Slut-shaming
Slut-shaming is the practice of criticizing people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate expectations of behavior and appearance regarding issues related to sexuality.[1][2][3] The term is used to reclaim the word slut and empower women and girls to have agency over their own sexuality.[3] Gender-based violence can be a result of slut-shaming primarily affecting women.[4] It may also be used in reference to gay men, who may face disapproval for promiscuous sexual behaviors.[1][5] Slut-shaming rarely happens to heterosexual men.[1]
Examples of slut-shaming include being criticized or punished for: violating dress code policies by dressing in sexually provocative ways; requesting access to birth control;[6][7][8] having premarital, extramarital, casual, or promiscuous sex; or engaging in prostitution or other sex work.[9][10] It can also include being victim-blamed for being raped or otherwise sexually assaulted.[11][12]
Definitions and characteristics[edit]
Slut-shaming involves criticizing women for their transgression of accepted codes of sexual conduct,[13] i.e., admonishing them for behavior, attire or desires that are more sexual than society finds acceptable.[14][15][16][17] Author Jessalynn Keller stated, "The phrase [slut-shaming] became popularized alongside the SlutWalk marches and functions similarly to the 'War on Women,' producing affective connections while additionally working to reclaim the word 'slut' as a source of power and agency for girls and women."[3]
Slut-shaming is used by men and women.[18][19] Women who slut-shame other women continuously apply unfavorable sexual double standards.[20] The term is also used to describe victim blaming for rape and other sexual assault. This blaming is done by stating 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,[11] thereby absolving the perpetrator of guilt. Sexually lenient individuals can be at risk of social isolation.[21]
However, Kennair et al. (2023) found no signs on a sexual double standard in short-term or long-term mating contexts, nor in choosing a friend, except that women's self-stimulation was more acceptable than men's.[22]
The action of slut-shaming can be a form of social punishment and is an aspect of sexism, as well as female intrasexual competition. Slut-shaming is a form of intrasexual competition because the term "slut" reduces the value of a woman. Being termed a "slut" is against a woman's gender norms.[23]
The social movement falls into the category of feminism. This raises controversy because gender roles have a significant role in the social movement. The topic of slut-shaming sheds light on the social issues that are associated with the double standard. This is because slut-shaming is commonly aimed toward women, and not men. Slut-shaming is common in America because it is such a high-context culture, which means it is easier to be victim blamed.[24]
Researchers from Cornell University found that sentiments similar to slut-shaming appeared in a nonsexual, same-sex friendship context as well.[21] The researchers had college women read a vignette describing an imaginary female peer, "Joan", then rate their feelings about her personality.[21] To one group of women, Joan was described as having two lifetime sexual partners; to another group, she had had 20 partners.[25] 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 with two.[21][25]
Among gay and bisexual men[edit]
Gay and bisexual men are also victimized through slut-shaming because of their sexual activity. There has been research supporting that LGBT students were more likely to be bullied and called sluts than heterosexual students. Researchers discussed how these negative experiences of victimization by peers, friends and strangers can lead to physical harm, social shaming, and loss of friendships. Unlike heterosexual people, LGBT people are more likely to learn about safe sex practices from friends. Gay and bisexual men are at highest risk of HIV.[56] Most of the education that young gay and bisexual men receive about safe sex practices is learned from friends, the Internet, hearsay or trial and error.[57]
Criticism of non-heterosexual men's sexual activity can either be said in a humorous context or not. Judgementalism happens when someone mentions gay men's sexual risk behavior or that they have multiple sex partners. This implies that their behavior is "slutty" and dirty.[58]
Street harassment includes cat-calling, victim blaming, and slut-shaming. Judgmentalism is not a pejorative word compared to women, and slut-shaming may have a positive connotation with men depending on context and relationship.[59][60]
Among Black women[edit]
Though slut-shaming affects women from different racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds, black women are disproportionately affected by the act of slut-shaming. This can be attributed to both misogynoir and historical myths, which have worked together in dictating much of the public perception of black women.[61] Due to these biases, black women must stand against more prejudice based on an often false perception of their sexual activity.[62][61] Furthermore, it is also true that women from low-income backgrounds are at greater risk of being slut-shamed. Black women experience financial disenfranchisement in comparison to their white peers which in turn adds to the unbalanced nature of the slut-shaming they experience.[63][64][61]
Myths about black women were established and cultivated during the time of slavery and onward to further oppress black women and justify committing acts of rape and sexual assault against them. One of the myths popularized was the myth of the hyper-sexual black woman or the Jezebel. This myth, also known as, the myth of promiscuity, popularized the idea that black women were inherently more sexually charged and deviant than their white counterparts. Black women were determined by the Western world to have a wild, promiscuous nature and immoral, loose, and impure practices and values. This myth was then used as a justification for violating black women with no consequence.[62]
