GRSJ224/Slut Shaming

Slut shaming is making one, usually a female, feel uncomfortable for deviating from the norm when it comes to sexual desires or behaviours. Slut shaming can include rude words and hurtful actions towards a woman who is not complying with what religious or natural laws may be.

The term slut-shaming is also used to describe victim blaming for rape and other sexual assault; e.g. by stating that the crime was caused (either in part or in full) by the woman wearing revealing clothing or acting in a sexually provocative manner, before refusing consent to sex, and thereby absolving the perpetrator of guilt.

Men and women alike are culprits of "slut-shaming": The study "Birds of a feather? Not when it comes to sexual permissiveness," published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, notes that sexually lenient individuals are judged more negatively than non-permissive peers, which places those who are more permissive at risk of social isolation. The researchers from Cornell University found that similar sentiments appeared in nonsexual, same-sex friendship context as well. The researchers had college women read a vignette describing an imaginary female peer, "Joan", then rate their feelings about her personality. To one group of women, Joan was described as having two lifetime sexual partners; to another group, she had had twenty partners. The study found that women—even women who were more promiscuous themselves—rated the Joan with 20 partners as "less competent, emotionally stable, warm, and dominant than the Joan who'd only boasted two".

See also: Slut-Shaming

History

Early in Roman culture, there is evidence of slut shaming. Condemning women for their sexual desires was seen in plays, literature and poetry. In Latin, we see many words for “adultress” and “prostitute” such as lupa, scortum, meretrix and moecha. Slut shaming also stems from the different attitudes towards men and women’s sexual desires. It goes even further back to societal gender differences and what is acceptable for a man and woman to do with their bodies. From the Victorian era it is seen that women are shamed for even having feelings of sexual desire – it is seen as a sin. However, for men, the case is not the same. Women were meant to desire marriage, not sexual satisfaction. It is these early ideologies that have led to today’s slut shaming. Today, young girls experience a sense of anxiety when losing their virginity. They get pressurized into having sex by their boyfriends and lots of young girls feel as though they have to. If they don’t, they get called names. If they do, boys can spread talk of the sexual experience and then girls get slut shamed. This ideology is what has led to this great problem of slut shaming today.

In Social Media

With the rise in usage of social media, there is seen a rise in slut shaming on social media as well. Commonly seen on Instagram is the word “slut” commented under a woman’s photo in which she may or may not be wearing revealing clothes. This is a form of slut shaming. People, without even knowing what the word slut means, throw this word around as a tool of cyber bullying. To tackle this problem, some celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, have taken nude photos and posted them to Instagram, letting their followers know they feel “liberated” in doing so and that their bodies are their own and they do what they please with them. Like Kardashian, Amber Rose is making a stand against slut walking as she is pronounced feminist who stands up especially against slut shaming. Another instance looks at a different point of slut shaming which is making women feel uncomfortable in their skin. Toronto, Canada based poet Rupi Kaur posted photos of what women go through while menstruating. She posts images of a women who has leaked through her sweat pants, an image of blood drops on the toilet and blood stained under garments and bed sheets being put into the wash. As a response, Instagram deleted these photos and sent her an email telling her these images were “inappropriate” and that the images did not follow their guidelines. The internet saw an uproar and her post was shared over 2 million times. This is a form of slut shaming because it is again making women feel ashamed of their bodies and the natural processes they go through. Instagram has no policy against posting nude photos as long as the nipples are covered, but bans photos of women going through this natural process. This can send a message to young girls that their bodies going through menstruation should be kept hidden but for the pleasure of everyone else, nude photos are allowed. Another example is on YouTube. Many videos contain hurtful comments pertaining to a woman’s sexual desires and behaviours. So, in light of this, many YouTube stars such as Jenna Marbles and Lilly Singh have made videos discussing this topic and educating their viewers on how not to spread slut shaming.

