Sara Levine
Editor-in-Chief
Girls, did you know…
That uhm,
Your boobs
Go inside your shirt.
Above is one of many memes being posted on the new Tumblr page ‘Hey girls, did you know…’ This page, along with other social media outlets, has been a part of the slut-shaming, or “slut-bashing,” girl-on-girl war.
All you have to do is stroll through the lounge to hear about weekend hookups, and all the emotional shrapnel associated with them, to understand the nature of this war. For instance, as soon as a girl, involved in the aforementioned extracurricular activities, gets up and leaves, both the conversation and mood completely flips. Suddenly, all anyone can talk about is what a hoe she is. No word is ever mentioned about the guy in the situation, only the girl’s tight dress and attitude that screams “asking for it.”
I don’t consider myself an ultra feminist, nor do I consider myself a slut, but this just seems like a cheap shot. It’s so easy to hate on girls who wear short shorts, go on serial dating sprees or have sex. But why do we do it?
Like typical bullying situations, shaming can be about bringing someone down to make you feel higher. A girl’s own insecurities about her relationships or body can lead her to slut-shame so as to make her appear more ‘respectable’ or ‘mature.’
According to Leora Tanenbaum, author of the best-selling novel Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation, “Slut-bashing is a cheap and easy way to feel powerful. If you feel insecure or ashamed about your own sexual desires, all you have to do is call a girl a ‘slut’ and suddenly you’re the one who is ‘good’ and on top of the social pecking order.”
But when women make snarky comments and objectify other women, they are setting up the whole gender to be judged. And as women hoping to be treated as equals by men, we shouldn’t be negatively portraying our own. If we criticize our own gender, we’re just giving men the opportunity to do the same.
And plenty of slut-shaming has occurred in the past year by men as well. In the Limbaugh slutgate scandal, Rush Limbaugh attacked Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke after she testified that health insurance companies should cover birth control. He called her a “slut” on air and stated, “She wants to be paid to have sex. She’s having so much sex she can’t afford the contraception. She wants you and me and the taxpayers to pay her to have sex. What does that make us? We’re the pimps.”
Granted, this is only one guy, and he certainly doesn’t speak for the whole male population. But it’s not helping when women jump on the bandwagon and give guys just another reason to slut-shame more than usual.
This all goes back to the question of why there is a double-standard when it comes to male and female sexual relationships. Over time, men have used their lovers or mistresses as a confirmation of their own positions of power. Just look at Sir ‘Womanizer’ Paul McCartney, himself. The Beatle reportedly slept with between 500 and 600 women in the 50’s. That’s like, Taylor Swift’s list times 50.
Until the time comes when our sex can live in complete equality, we’re going to have to work with what we have. And in Ms. Franklin’s words, that’s a little R E S P E C T.
So girls, did you know? That uhm…these memes do more harm than good. The negativity and self-inflicted misogyny is utterly unnecessary. Leave the “sluts” alone because it’s their bodies, and really, none of your business.
