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The Taming of the Slur
By STEPHANIE ROSENBLOOM
Published: July 13, 2006
New York Times
WHISPERS follow her like so many eyes. She is the one who will go home with you, the sure bet, the kind of girl you can lie down with and then walk all over. She is ogled, envied and often ostracized. She is the slut.
The word, which originated in the Middle Ages, has emerged from a schoolyard barb to become commonplace in popular culture, marketing and casual conversation. In his duet with the rapper Eminem, Nate Dogg describes his hunt for ??a big old slut? in the single ??Shake That.? The ample-bosomed puppet in the Broadway musical ??Avenue Q? is called Lucy the Slut.
Novelty shops and Web sites sell Slut lip balm, bubble bath, soap and lotion. A cocktail is known as the Red-Headed Slut. A teenager on MTV??s ??Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County? demanded that a rival admit she was a slut. (She did.)
??Slut???? is tossed around so often and so casually that many teenagers use it affectionately and in jest among their friends, even incorporating it into their instant messenger screen names.
Like ??queer? and ??pimp? before it, the word slut seems to be moving away from its meaning as a slur. Or is it?
??It??s definitely a term of familiarity with teens,? said Karell Roxas, a senior editor at Gurl.com, a Web site that addresses issues that affect teenagers. ??They??ll say ??Hi, slut!?? the way my generation would say ??Hi, chick!?? or ??Hi, dawg!?? ?
Even among adults, the word is used to demonstrate voraciousness: ??coffee slut,? ??TV slut.?
??Today, ??slut,?? even ??ho?? ?? girls use it in a fun way, a positive way,? said Atoosa Rubenstein, the editor in chief of Seventeen magazine, adding that a phrase such as ??you little slut? has become a way for girlfriends to bust each other??s chops.
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.?
??How did you get the guys?,? the girl replied. ??Charm??
Given all of the slut-posturing, one may be inclined to think that society??s attitudes about women and promiscuity have changed. But it??s not entirely so, say authors who have studied popular culture. An entrenched sexual double standard is not easily uprooted. A promiscuous single man is lauded for being a player or a stud, but a woman who sleeps around rarely is.
Still, ??slut???? stings much more for girls than for women. Teenage girls get the cultural message that they should look provocative. Their social circles are small, so everyone knows who is doing what with whom. And those who do acquire the slut label have to face up to it daily in school and endure snickers about the very thing girls at that age are most embarrassed about ?? their sexuality.
??All of our pop icons look like porn stars,? Ms. Rubenstein said. ??However they??re all virgins, quote unquote,? she said, referring to Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears. ??That??s a very complex message to send to girls.?
For junior high and high school girls, said Leora Tanenbaum, the author of ??Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation,? being labeled a slut is still painful and humiliating, despite pop culture??s semi-embrace of the term. Ms. Roxas of Gurl.com said teenagers often inquire about it.
They ask, Ms. Roxas said, questions like: ??I??ve acquired the reputation of being a slut, how do I get around it?? or ??If I have a boyfriend and I perform a certain action, does that make me a slut?? (Ms. Levy said that even the girl who competed to dress ??the skankiest? made it clear that having sex with someone who is not a boyfriend is unacceptable behavior.)
A slut, according to the primary definition in the Oxford English Dictionary, is ??a woman of dirty, slovenly, or untidy habits or appearance; a foul slattern.? The second entry defines a slut as ??a woman of a low or loose character; a bold or impudent girl; a hussy, jade.? For decades, the second definition has reigned.