At School

Recently, the slut shaming of girls through school dress codes has been increasing. An instance was in New Jersey when girls were banned from wearing strapless dresses to their school dance and when asked the principal for the reason why, it was because it would “distract boys.” A similar incident occurred in Illinois where middle school girls were banned from wearing leggings because again, it was too distracting for boys. Another example of slut shaming at school occurred in New York in which a school handed out 200 detention slip of which 90% went to female students for violating the school dress code. The girsl were told their outfits were "disruptive to teaching and learning." This demeaning behaviour is enforcing slut shaming as it is allowing girls to feel as though they can’t wear certain clothes because it’s not allowing the boys to focus. Further, this type of behaviour just allows boys to make sexist comments which just results in girls feeling bad about their bodies and makes them compare themselves to boys in negative ways. This makes the girls feel guilty for the actions made by boys. Rather than teaching the boys that they should be focusing on their books and paying attention to teachers, girls are being told to “cover up their skin.”

Now, slut-shaming can be very obvious, or it can be very nuanced. Nuanced slut-shaming can come in the form of telling girls that they have no self respect if they wear short skirts or low shirts. It can be calling a girl attention-seeking or pathetic for having had several boyfriends, or actively seeking one out. It can be calling a girl desperate or overly-aggressive for “making the first move.”

Consequences

A big consequence of slut shaming can come from the frustration that arises from the double standards that are placed upon boys and girls. Boys are given praise and admiration for “hooking up” with so many girls but girls are called skanks, whores and sluts for engaging in the same behaviour. This double standard can result in girls feeling humiliated, depressed and worthless. Slut shaming can further result in eating disorders to cope with this pain and self-bullying because of the mean comments that are thrown towards women. More extreme consequences of slut shaming include suicide – like Amanda Todd, Jesse Logan, Phoebe Prince and many other young girls were victims of.

Slut-shaming is far more harmful than simple name-calling — although being denigrated publicly in itself can be traumatic, as the suicides of a number of slut-shamed girls attests. Once a girl or woman is regarded as a “slut” or “ho,” she becomes a target for sexual assault. And if she is sexually assaulted, she may be assigned the “slut” or “ho” identity ex post facto to rationalize the crime and to protect the assaulter. The girl who was raped at a party in Steubenville, Ohio in 2013 was vilified by strangers and peers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube; they could make sense of the horrible crime only by assigning the “drunken slut” label to the victim.

Rape Culture

Slut Shaming can lead to Rape Culture[1]. Rape culture is blaming the victim rather than rapist for the assault, and saying that the victim did something to provoke the attack. Rape culture teaches women to not get raped, rather than teaching men not to rape. Rape culture involves sympathizing with the rapist — as many did in the recent Steubenville rape[2] case, by lamenting the fact that their “promised futures were ruined.” Rape culture is dangerous because it leads to the victim not speaking out about the rape, and the rapists therefore not getting in trouble. Because of the ideology of slut shaming among those offender hold, and the stigma of the sexual assault presents, the young girl was labelled as a slut and being tormented by her several schoolmates because she was at the party, and she had been drinking. Thus she deserves no respect because her behaviors are not perceived as feminine and her photo looks "more than inappropriate" (and those photos were taken when she was drunk and without her permission), However, the boys got off with nothing.

Solving The Problem

Take Back the Night is a non-profit organization that’s motive is to end sexual, domestic and relationship violence. The events take place in various forms such as marches and rallies. This event turned into the Take Back the Night Foundation which similarly focuses on ending rape culture. SlutWalk is a movement that calls for an end to rape culture. It was introduced first in Ontario, Canada on April 3, 2011 after a police officer made a comment that said “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not be victimized.” This comment launched off a protest in the form of a march includes mostly young women who “dress like sluts” wearing short skirts and revealing tops. The event usually includes music, food, entertainment and lots of women speaking out against slut shaming and sharing their stories of surviving rape. Similarly, Amber Rose, an American model and actress, started her own movement called the Amber Rose Slut Walk in which she encourages women to feel confident in their body and put an end to rape culture. Rose uses her fame to bring attention to topic and is not afraid to say it how it is in terms of demanding equality for women and putting an end to slut shaming. Furthermore, to shed some light on the issue of race in slut shaming, there is an organization called Black Women’s Blueprint (BWB). This organization focuses on rape and sexual assault towards women of African descent in America. The outcomes of this organization are phenomenal. Some of their statistics includes 93% increase in recovering from trauma after receiving support from BWB, 75% of survivors who are a part of the BWB counseling and healing initiatives go on to become human rights advocates at different levels of community and 50% of women who participate in a BWB initiative become community organizers.

See also: Take Back the Night