“Calling a Woman a Slut has Nothing to do with Sex”

A Millennial's Review on Mic Article: “Calling a Woman a Slut Has Nothing to Do With Sex - It's About Control” Published by Julie Zeilinger Abstract The main purpose of this article is to prevent the effects of slut-shaming. How slut-shaming is more than just about a women’s sexuality. It’s about how it became normalized by society and has granted others control of what women should be doing with their bodies. It’s to showcase readers that slut-shaming contributes to justifying sexual harassment, reducing a woman to her sexuality, enforcing double standards, and justifying racism.

Zeilinger simply seeks to change how we view our women. It’s to stop this culture from normalizing this kind of behavior towards all women of any race; to change our perspective on how we treat women compared to men. The broader theme here is stereotypical discrimination. Whether its based on race, gender, or sexuality. It’s important that we move in the right direction towards the “fight for progress” (Zeilinger,2015). Overall, The purpose of this article is to portray the effects of slut-shaming; to control what gets said about women and their sexuality. Themes Presented in the Article This perfectly worded article written by Julie Zeilinger about women’s sexuality depicts the theme of slut-shaming and how contributes to modern society. Slut shaming was created to stigmatize women for willingly engaging in sexual acts. It's just another reason to set boundaries and rules about what can and cannot a woman do with her body. Some broader themes discussed were sexism, racism, privilege, intersectionality, and oppression olympics.

Zeilinger made an interesting point that really stood out to me is how “We puritanically disavow sexual activity, for example, yet allow erotica to dominate our screens both in public and in private.”(Zeilinger,2015). This kind of hypocrisy draws a fine line for women to follow and will shame women for crossing that line on either end. You're slut-shamed for being promiscuous or you're shamed for not engaging in sex at all. American society just doesn't seem like they want women to win here, but it’s more than just sexuality. It’s about stripping women of their worth. It’s creating an environment where women can’t prosper. They are belittled to their sexuality. My Impression about the Article My initial thoughts when reading this article was how accurate it was to describe the reality of women sexuality.. Zellinger mentions that society assumes that if a woman was dressed a certain way, acted a certain way, or typically engage in sex for pleasure, she can not be raped because she was previously already doing it before. It’s unfortunate that I have to agree because that's how society sees women.

An example of this could be how a woman working in the adult film industry can never claim she’s been raped even if she has because her job is to have sex so why would she feel any different about being raped. "This works on an individual level, in that her rapist uses his opinion of her to justify his actions in the moment, but also on an institutional level, in that if she chooses to report, her sexual history will come up as a way to discredit her account." (Linden,Mic,2015) This is useful in showing how still to this day society views females are viewed as gatekeepers and men as aggressors. New Ideas and Information in the Article Much of what was discussed in the article all boils down to gender stereotypes. For example, how it’s praised when a man engages in sex but when women do the same it’s suddenly “shame on her”. Some things I’ve learned while reading the article was that women can’t be both. By this I mean that a woman can’t be a slut and a lawyer and a mother and even a nice person. She’s just a slut. Period. When it comes to all the things a woman has achieved in life and she’s slut, those other great aspects of her doesn’t mean a thing. Zeilinger writes “ Beyond being patently sexist and unfair, sexual double standards like this limit women by dismissing “‘everything else that makes a woman a complete, whole person, besides her sexuality’”(Zeilinger,2015). Men seem to be respected for being open about their sexuality but it’s a whole other story for women. This kind of attitude is the reason why women are participating in slut-shaming as well; tearing down other women.

As females compare themselves so much and it starts to turn women against each other. Women (and men) do this to uplift themselves and grant themselves more power. By engaging in this, we are normalizing slut-shaming culture. Fettishizing a womans body because of her race leads objectifying women. Women are more than just for sex and childbearing. It seems like men forgot that women are human too and have potential to learn, grow and prosper just like them. It’s important to publish these ideas about women sexuality because it shows the decline of progress we are making towards change. Truthfully, the word “slut” word should be dismissed. Slut has no real definition. It was simply exaggerated to degrade women.

The literal google definition of slut is a woman who has many casual sexual partners. Its honestly no surprise how there's no derogatory word to call men about their sexuality but there’s plenty of words to call women. This is all a result of socialization. It gave power to those who shame women. It stripped women of their identity only to be replaced with slut. I don’t see why women can’t be known for her positive attributes despite her sexual history. It’s a man’s world unfortunately. Let’s change that. Reference Zeilinger, J. (2015, February 11). Calling a Woman a Slut Has Nothing to Do With Sex - It's About Control. Retrieved March 29, 2019, from https://mic.com/articles/109852/6-reasons-sluttiness-has-nothing-to-do-with-sex#.8YveGlQ8n

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