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Ah douchebags! What would the interwebs be without you? Last week’s entertainingly disturbing Twitter war on slut shaming (read all about it here) was a cacophony of name-calling between sluts, bitches, hairy feminists and stupid lesbians on the one side, and entitled, ignorant douchefaces on the other.
I’m happy to report that the multi-gendered sluts took home a decisive victory. The douches/douchettes were hopelessly outgunned, so it was a lot like shooting fish in a barrel – particularly stupid, rapey fish.
You see, slut-shamers, by definition, are as dumb as they are vicious. For some bizarre reason, they think they’re cool. I’m not sure when exactly it became cool to come across like Carrie’s mother, but somehow this seems to make sense in their wet little brains.
And they don’t even seem to know what a “slut” actually is. The dictionary definition is (and I quote) “an immoral or dissolute woman; prostitute”, but for slut-shamers the word might well mean (and I paraphrase) “any reasonably attractive woman who allows herself to be photographed while in possession of her own tits”.
It’s entirely dependent on the slut-shamer’s personal level of prudishness. No woman (or girl, for that matter) is safe.
The obvious question is why do they do it? What motivates these internet versions of Mother Grundies to go all Joan Crawford on victims they barely know?
The fact that slut-shamers can be either gender, but only women are shamed is a big clue. Since I’m a man, I can pretty much do whatever I want.
If I decide, on a whim, to go to a bar in a short, tight dress, most people will just smirk and think I’m with a bachelor party, or something. If I decide to tell everyone I shave my balls but not my armpits, nobody gives a shit.
I’ve done some really stupid things in stupid places while pissed out my skull, and the worst I’ve walked away with is a few cuts and bruises – mostly with a happy face and a new story for the locker room.
But that’s because as a person with a penis, I have permanent, renewable licence to fuck up. And that’s exactly the way it should be for everyone. Unless it includes a horrible crime, the first half of anyone’s life is a learning curve, a series of forgivable trials and errors.
But women don’t have this right. In the fraction of a second it takes to snap a photo, a life can be ruined. A wrong dress, a wrong drink, a wrong bar, a misplaced trust, or a mistimed facial expression is often enough to judge and publically humiliate someone for life.
Or worse. Do I even need to mention that slut-shamers support rape culture, whether they believe it or not? Of course I don’t.
You’ve heard of moral watchdogs? Well, slut-shamers are immoral attack dogs, cowards that pick their targets with cunning cruelty, and then justify their actions as if they’re wise teachers on some moral high ground: “…in life people need to know that there are consequences, consequences that we are not in control of”, says one (female) slut-shamer, blissfully unaware that she sounds like a disease that thinks it’s a cure.
You can’t teach people to avoid a consequence when you ARE a consequence.
While slut-shaming exists, don’t think for a second that men and women are equal. Not until himbo-shaming becomes a worldwide phenomenon, anyway.
But I’ve got a better idea: shaming the slut-shamers right back. If last week’s Twitter war is anything to go by, these douchebags can’t take their own medicine.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
I’m happy to report that the multi-gendered sluts took home a decisive victory. The douches/douchettes were hopelessly outgunned, so it was a lot like shooting fish in a barrel – particularly stupid, rapey fish.
You see, slut-shamers, by definition, are as dumb as they are vicious. For some bizarre reason, they think they’re cool. I’m not sure when exactly it became cool to come across like Carrie’s mother, but somehow this seems to make sense in their wet little brains.
And they don’t even seem to know what a “slut” actually is. The dictionary definition is (and I quote) “an immoral or dissolute woman; prostitute”, but for slut-shamers the word might well mean (and I paraphrase) “any reasonably attractive woman who allows herself to be photographed while in possession of her own tits”.
It’s entirely dependent on the slut-shamer’s personal level of prudishness. No woman (or girl, for that matter) is safe.
The obvious question is why do they do it? What motivates these internet versions of Mother Grundies to go all Joan Crawford on victims they barely know?
The fact that slut-shamers can be either gender, but only women are shamed is a big clue. Since I’m a man, I can pretty much do whatever I want.
If I decide, on a whim, to go to a bar in a short, tight dress, most people will just smirk and think I’m with a bachelor party, or something. If I decide to tell everyone I shave my balls but not my armpits, nobody gives a shit.
I’ve done some really stupid things in stupid places while pissed out my skull, and the worst I’ve walked away with is a few cuts and bruises – mostly with a happy face and a new story for the locker room.
But that’s because as a person with a penis, I have permanent, renewable licence to fuck up. And that’s exactly the way it should be for everyone. Unless it includes a horrible crime, the first half of anyone’s life is a learning curve, a series of forgivable trials and errors.
But women don’t have this right. In the fraction of a second it takes to snap a photo, a life can be ruined. A wrong dress, a wrong drink, a wrong bar, a misplaced trust, or a mistimed facial expression is often enough to judge and publically humiliate someone for life.
Or worse. Do I even need to mention that slut-shamers support rape culture, whether they believe it or not? Of course I don’t.
You’ve heard of moral watchdogs? Well, slut-shamers are immoral attack dogs, cowards that pick their targets with cunning cruelty, and then justify their actions as if they’re wise teachers on some moral high ground: “…in life people need to know that there are consequences, consequences that we are not in control of”, says one (female) slut-shamer, blissfully unaware that she sounds like a disease that thinks it’s a cure.
You can’t teach people to avoid a consequence when you ARE a consequence.
While slut-shaming exists, don’t think for a second that men and women are equal. Not until himbo-shaming becomes a worldwide phenomenon, anyway.
But I’ve got a better idea: shaming the slut-shamers right back. If last week’s Twitter war is anything to go by, these douchebags can’t take their own medicine.
Follow Women24 on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
