As Told to LIZ WELCH “I’ve spent endless hours on the Internet trying to find someone like me, with my story, but I never found her. I’m sharing my story here because I know she exists, and I want her to know she’s not alone.” Read more…
As Told to LIZ WELCH I’ve been going to the same camp since fifth grade. My friends and I were considered the “second cool bunk” –- the quirky girls, mostly from New York who didn’t really hang out with the boys that much. The “first tier” girls were the hot girls. They were more sexually […]
Since 2012, a community of teen girls in NYC has been leading the charge to end slut shaming and transform rape culture through theater, writing, and youth-lead activism. The girls, all high-school students, and their mentors at The Arts Effect, an award-winning activist theater company, developed SLUT: The Play (written by Katie Cappiello). Inspired by […]
By RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL There are times when the debate about whether we can reclaim the word “slut” echoes the one over who gets to call herself a feminist. We find ourselves going in circles, never resolving what either word represents in women’s lives. But what “slut” and slut-shaming represent are not just about identity […]
By JULIE ZEILINGER Few things are more confusing than America’s relationship with sex. We puritanically disavow sexual activity, for example, yet allow erotica to dominate our screens both in public and in private. Such hypocrisy places women in an especially precarious position, as they must walk the subjective, ever-changing line between “prude” and “slut,” often expected to embody […]
If you’ve been paying attention to the media over the past couple of years, you will be familiar with the term “slut-shaming”. It is a horrific attempt to downplay a young woman’s sexuality, and in essence brush off any sexual crimes that may have been committed against her. While the issue of double standards when […]
By DANICA DAVIDSON Throughout history, the word “slut” has been lobbed at women in order to shame them and make them feel bad about their sexuality. Even if you love the word or hope to reclaim it, every woman will probably be called a slut at one point or another. And the odds of this name-calling […]
By GABRIELLE KORN Slut: Just a word, right? Well… not really. As an insult, it’s a way to shame women for their sexuality—but it’s also a word that’s used to justify rape. Slut, a play, explores those questions and more. It was created by The Arts Effect in collaboration with NYC high school students, and uses their experiences with sexual […]
By ELEANOR J. BADER When I was 14 years old, my mother saw my best friend necking with an unidentified boy. By the time Mom arrived home, she was apoplectic, and barred me from socializing with “that slut” ever again. Growing up is always hard, as is parsing truth from fiction. In this case, my mother […]
By CHERYL WILLIS Governor Andrew Cuomo has been targeting sexual assaults on college campus, and there’s a growing movement among high school girls to support this initiative. NY1’s Cheryl Wills filed this report. “I’m a liar and a slut to everybody and it doesn’t even matter what actually happened,” She’s still in high school but […]