Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Keep your hands off my slut
Leslie Cannold asks:
What's the difference between a woman who "gets with" a guy because he's high status, and a bloke bedding a woman because he likes her breasts, her long legs or the winning way she laughs at his unfunny jokes.
Kerrr-rist, Leslie! The “men are sluts, too, ya know!” argument is as old and hoary as any “unfunny joke” a bloke could possibly be telling these days.
Men are sluts, whose inherent appetite for casual sex is limitless. Exhibit number 1: Gay men. At times in my life (blush), I’ve been a gay slut. Erica Jong may be referring to womanhood generally (though I doubt it) when she claims there to be no such thing as the zipless fuck, but she definitely doesn’t speak for men.
And as for Cannold’s “What's the difference” question, I see it as far from rhetorical. Yes, morality doesn’t – or shouldn’t – throw around loose words like “slut” at a woman who has casual sex with a male footballer or muso. “Stalker” is a much more accurate term.
So keep your greedy mitts off the word “slut”, Leslie. While we blokes don’t exactly own the phrase, we reserve the right to defend it against unfair encroachment. If stalkers are sluts, then the bar of slut-dom has just been raised to ludicrous heights – who ever heard of an ultra-selective slut?
Leslie Cannold asks:
What's the difference between a woman who "gets with" a guy because he's high status, and a bloke bedding a woman because he likes her breasts, her long legs or the winning way she laughs at his unfunny jokes.
Kerrr-rist, Leslie! The “men are sluts, too, ya know!” argument is as old and hoary as any “unfunny joke” a bloke could possibly be telling these days.
Men are sluts, whose inherent appetite for casual sex is limitless. Exhibit number 1: Gay men. At times in my life (blush), I’ve been a gay slut. Erica Jong may be referring to womanhood generally (though I doubt it) when she claims there to be no such thing as the zipless fuck, but she definitely doesn’t speak for men.
And as for Cannold’s “What's the difference” question, I see it as far from rhetorical. Yes, morality doesn’t – or shouldn’t – throw around loose words like “slut” at a woman who has casual sex with a male footballer or muso. “Stalker” is a much more accurate term.
So keep your greedy mitts off the word “slut”, Leslie. While we blokes don’t exactly own the phrase, we reserve the right to defend it against unfair encroachment. If stalkers are sluts, then the bar of slut-dom has just been raised to ludicrous heights – who ever heard of an ultra-selective slut?
