Please note that in this entry the term "sex" always means consensual sex. Any sexual act that is not consensual is not sex; it is an act of violence.
This short entry is only a focus on the meaning of one word. As much as I would love to write an introduction on how gender is socially constructed and discursive-regulatory discourses determine biological facts -- and how the concept of "masculine" and "feminine" are merely performances which have been produced as "truths" and taught to us from birth, I will stop myself. And no matter how much I want to talk about the commodification of sex in our mass-consumerist society, I simply don't have the space.
That is another book in itself. Quite simply, the word "slut" means an individual although the word is commonly referred to females who frequently engages in sexual activity with a lot of partners. When describing a male who frequently engages in sexual activity with a lot of partners, the words usually used are stud, a player, horn dog, heartbreaker etc However, "male slut" is usually a label that men wear with pride; it is a term of approval and envy.
A male who frequently has sex with a lot of partners is patted on the back, looked up to with admiration because he is "merely carrying out a role that is assigned to him as a man.
(mh/u003d913_qZ3jT_5Bup6Z)12.jpg "Whores in Iran")
In females however the disapproval is taken to the realm of stigmatization. A female's pursuit of sexual pleasure and being sexually adventurous is still seen as a negative characteristic, somehow making her a "bad" human being. A female is not defined in terms of her humanity, but in terms of her sex life. Surely a human being should be measured by their human qualities and characteristics: kind-hearted, funny, lazy, expressive, determined, shy, mean, boring, bossy, happy-go-lucky etc How can an individual's sex life define them wholly as a human being?
