Slut-shaming has become more rampant and acceptable than ever before in our surveillance-saturated culture. Girls deserve better.
Meanwhile, the early-developing classmate rumored to let boys “feel her up” behind the A&P might very well find her phone hacked, her private images sold to porn sites and published along with her name and address. But as horrible, even traumatic, as these experiences were, the school slut of yesterday had an option that the school slut of today does not: She could transfer to another school and start a new life. Today, no one really gets to start fresh, ever.
I tell parents to shift their focus. Instead of seeing their daughters’ appearance as a problem, they must identify the real problem: the sexist practice of—judging girls and women negatively because of their real or assumed sexual behavior. When people are dismissed as sluts or hoes, they are denied care and compassion in a variety of situations, including when they are sexually harassed, sexually assaulted and need an abortion.