Furthermore, black women were forced into sexualized positions regularly, for instance during slave actions they were forcefully stripped of all clothes, and required to be paraded around for the masses, nude.[62] These same involuntary actions would then be spun and used by white society in order to shame black women and reinforce the ideas created by the myth of promiscuity. This forceful sexualization of black women only furthered the ideologies prescribed to them by white society in a process of dehumanization and shaming that would be continued throughout history in new, inventive ways.[62]
Today the myth of promiscuity or the “Jezebel” still permeates the black female experience in a myriad of ways. For instance, hip hop's portrayal of black women is hypersexualized and deeply stereotypes them both in character and in physicality.[61] The industry not only perpetuated the already existing ideas of the myth of promiscuity but additionally, it directly correlates the physical characteristics often found in black women such as a large behind which is often addressed in hip hop music, with having a sexually promiscuous nature. Although these ideas were not created by the hip hop/rap industry and have been around since the time of enslavement, they are popularized and reinforced by the overwhelming sexualization of specifically black women within the music being created today.[61] Hip hop contributes to the overexposure to slut-shaming experienced by black women, manifest both verbally through lyrics used and visually through imagery in music videos and album covers. The imagery that accompanies overtly sexual lyrics is often of the stereotypical normative black female body often adorned in minimal clothing. This imagery of black femininity is then streamlined into the media to be absorbed by the public, therein altering the public's perception of both the standard black female body and the behaviors of black women in general. The effect of this reinforces the public perception that black women are inherently hypersexual beings.[61]
Yet another contributor to the high rates at which black women encounter slut-shaming is because of income inequality. slut-shaming does not permeate high-status circles of women at nearly as high a rate as it does within communities of women that are low-income. As those individuals coming from the powerful position within the already existing ruling class have the ability to dictate what activities, attire, and body standards are deemed respectable they can remove themselves from experiencing slut-shaming much more readily than their marginalized, low-income, BIPOC counterparts.[64] On the flip side, black women are more likely to face poverty because they are statistically more likely to experience unemployment, have lesser pay when employed, and often less of a chance to rise in position in comparison to their white female counterparts, let alone their white male counterparts. So therein, these systems of misogynoir place black women into a financially disadvantaged state, and those who are from lesser incomes are more likely to experience slut-shaming, thus black women are further placed in the position to experience slut-shaming at a greater rate.[63] Furthermore, white and upper-class women are often participators in the shaming of fellow women, especially black women, as this practice allows them to maintain the existing hierarchical dynamics wherein white, high-class women are a symbol of ideals of “true womanhood” and purity and black women are ascribing the characteristics of as deviance and sexually immorality.[62][64]
Although the myth of promiscuity was constructed by white society and spread through all social orders including, political, economic, and educational, today those same ideals can be seen distinctly within the interior social structures of the black community. Black women, in order to gain any social standing, had to do everything in their power to remove themselves from the idea of being promiscuous. For black women distancing themselves from all forms of perceived sensuality allowed them to a rise in social positioning. In turn, they forced themselves into a strict modesty culture in order to assimilate and rise in standing within white social structures. Those same women who conformed to the modesty standards set by white society, and did so in order to shirk their preconceived sexual nature that was also ascribed to them by white society seem to have little to no sympathy for black women within the community that chose not to assimilate into this system of forced modesty. Therein the process of slut-shaming is even perpetuated internally from black female individuals to one another.[62]
Among lesbian and bisexual women[edit]
Along with gay and bisexual men, lesbian and bisexual women are also key victims of slut-shaming and bullying. Bisexual women are mainly bullied by other women due to their “open option” choice of preference for both genders.[65] However on the other hand, bisexual and lesbian women are fetishised due to the porn industry, and from this fetishisation a group of people would only see them as a “porn category”. Lesbian porn is one of the most searched for categories in the porn industry.[66] Lesbian women have struggled with the concept of straight men trying to convert them into a different sexuality[67] as they are viewed by that group of men as a porn category or a “sexual object, this is due how some groups only understand the concept of lesbianism only what they see on media. Women in the porn industry are putting on a show to entertain, so they’re shown as feminine seductress figure that’s very promiscuous,[66] which of course is false to reality. Linking to that issue, lesbianism is considered to exist outside of the male gaze, therefore there’s this frustration for some men that they are unable to pursue women in these groups. However, there’s also group of individuals that view any members of the LGBTQ+ community as predatory. Especially some women towards lesbians, how they assume members of that community will actively pursue them due to their preference and stereotype them as predatory. For bisexual and lesbian women, both genders vent their frustration based on homophobia, false media and their indifference to “societal stereotypes”.However, this does not only apply to lesbian women, but gay men are also stereotyped to be predatory by some groups of heterosexual/straight males.[65]