SLUT.
Slut shaming. I’m not down with it. The word itself has completely lost it’s original meaning to me because it’s completely ridiculous. Originally, it was a word used to describe a loose, immoral woman who was indiscriminate and would fuck any dude with a prick that worked. To my understanding, anyway. Basically, it taught us that sex, for women, is a dirty, dirty thing, and that unless you have a true and virtuous reason (you are married and are trying to have a baby), you should not be having it. However, the word to me now describes two different types of women. The first is a woman who openly enjoys sex with as many, or as few, partners as she sees fit. The second type is a woman who sleeps with many different people because she is emotionally lacking or damaged, so she, perhaps unconsciously, is trying to fill an emotional void by filling a physical one. For the first type, the word does not fit. “Slut” is derogatory and meant to be insulting, and any woman who is sexually confident will not feel ashamed to be sexually active. For the second type, to further insult a person for their own emotional issues is completely counter productive. Last time I checked, rubbing salt in the wound is not the best idea.
Some people are trying to reclaim the word to diminish it’s power, but it doesn’t really work the way it does with other words. “Nigger” comes directly from many languages’ word for “black”, so the original meaning is descriptive, and basically just means a black person. The word remains a sensitive subject, and widely unused by non-black people, but I understand how the power is taken away. To use “slut”, however, doesn’t really work the same. It isn’t even slang, it was a word used in Middle English to describe someone who is dirty and slovenly, usually a woman. You can’t take power away from a word when it’s original meaning is the one currently in use. The only way to take it’s power away is to stop using it.
Now, whenever I hear someone use “slut” seriously, it just tells me that they are sexually repressed, ignorant, and are needlessly judgmental. I guess it’s a good way to tell when I’ll get along with someone or not, but I hope to not need those kinds of tells in the future.
