Finally, a label I can really get behind...

Stephanie Rosenbloom of the New York Times has written an article on the changing meaning of the word "slut." Apparently, "like 'queer' and 'pimp' before it, the word slut seems to be moving away from its meaning as a slur." [my italics]

Wait, so the sluts of the world are using the word as a term of endearment/familiarity within their own slut community, thereby removing the negative connotation of the word and 'making it their own'? That doesn't sound right... none of my slut friends call each other sluts... And me, I really prefer the term "bitch," as in "Hell yeah, bitches!" Oh, no that's not what she meant... it seems she's not too familiar with the actual way in which the term 'queer' was, in her words, "tamed."

But back to the article... Rosenbloom goes on to warn that while the word "slut" is being used as an endearment term within teen communities, it is really a dangerous situation for the girls' self-esteem. You see, they're all mixed up about what it means to be a slut:

“'All of our pop icons look like porn stars,' Ms. Rubenstein [editor in chief of Seventeen magazine] said. 'However they’re all virgins, quote unquote,' she said, referring to Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears. 'That’s a very complex message to send to girls.'”

Holy crap, that is complex; girls who both express their sexuality and repress it. How confusing. No, no, my friend Ms. Rubenstein, despite the fact that you obviously have oyur finger on the pulse of the American teenaged girl, I don't think complex is really the right word to capture the message. I believe the correct word would be bullshit. I'm not sure how up on the times Rubenstein is, but no matter how virginal Britney Spears may have said she was in the past, she now has two kids by a man whom she married before his ex had yet borne their child. Perhaps this behavior, this choice in mate, is something too complex for a young girl to understand; however the fact that a pop star claims she's a virgin but acts like a whore merely sends the same message to children that they receive from their parents: "Do as I say, not as I do."

Well it appears that in response to an incredibly meandering article, I wrote an incredibly meandering rant. I am such a slut.