What is #StopSlutShaming?

More about slut-shaming

Excerpts from a writing piece about slut-shaming from and credited to: https://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/2010/04/04/what-is-slut-shaming/#shaming-effects

Slut-shaming, also known as slut-bashing, is the idea of shaming and/or attacking a woman or a girl for being sexual, having one or more sexual partners, acknowledging sexual feelings, and/or acting on sexual feelings. Furthermore, it's "about the implication that if a woman has sex that traditional society disapproves of, she should feel guilty and inferior" It is damaging not only to the girls and women targeted, but to women in general an society as a whole. It should be noted that slut-shaming can occur even if the term "slut" itself is not used.

Policing women via what's considered "normal" and "acceptable" boundaries for female sexuality is not limited to sex and sexual activity. For instance, women who wear "provocative clothing" (or just photographed while having breasts) are subjected to slut-shaming. As are women who are sexually aggressive and/or unabashedly lay claim to their own sexuality.

Any woman who has had sex can be a victim of slut-shaming. A virgin can be a victim of slut-shaming. Indeed, as long as gendered slurs like "slut" continue to be weapons casually wielded against girls and women by both people from all walks of life, any female who acts in a way that another person doesn't like is at risk for being slut-shamed.

Calling someone a slut may seem harmless. Slut-shaming may also seem to be useful as a kind of cautionary tale — helping "good" girls from making sexual "mistakes", or even being sexually assaulted and/or raped, by making an example out of the "bad" girls. But, in fact, the very opposite is true.

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But the most important thing that all of us need to work on is this: to stop calling or thinking of women as "sluts." Face it: At one time or another, many of us have called a woman a "slut." We see a woman who's getting away with something we wish we could get away with. What do we call her? A "slut."

We see a woman who dresses provocatively, and maybe we wish we had the guts to dress that way ourselves. What do we call her? A "slut."

Most of us recognize that this stigma is unjust and unwarranted. Yet we have used the "slut" insult anyway: Our social conditioning runs too deep. We must will ourselves to be aware of the sexual double standard and of how we lapse into slut-bashing on an everyday level. If we become aware of our behavior, then we will have the power to stop.

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As with many sexist phenomenon, women aren't just the targets of slut-shaming, they are often the perpetrators as well. Not to mention that many times women will slut-shame in one moment and go on to revel in their "sluttiness" in the next.