torn down.
Though one may not intentionally encourage rape culture, using derogatory terms like such, feeds into these negative cultural practices.
As a person that strives for equality, we must ban together and stand up to end slut-shaming.
Photo Credit: d.loop
