If “A” is for Adultery…

 

…Could “S” be for “Slut?”

That’s what the NY Times suggested in today’s edition. Seems the “kids” these days are doing what most “kids” have done in the past:  take a slur and turn into a term of affection. 

But calling your best friend “best slut” in a wink, wink, nudge, nudge way hasn’t quite nullified its sting among teenage girls — although some girls seem to be trying:

“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. 

Since many teenage girls have a small circle of friends, getting tagged with the term carries a tremendous amount of public shame in that microcosm of drama, petty gossip, and tears — commonly known as middle school and high school.  I don’t think I’m saying anything earth shattering by saying a sense of fashion is very important to most girls and women.  What you wear is often an outward expression of your identity.  And if what is fashionable is also sexually suggestive, it can create quite a bit of confusion in terms of one’s not-so-subtle signs projected to peers and potential boyfriends.  In other words, the double standard is that it’s okay to dress like you’re in the Future Porn Stars of America Club, but just don’t act on any sexual feeling you may have…or else!

There is some good news in this story.  According to the same article, when you get into your 20s and 30s, it’s easier to keep your private life, well, private.  But the spectre of the slut does linger when it comes to men’s views of a woman’s sexual activity.  Some men love to date the “slut,” but they won’t marry them because, well, that whole “Madonna/Whore” thing some men can’t let go of.  Boys and men and can be players, but the girls and women? Forget about it!

Seems folks in Hollywood have come up with a novel way to address the “player/slut” dynamic in the film “John Tucker Must Die.” The plot, according to IMDB, says: “Three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater set up their former lover to fall for the new girl in town so they can watch him get his heart broken.”

Heart broken?  How ’bout the same kind of public humiliation that girls often get?  Maybe that will happen…maybe it won’t, but expect “hugging and learning!” And if we’re real lucky, maybe the girls in the movie will have a laugh and call each other “slut” before the end credits roll. 

Cue music…freeze frame…and fade out.

–PK