Acceptable language is a little more 'slutty'

By Manette Newbold

October 22, 2007 | When and why it became OK to call women sluts, we may never know. It's a word teenage girls toss around almost like a compliment and grown women use when they gossip about each other in the break room. It's thrown around in magazines, movies and television and is used as a joke, a way to demean and describe a woman's sexual lifestyle. While some are still offended by the four-letter word, others would say its losing its sting.

Talk shows like Jerry Springer and sitcoms such as "Sex and the City" portray women as sexually active with multiple partners. Sometimes women are offended, other times they seem proud. The word "slut" is often used these days as an affectionate tease among adolescent girls, according to "The evolution of the 's' word illuminates some thorny truths" by Patricia Hluchy. The article, published in the Toronto Star in March, also stated the word has metaphorical meaning -- a woman is a slut for something she can't resist. For example, she could be called a "coffee-slut."

Novelty shops and Web sites sell Slut lip balm, bubble bath, soap and lotion according to "The taming of the slur," an article in the New York Times by Stephanie Rosenbloom. There is even a cocktail named the Red-Headed Slut, Rosenbloom said. Men and women alike can get one made to order.

The original meaning of "slut" is a dirty, slovenly woman or an immoral or dissolute woman, according to dictionary.com. It is often interchangeable with prostitute as well, according to the Web site. According to reference.com, the word "slut" first appeared in middle English (1402) as slutte. Before that, however, the word sluttish was used in the 1300s to describe a slovenly man. For whatever reason, later uses of the word seem to be directed exclusively to women, according to the site. The modern use of "slut" usually means a sexually promiscuous woman, the site stated.

Marcel Danesi, an anthropologist at the University of Toronto who teaches semiotics and youth culture, said "slut" is an ambiguous word whose various meanings include -- in hip-hop -- "my woman," Hluchy said. That may be why he was surprised when a colleague called him a slut. He said he was complaining about the university when then the other man said it to him. Danesi said,"It was kind of friendly -- he was saying that I break the rules," Hluchy's article states.

Even if the word is thrown around though, being called a "slut" may have lasting consequences on a woman's life if that perception of her doesn't go away. Hluchy said a year ago Toronto filmmaker Andrea Dorfman completed a documentary called Slut in which 10 females talk about having been labeled the slut of their class. She said the 15-year-old girl had the same story as the 85-year-old woman.

The film's older subjects carried the insult around with them their whole lives. It affected their self-confidence, their careers, their self-esteem, the article stated.

Two of five girls nationwide -- 42 percent -- have had sexual rumors spread about them, according to a 1993 poll conducted for the American Association of University Women (AAUW) on sexual harassment in schools. Feminist author Phyllis Chesler was labeled a slut during the 1950s and said that meant her chance for a good marriage was forever compromised, according to the book "Slut! Growing up female with a bad reputation," by Leora Tanenbaum.

Chesler defined "good" and "bad" girls of the decade. The "tramps" were girls from very poor homes who dressed in a trashy way because that was what they could afford. She also said the latter did not hide their interest in sex.

Summing up her own teenagehood, Chesler said, "My sexual bravado...was, I think, a typical sign of distress and of longing for love withheld and the desire to please."

Most women probably don't want to be called a slut. In fact, quantitative data from a Western Australia study of sexual behavior in young people showed that women had a hard time carrying around condoms with them because they did not want to broadcast their sexual promiscuity. The study, published in the Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, stated that men's attitudes about carrying condoms was different. For the most part, they did not fear their reputations being ruined. If they did have reservations about carrying around condoms it was more often because they didn't know how to use them or were afraid they wouldn't work, the study showed. It found that 40 percent of women thought men would think negatively of them for carrying condoms and only 10 percent thought men would think positively. Many women thought men would call them sluts or were just personally embarrassed to be carrying condoms with them, according to the study.

Teenage girls said they fear expressing sexual thoughts because of the way their peers will treat them, according to a 2003 study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. This study showed that 92 percent of girls and boys ages 15-17 said girls get bad reputations for having sex. Some girls will transfer the blame so that they can express sexual feelings and actions.

Some say they get drunk before having sex so they don't have to consent to it, according to "Teen Gender Double Standard Persists," an article published in the Journal of Sex Research in 2003. The teens think they can say it wasn't their fault, the article stated. They may do this so they don't seem like sluts.

The word "slut" presents a double standard for the way that girls and women are treated versus boys and men. Girls will be called a name for having sex; men will give each other high fives. Eighty-five percent of teens interviewed by Kaiser said that parents have different expectations for boys and girls according to the article. It also stated that sexually active boys are "ladykillers" and girls are "sluts."

Today, it seems women can be more promiscuous than in decades earlier, however it seems they are still looked down upon for sexual thoughts and actions. The media may throw in the word"slut" every once in a while and even though it is said often enough to almost be immune to its harshness, women and girls still struggle with having their reputations tainted with the accusation.

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