The slut issue
- Thread starter Kakashi on crack
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Hmm, what would be the non-offensive alternative I wonder? "Promiscuous" has a negative connotation to it as well, so does "town bike" and other such terms.
Would "overly sexed" be good? Is there even a possible equivalent to "liar" or "gamer" when the subject is "women who have tons of sex"?
Would "overly sexed" be good? Is there even a possible equivalent to "liar" or "gamer" when the subject is "women who have tons of sex"?
Try "vivacious". It means "full of life and energy", and works rather nicely as a non-derogatory term for someone who enjoys sex.Dreiko said:
I think that if it's an insult or not is base purely on context. Taken at face value, without, you know, the person saying it being pissed off at the time, the word means exactly what it's meant to describe.Mortai Gravesend said:
Aris Khandr said:
I think that's a bit too aloof and open to interpretation. You definitely can make it sound as such but we're going for a more precise thing here. One that can't be mistaken and explained away as something different than what it is without much effort.
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^Listen to this person.manic_depressive13 said:
Seriously, it's not hard to understand, it is a derogatory term, it's purpose is to be insulting so of course people are going to feel insulted when you use it to describe them.
Definition form dictionary.com:
An immoral or dissolute woman; prostitute.
Do you now see what's wrong?
If you want to point out the fact that they have a lot of sex without being insulting you better find another word, since English isn't my first language and I don't really speak about sex often I have no idea what this word would be, but I'm sure it exists, if it doesn't then make one up, that's how the language evolves anyway.
If we're looking to coin a term, perhaps "dionysian", after the Greek Dionysus, the god of wine and ecstasy (not the drug).Dreiko said:
Not to be a buzzkill, but you wouldn't be coining a term. Camille Paglia did that in the late 1980s.Aris Khandr said:
I do like Dionysian as a term for sexually open women, though.
Eh, my dictionary didn't have it, and Firefox also didn't think it was a word. As long as it works, though.
Problem: when did "slut" come to mean "a woman who is honest about her sex drive, and enjoys sex?" Because I never heard it used that way until the slut walk movement started up. Up until that point, I'd always understood it to mean "woman who sleeps around to an unsafe degree. Female equivalent of man-whore." Why are we supposed to act like that's a good thing again?
Edit: more specifically, it has connotations of using men for sex and casting them aside like old laundry. A woman who has sex with a lot of men isn't a slut. A woman who hits on random strangers with the express intent of getting something from them, whether the sex itself or something in return for sex, and who -- importantly -- doesn't give a rip about the feelings of her targets, would in fact be a slut. I kind of feel like "woman who enjoys sex" is an attempt to re-define it as something positive, not the actual traditional definition of the word.
Edit: more specifically, it has connotations of using men for sex and casting them aside like old laundry. A woman who has sex with a lot of men isn't a slut. A woman who hits on random strangers with the express intent of getting something from them, whether the sex itself or something in return for sex, and who -- importantly -- doesn't give a rip about the feelings of her targets, would in fact be a slut. I kind of feel like "woman who enjoys sex" is an attempt to re-define it as something positive, not the actual traditional definition of the word.
And yet if you ask anyone involved with the slut walk movement (which is ultimately the reason we're having this conversation), they'll tell you that's exactly what it means, and since that's not a bad thing, we shouldn't be using the word as a pejorative. It absolutely boggles the mind.JimB said:
I don't know what a Slut Walk is where you're from, but here they are protests against rape, not about enjoying sex. To participate in a Slut Walk is to demonstrate a woman should not have to change her attitude or clothing to avoid getting raped, but that people shouldn't rape in the first place.Owyn_Merrilin said:
Always assuming that a word has the more negative connotation is just as absurd. A large number of words can be used with other meanings, but you ant let your mind default on the lesser one.Mortai Gravesend said:
Look up why they're called slut walks. It involved a cop suggesting that women probably shouldn't walk alone in a bad part of town "dressed like a slut," and it snowballed from there. It's primarily a protest against rape, but it's the use of the word "slut" that got everyone pissed off in the first place, and that definition is the reason frequently given for why the word itself is so offensive.Stasisesque said: