“…calling oneself a “slut” doesn’t allow a girl or woman to wrest the term away from those who would use it to judge her”

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In a milieu where females are hypersexualized, embracing the word slut does not seem to me to be an act of radical protest. It seems more like a capitulation. Today, teenage girls are young women pressured to dress and behave in an overtly sexual way, despite the conventional understanding that a “slut” is a woman who does just that. In this context, calling oneself a “slut” doesn’t allow a girl or woman to wrest the term away from those who would use it to judge her. Rather, it just confirms negative stereotypes of what it means to be female. She is merely adding ammunition to the arsenal.

Leora Tanenbaum, “Why We Shouldn’t Reclaim Slut”, Slate (4 February 2015) [http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/02/04/slut_why_we_shouldn_t_reclaim_this_word_despite_slutwalk_slut_pride_rock.html]

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