Start calling out the term 'slut-shaming'

[Maedhros]

45. The term appears to have been created by feminists to denounce the use of "slut" as a slur.

Similar, perhaps, to the intent behind the SlutWalk:

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slut-shaming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slut-shaming

In that context, I don't think the term was misogynistic when it was created, but I agree that it might be time to move on from it:

http://jezebel.com/slut-shaming-has-been-tossed-around-so-much-its-los-1478093672

In the a feminist sphere, telling someone she's slut-shaming has mutated into a method of dismissing her argument without engaging with it on any level, of taking issue with her tone and refusing to hear the content. Of course, the tone of these allegedly "slut-shaming"open letters and essays was often scolding or problematic in some other way, but still. It's unproductive for feminists to tell other feminists that their thoughts/anxieties about a certain kind of representation of women in pop culture have no validity whatsoever. And so not only has "slut-shaming" lost its meaning, it's also become censorious. Rather than helping to facilitate debates about how we view sexuality — as it originally did — it now shuts them down before they can even start.

The series of fitful debates about whether someone is "slut-shaming" a public figure can be seen as the feminist equivalent of smarm. As defined by Tom Scocca, smarm is "an assumption of the forms of seriousness, of virtue, of constructiveness, without the substance. Smarm is concerned with appropriateness and with tone." Both sides of the slut-shaming debates are smarmy. In condemning a public figure for objectifying herself and profiting off of her own sexuality, you ignore the larger context in which her actions take place, and you attack a woman personally as a some kind of brainwashed dupe of the patriarchy, as someone who thoughtlessly harms women by complying with destructive sexual norms. Conversely, in accusing someone of slut-shaming a public figure, you dismiss their tone as judgmental and not sex-positive. You characterize them as prudish and a bad or backwards feminist and, as such, you don't deign to engage with the content of what they're saying. All this talk of "slut-shaming" causes us to plow blindly through nuance and to get worked up over distracting trifles. When we tell women that it's ignorant or old-fashioned to feel uncomfortable with over-sexualized depictions of women in the media, we lose sight of the context in which those depictions take place. Because of this, the way we tend to talk about "slut-shaming" can be harmfully reductive.