Can ‘Slut’ be reclaimed?

SlutWalk’s controversial name has sparked a debate amongst feminists and women’s rights campaigners about whether it is possible to re-appropriate the word ‘slut’ and whether or not it is a word that women want to reclaim.

‘Slut’ is a word that is used to demonise and humiliate women. As a response to a woman’s sexual behaviour, it exercises control over female sexuality through the verbal power to shame. It is a word that does not apply to men, who are praised for such behaviour as ‘seducers,’ ‘libertines,’ ‘babe-magnets’.

Nobody should have moral judgements imposed on them for their enjoyment of sex. But it is solely women who bear the brunt of our society’s habit of doing so. This is reflected by the UK’s shockingly low conviction rate for sexual assault. So much rape and sexual abuse goes unreported, precisely because of words like ‘slut’ and the implication that what a woman wears, how much she has drunk, what her sexual history is like, has an impact on the crime committed and how seriously it is taken when reported.

It is the impact imposing moral values on a woman’s sexual behaviour, in terms of either purity or promiscuity that is precisely why words like ‘slut’ cannot be reclaimed. Doing so trivialises the power that the word has to bully and undermine.

Attempts to reclaim language are generally unsuccessful. There have been various attempts to reclaim and decontaminate other words of hatred, such as ‘queer’ and ‘nigger’. Yet no community has successfully and coherently reclaimed a word. And this language remains steeped in oppression and discrimination.

If SlutWalk was to develop into a movement focussed on reclaiming oppressive words, this would be a step backwards.

Not only is this re-appropriation not possible, but the struggle for women’s liberation will not take place on the terrain of language. We will win equality by challenging sexist ideas and attitudes and by changing the material conditions which give rise to them.

To try to reclaim the word ‘slut’ is to recognise the power of patriarchy and continue it, rather than to challenge it.