revisiting old topics: how do we define slut?

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The very first real post on this blog was my musings on what marks the difference between an empowered woman, in charge of her sexuality (which is what we Albright Sex Fairies clearly fancy ourselves to be) and a slut. While I've gotten my judgmental attitude decidedly more in check then, I still ponder this question from time to time. I've decided to no longer use the word "slut" (or any of its derivatives) at all, period, but this word clearly holds an enormous meaning to most people and it's worth exploring.

I try to ask people, particularly men, what their definition of slut is, when I can (great dinner party conversation). I find it fascinating because most people either have a fixed number in their head at which point slutdom begins (e.g., 16 partners? Just having fun. 20? OMG WHORE), or there is just some general slut-tastic vibe they get. Meatball has used the word a few times, and whenever he does I make sure to grill him about what exactly he means when he says a girl is a slut: he doesn't know, is what it comes down to. She just is, she's easy, she sleeps around (what does THAT mean?). So while slut might be a meaningless word in that it has no real definition, it can still wreak havoc on someone's self esteem to be slapped with that label, especially as it's not very difficult for verbal harassment to move into the realm of physical and sexual harassment.  It's well-documented how deeply harmful this can be. And of course, it's so accepted that it almost goes without saying that one never hears the word "slut" or "whore" applied to men in a negative light. 

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In the college context, I find this particularly dangerous because on many campuses, the accepted form of interaction with the opposite sex is hooking up (another word that is nigh impossible to define). While I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing across the board, it's easy to get blasted with a terrible reputation for simply indulging in one's sexual urges a little too publicly or too frequently for your campus's moral climate.

So what're we to do? I think examining one's own definitions and biases around sexually active women is a great place to start. Try dismantling other people's use of the word, or at least bringing their attention to what they're really saying and how ludicrous it is. And keep an eye out for the exploitation of it in pop culture (when I searched weheartit for images for this post using the word "slut" as my search term, the first six pictures that came up? All Miley Cyrus!), as seen in the lovely image below.

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What do you think? How do you define "slut"? Should it be a loaded word, or should we trend toward getting away from defining female morality based on their sexual activity level (ya'll know how I feel)?

Much love,
The Sheriff