‘Slut!’ is by no means a subtle book. For one, it’s luminous green and emblazoned with what has become the 21st Century’s scarlet letter – ‘Slut!’ in neon pink. It’s not really a book you can read in Starbucks without getting a lot of stares, yet the dirty looks I got whilst reading (maybe not helped by my matching Illamasqua neon green nail polish) were one of the first issues this book raised for me. I know very few girls who haven’t at some point either called someone a slut or been called a slut themselves. I mean my nine year old sister’s asked what it means, I’ve heard old women remark on a celebrities ‘slutty’ clothing in the queue to buy my lunch in Marks and Spencer’s and I’ve heard it said tenfold in school corridors and common rooms. It’s not an uncommon word in fact, as Tanenbaum’s book reveals there’s about fifty other synonyms for ‘slut,’ yet it still possesses a shock factor. All are words that probably roll far too easily off the tongue in passing comment, or are thrown without thinking in an argument, yet when written down and considered are extremely provocative.
When I opened ‘Slut’ this was the first proper page, I added to it, at times along with the ever so insightful help of Urban Dictionary, I guess I’ve never really given much thought into just how unbalanced the vocabulary was when it came to the connotations of men and women’s sexual expression. But after reading the nouns it’s pretty easy to follow Tanenbaum’s argument that the views we have of sexually active men and women are one of the last double standards. I remember a moment when in a Religious Studies class we were doing a presentation on women, we made up this powerpoint that had images of women we found inspiring from history, literature and popular culture. It was pretty lengthy, including everyone from Anne Frank to Audrey Hepburn, it also included the cast of Sex and the City. The only response we got from fellow pupils at the end of the presentation was how we shouldn’t have included the cast of Sex and the City because they were sluts. Is that what Carrie Bradshaw’s life was about? Being a slut? Were the Sex and the City girls not heralding the modern, independent, liberated women of today? It would certainly seem that by vocabulary alone we’ve accepted that females should be much more constrained in terms of sexual exploration and the upholding of their reputation as society judges them harder. I attended an all girl’s school, otherwise known as the nerve centre of judgements and passing comments. Teachers included. Not everybody of course, but a lot of the people. I remember being called a slut and being associated with a whole tirade of ridiculous and implausible rumours. A situation that Tanenbaum’s book reveals a lot of girls face, irrespective of race, age, time or place, or which exact noun is used.
One such girl who faced words like slut, slag and whore was Phoebe Prince. Phoebe was a young girl from County Clare, Ireland who emigrated to America with her family in 2009. She began to attend South Hadley High School in Massachusetts, Phoebe had been bullied in Ireland and probably viewed the move as a whole fresh start and chance of freedom. However, in Massachusetts Phoebe began to be bullied once again, according to TIME Magazine her female peers publicly taunted her, crossed out her picture on student-body posters and abused her through social networking sites. The events escalated to such an extent that on January 14th 2010 after a day of harassment in which a can was thrown at Phoebe alongside the words ‘You Irish slut, you Irish whore,’ Phoebe went home and hung herself from her stairwell. It’s a terrible story, that shouldn’t have had the tragic end it did for so many reasons. Even worse, subsequent to her suicide the very girls that had called her all those names logged on to Facebook and mocked her death on the memorial page. Nine teenagers were eventually charged for causing the suicide of Phoebe Prince but that in fact, doesn’t change a lot. It doesn’t take all the slanderous words thrown at Phoebe Prince back, and it certainly doesn’t bring her back. Evidentially there appears to be somewhat of an underestimation in regards to the extent to which words can be detrimental to a person. Most likely because of how common words such as ‘slut’ are within popular culture today. I’m actually surprised at just how many times all the above words feature in episodes of One Tree Hill!
Glass ceilings have been broken in education, the workplace and courts of law yet what seems the simplest thing to change – how we personally treat people, what we say to them and how we act around them appears to still be a contentious issue. When it comes to negative words referring to male promiscuity there are very few. Particularly very few that can be utilized in the same hurtful and vindictive way as their female counterparts. Whilst Phoebe Prince was taunted for her relationship with a high school football player; he was most likely congratulated. This is a subject films such as ‘Easy A’ have begun to explore; Gluck’s film tells of a girl in high school labeled a ‘dirty skank’ (amongst other names) through the power of rumor alone, whilst guy’s pay her to pretend to hook up with them for accolade. Indeed, there are nearly as many positive words for a sexually active male as there are negative words for a sexually active female.
Furthermore Tanenbaum’s book accentuates the extent to which these negative nouns are accelerated by the use of cliques and most frequently girl on girl bullying. This becomes even more evidential by the sale of books entitled ‘Little Girls Can Be Mean: Four Steps to Bully-Proof Girls in the Early Grades’ – I don’t know what is most shocking here. The suggestion that parents need to ‘bully – proof’ their children? That bullying occurs as early as primary school? That the most common type of bullying is girl on girl? What happened to girl power? Certainly despite it’s depiction of girl on girl bullying ‘Mean Girls’ is often cited as the most quotable film ever as opposed to a parable. Even the girls at Phoebe Prince’s school were rumoured to be known as the ‘Mean Girls.’ Furthermore, Tannebaum discusses in her book the extent to which the slanderous nouns thrown at girls by girls are often not anything to do with sex at all – rather they are cheap and easy insults to throw, automated responses, often only one syllable in length but capable of hurting a lot longer and often masking jealousies and insecurities of the accuser.
We’re now known for being a high speed, short attention span, shock factor culture – rumours spread like wildfire and snap judgements are made. About everything and anything. It appears to be evidential by tragic cases such as those of Phoebe Price and Tanenbaum’s book of personal interviews and memories that often comments about our peers are passed too fast as well. Sometimes I think everyone needs to just stop, breathe and follow that old rule 'if you don't have anything nice to say don't say it at all.' I guess ‘Slut!’ is just one of those books that as you read raises a lot of questions, thoughts and feelings and possibly even changes the way you think about things. Sometimes they’re the best books.
