Cake

“Beyond the word itself, cultivating an exhibitionistic, slutty appearance — donning the trappings of promiscuity as opposed to actually being promiscuous — has been a growing influence on fashion and popular culture for a decade.

Women wear T-shirts with provocative slogans. Stripping and pole dancing is an au courant way to exercise. Paris Hilton is called an “American cultural icon” on Sephora .com, where she sells $49 perfume.”

Ariel Levy, the author of “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture,” said a girl in California told her that she and her friends compete to see who can look “the skankiest.” Ms. Levy told the girl that when she was in high school, girls wanted to be known as “the prettiest” or “the most popular.” Wow. By labeling young women clueless, Levy obviously makes it known that she has major issues by not being the “prettiest” girl in her class. Now she is in the business of calling other girls “skanky.” Nice.

BTW - The irony of interviewing a woman whose book is called female chauvinist pigs for an article on the use of the word slut is entirely lost in the article. We are tired of reading articles on female sexual culture in which the writer haphazardly refuses to interview the women themselves, but chooses to rely on “experts” (who in turn make grandiose sweeping statements based on one interview) to define a supposed trend.

When are we going to stop telling other women they are fools? When is journalism going to mean that your research goes beyond the soundbites and generalizations about women and actually includes interviews of the real thing? Like cunt before it, when does a word just become a word?

But the real issue is when are we going to get to the point when a woman who loves to have sex is celebrated?

Lovingly a lone man is brought into the picture towards the end of the article with a stellar quote that should make every man cringe -

“When I think of the word slut,” wrote Don Reisinger, a student doing accounting and law work in Albany, in an e-mail message, “I think of a woman who has been around the block more times than my dad’s Chevy. I might date a slut, but I certainly wouldn’t marry one.”

Even nicer.

So what up ladies (and men)? What is your position on redefining the word slut? Even better - what are your thoughts on the stud/slut double standard?