Hi,
Both Jac and Bones mentioned being called epithets like "slut" and "whore." So cruel.
I think many of us internalize those things, and belatedly, it has hit me that the women who are promiscuous, and the women who are prostitutes, are painfully acting out a script of survival. When I think of prostitutes or see documentaries they're in, I always stop and think: 9 times out of 10 (or more), these were sexually abused or beaten young girls who ran away from home out of desperation, and turned to tricking because they had no other thing to sell. What looks lurid and contemptuous of mores, and even the behaviors they've adopted, are the behaviors of abused children, rape survivors, incest survivors, abandonment survivors.
So when someone uses "whore" to insult a woman, I think, those prostitutes have just as much human value as any pious person, and I will not join you in thinking of them as less human.
Same for "slut". I've never known one who wasn't searching for some kind of love she needed and never found.
So defuse dem damn insults! They are our sisters. And little old round-heeled me could've invented a brand-new term for "easy" back a few decades ago.
Slut. Whore. Hmmppphh. These terms come from a lack of empathy, imo.
Chastely,
Hops