slut

a 2019 meta-analysis of sexual double standards by Joyce J. Endendijk et al. found that when people find out that a boy and a girl have had sex, he is a stud, but she is a slut. Only 22% of boys and 15% of girls say sex hurts a boy's reputation, while 70% of boys and 87% of girls say a girl's reputation is damaged. Both sexes conclude it's not fair, but that's the way it is. However, "slut," says Stephanie Rosenbloom (New York Times), "which originated in the Middle Ages, has emerged from a schoolyard barb to become commonplace in popular culture, marketing, and casual conversation." She points to novelty shops and websites that sell Slut lip balm, bubble bath, soap and lotion, to a cocktail known as the Red-Headed Slut, to casually described voraciousness ("coffee slut," "TV slut"). But Leora Tanenbaum (Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation) says being labeled a slut is still painful and humiliating despite pop culture's semi-embrace of the term. After interviewing more than 100 women between 14 and 66 who had been pigeonholed as sluts, Tanenbaum found that the label can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, leading to greater promiscuity, or it can act as a brake, leading a woman to shut down sexually. As for the liberal use of the word today, "It's still too hurtful."