Alix Lane
Trigger Warning: Slut-Shaming
Have you ever been made out to be something you’re not? Have people spread false information about you or exaggerated something you did in order to make friends or just to gossip? Yeah, we all lived through middle school…and high school…and now university? Throughout the years I’ve come to the invaluable conclusion to not worry about what other people think, the exception maybe being close friends and family. But those floaters in your life, that really won’t matter in the long run, aren’t worth your time and energy.
I want to touch on the harm of slut-shaming and just exactly how it makes someone feel. When I first realized that people were painting me in a bad light because of things I did between long term relationships, I initially brushed it off. I knew the majority of my friends would not boil me down to such an insignificant thing. Later, however, it began to bother me. The majority of high school I was in a long-term relationship and the majority of my university has also been in a long-term relationship, which is really what I prefer, so why was I being talked about in that way?
We should all know by now the double standard that if a guy sleeps with multiple partners it is hardly noticed as anything bad and they certainly don’t lose any respect for it. But if a girl goes around sleeping with multiple partners, she is immediately labelled as someone who “gets around.” If you are a girl who is comfortable with her sexuality and knows exactly what she wants, whether that's a relationship or having fun with anyone you please, don’t feel like you owe anyone an explanation. Often times I’ve realized that when people label you or talk badly about your endeavors, whatever they may be, it often comes from a place of insecurity about an entirely different issue. So that really gives you all the more reason not to care.
Instead, we should all learn to focus more on ourselves and not pass judgment on others so quickly. You really don’t know what someone has going on behind the scenes, and that girl you label a whore or slut could be dealing with something in her life completely unrelated. Or maybe she simply just wants to have fun. And I think that’s what this boils down to. Whenever girls want to express themselves sexually and just do their own thing (not always the case, of course), they are met with criticism and almost dehumanized to an object.
I’ll end off this post with a little lesson I got told in the second grade: treat others the way you want to be treated. If you wouldn’t want someone to talk badly about things you have done in the past, then why do it to someone else? So, go read a book or do schoolwork, because it really doesn’t matter in the long run. People have more to worry about than who's sleeping where or with who.
Here's the link to a well-done article to check out!
コメント