Slutshaming

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Slutshaming ( Engl . For bitches-shaming ) is a practice with the people, especially women and girls, attacked and insulted that the expected behavior of the company, and appearance in relation to sexuality disagree. Affected are, for example, people who wear clothing that is perceived as sexually provocative, who can be identified as sexually active through the use of contraception , who practice premarital sexuality, who have alternating sexual partners or who work in prostitution. Another example is victim blaming ( placing a “blame” on the victim) of victims of rape or other sexual assault . Women are declared to be the perpetrators of the respective crimes, for example because they were dressed “provocatively” or engaged in sexual advances. Slutshaming is therefore part of the rape culture . The term is also used in connection with gay men who are judged for possible promiscuous behavior. Slutshaming is practiced by both women and men.

Origin of the term

In 1999 the feminist Leora Tanenbaum published the book Slut !: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation, in which she dealt with the practice of shaming sexually active women and her own experiences with it. She used the term slut bashing, which was later replaced by slut shaming.

The term slutshaming was probably used from 2011 and made known through the slutwalks . After a Toronto police officer said at a prevention event at York University that women shouldn't dress like sluts in order to be better protected from sex crimes, a worldwide protest against slutshaming formed. At demonstrations, women demanded their right to sexual self-determination and protested against perpetrator-victim reversal. The aim of the slutwalks was to raise awareness of slutshaming as well as a positively defined appropriation (as a chosen self-designation) of the term slut / slut.

Examples of slutshaming

In 1998, Monica Lewinsky , then a White House intern , came into the public eye for a brief affair with US President Bill Clinton . The expression was not yet widespread at the time, but the events are considered a prominent case of Slutshaming: the media assumed Lewinsky was promiscuous and the Fox broadcaster even conducted a survey of viewers as to whether she was an “ average girl ” or “ a tramp looking for adventures . The Wall Street Journal called her a "total idiot" (tard) . The New York Times author Maureen Dowd was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for an article in which she called Lewinsky a "stupid, predatory White House intern" (ditzy, predatory White House intern) . Lewinsky later stated that she suffered greatly from this public abuse. She had developed a post-traumatic stress disorder and suicidal intentions, and she had been denied jobs. The slutshaming never stopped.

In a study of promiscuity that surveyed 810 female college students in the United States, it was found that young women with high levels of sexual contact were significantly more affected by slutshaming, bullying, and stigma than others. On the other hand, they often have good friendships with others, which is due to a rather extroverted character. Slutshaming could cause separation from other people, mistrust, social fears and general insecurity among those affected.

In the USA, dress codes for girls in schools were also sometimes viewed as slutshaming and discussed controversially. If, for example, a student is excluded from class because her clothes are too provocative (for example a top with spaghetti straps ), she receives the signal that she is responsible for any sexual assault in her life. In Germany, too, some schools set regulations for girls' clothing. This is usually justified by wanting to maintain “the order of the school”. In a brochure by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation on the subject of “Sexism” in 2017, this was described as promoting “rape myths”. In 2019, the women's rights organization Pinkstinks Germany criticized the unequal treatment of girls and boys on this issue.

literature

  • Leora Tanenbaum: Slut !: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation , 1999.
  • Leora Tanenbaum: I am not a slut. Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet , 2015

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From feminismus101.de: Slut Shaming. In: Feminismus 101. June 6, 2012, accessed on July 25, 2020 (German).
  2. ↑ Slut Shaming and Online Dating - frauenseiten.bremen. April 22, 2020, accessed on July 25, 2020 (German).
  3. ↑ Olga Khazan: There's No Such Thing as a Slut. In: The Atlantic. Retrieved May 28, 2014, July 25, 2020 (American English).
  4. ↑ Slut Shaming - FUMA Gender & Diversity Unit. Retrieved on July 25, 2020 (German).
  5. ↑ The Shaming of Monica: Why We Owe Her an Apology. In: Time.com. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Alexandra Eul: Protest: Slutwalks in Germany. In: Emma. Retrieved July 25, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Slutwalk: Hundreds of women demonstrate against sexual violence. In: Die Zeit (online). Retrieved July 25, 2020 .
  8. ↑ a b The Shaming of Monica: Why We Owe Her an Apology. In: Time. May 9, 2014, accessed July 25, 2020 .
  9. ^ Monica Lewinsky: Monica Lewinsky: Emerging from “the House of Gaslight” in the Age of #MeToo. In: Vanity Fair. Retrieved July 25, 2020 (English).
  10. ^ Nina Bahadur: What Your Sex Life Could Say About Your Social Life. In: Huffington Post. April 8, 2015, accessed July 25, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Do Promiscuous People Really Have Fewer Friends? In: Psychology Today. Retrieved July 25, 2020 (English).
  12. ^ The Long-Term Effects Of Slut-Shaming. In: Bustle. Retrieved July 25, 2020 (English).
  13. ^ The problem with slut shaming in schools. In: LA Times. February 22, 2016, accessed on July 25, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Message: Announcement to schoolgirls: "Hot pants are too blatant, strapless is okay". In: The world . July 5, 2018, accessed August 11, 2020.
  15. ↑ Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (ed.): It's a compliment ... Claims and facts about sexism. 2nd, corrected edition. In: Luxemburg arguments. No. 9, Berlin, December 2017, p. 17 ( PDF: 2.2 MB, 44 pages on rosalux.de).
  16. ↑ Nils: Can my daughter go to school in hot pants? In: Pinkstinks.de. March 12, 2019, accessed August 11, 2020 .