Thumbs down to ‘Slut-Shaming’

BY GEMMA MOLLENHAUER

You’d think in this perceived age of ‘liberated women’, the word ‘slut’ would be almost as outdated as the word ‘strumpet’. Unfortunately the slut shaming seems to have stuck its nails in and latched on. The word tends to rear its ugly head almost everyday; whether it’s in harmless context or alternatively used to insult, shame and embarrass females. It’s difficult for me to understand why this word is still considered to be used as an insult against someone.

So, let’s get back to basics: the word ‘slut’ originally referred to a slovenly woman, suggesting nothing about her morals or sexual behavior, only that she was sloppily dressed. Samuel Pepys used it innocuously to say of his daughter Susan, “[she] is a most admirable slut and pleases us mightily”. Despite this, the word attracted negative connotations relatively early in it’s existence and by the 1860s it was seeping with immorality.

Although the ‘modern’ definition is quite a lot more crass, the term ‘slut’ seems to have ridden it’s way into all corners of life. This includes the way women dress, their alcohol consumption, amount of makeup they wear, dancing style and to simply having numerous sexual partners.

The most important (and most overlooked) quote in Mean Girls.

For fucks sake – it’s 2013. The term ‘slut’ can be considered an almost laughable attempt at putting women back in their place under a man. Especially when we hear of Gillard being slut shamed in a Facebook Q&A session.

Wait, hold up. Someone called Julia Gillard a slut? Are you kidding me? Firstly, whether she is a slut or not is no-one’s god damn business, and secondly, if she does happen to enjoy quite a bit of sex, it’s no-one’s right to give her such a derogatory title.

Personally, I don’t consider myself a hardcore feminist. I’m just a firm believer of doing whatever is best for you and not putting up with crap. And slut shaming is A grade bullshit.

Let me ask you this: How did such an immature insult become entrenched in the language of everyday life? And  why in God’s name is being promiscuous such a bad thing in this modern era?

We’ve all heard the phrase, “you should never have too much of a good thing”. But for those of us who don’t happen to be virgins, come on, we all (hopefully) know how utterly fantastic sex is. As human beings, we are biologically programmed to want sex.
Sex therapist Richard A. Carroll  states, “Asking why people have sex is akin to asking why we eat. Our brains are designed to motivate us toward that behaviour.”
But why is it that females are still called ‘sluts’ when we give into this temptation that we are hardwired to want? In all honesty, I don’t know the answer to this question.

Whether sex is for pleasure, procreation, curiosity, insecurity or simply to cure boredom, there is no circumstance where a female who enjoys sex may be called a ‘slut’. In fact, there’s no circumstances where anyone should be using the term ‘slut’ to put down a female.

Down to slut shaming and down to those who are still immature enough to get a kick out of name-calling.

Gemma is a Media and Communications student, new to the BULLSH!T team and  who isn’t sorry for the terrible puns in this article nor for the fact that she loves a bit of action… action movies of course. For more punny action, follow her on twitter.

You can like BULLSH!T on Facebook, or follow us on twitter.