You are on page 1of 2

Women

are Sluts? Oh, Yeah?


by Jane Gilgun

All, right, guys, come clean. How many of you call women sluts when youre yukking it up with other men? Im getting suspicious. A few months ago, talk radio host Rush Limbaugh created a stir when he used the word on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student who testified in Congress in favor of insurance coverage for contraceptives at religious-based institutions. Then yesterday, we learned that John Edwards, once a promising candidate for president, called his pregnant mistress Reille Hunter a crazy slut. This came out at his trial for campaign finance fraud. The fraud charges include using campaign funds as hush money for Ms. Hunter. Last year, Constable Michael Sanguinetti said at a crime prevention rally in Canada, women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not be to victimized. These men are clueless. Makes me wonder if the brains of these men are teeny weenies. How many other men think of women as sluts? Ive got news for them. Their power to degrade women with words like slut is gone. Limbaughs radio show lost millions in sponsorship. Edwards is even more disgraced than he was before his use of slut became public. Sanguinetti has yet to live down his use of the word slut. Women are not who men say we are. We know who we are. We define ourselves. Men who call women sluts define themselves.

As important as it is for women to define ourselves and to resist degrading definitions, we also have to be realistic. Men who decide to hurt us define us in their own minds as bitches, whores, and sluts. When they think of us this way, they believe they can do whatever they want to us. Many men do. Hundreds of thousands of women are raped, beaten, and murdered every year in the United States. Globally, the numbers are in the millions, with girls no more exempt than grown women. There is a war on women and girls. How some men define women makes all women unsafe. Lets not kid ourselves about the effects of these degrading words, even as we resist and define ourselves for ourselves and for other women and girls. About the Author Jane F. Gilgun, Ph.D., LICSW, is a professor and writer. See Janes other articles, books, and childrens stories on scribd.com, Kindle, iBooks, Nook, and other on-line booksellers.

You might also like