What Are The Impacts of Slut Shaming?

Alex Koniaev: The Psychological Impact

Daniel Kaplan: The Gender Rift

Julia Daigle: The Social Media Effect

Megan Barber: The Impacts of Double Standards

Additional Resources about the Impacts of Slut Shaming

Slut shaming is the act of judging and criticizing a person’s behavior that is assumed to be associated with their sexual activity. The term “slut” is a derogatory label given to those that society views as sexually promiscuous. Over the years, slut shaming has been used increasingly in society’s vocabulary, whether it’s on social media, in school, or everyday gossip. According to Robert Thornberg, a member of the Department of Behavioural Sciences and Learning  at Linköping University in Sweden, “a label is a definition and ‘when applied to a person, it identifies or defines what type of a person he or she is.’” This term has been brought up increasingly in present-day society and has a negative impact in our culture. In present day society, slut shaming can be found nearly everywhere; occurring in schools, coming from both administration in the form of dress codes, and from peers in the form of labelling and bullying. It can also occur online, and as social media expands and becomes more prevalent in modern day society, so does the slut shaming epidemic. There are many reasons why slut shaming occurs. Lisa Wade, the founder of Sociological Images and chair of sociology at Occidental College, claims that slut shaming can be source traced back to the invention of private property and is used to try and control women’s sexuality. Wade says that, historically speaking, controlling women’s sexual behavior was important in identifying the fathers of children. One study claims that the reasoning behind slut shaming, specifically between women, has to do with social class as well as self-serving interests. To some, putting down others is a way of picking themselves up.

Rape culture is blaming the victim rather than rapist for the assault, and saying that the victim did something to provoke the attack. Rape culture teaches women to not get raped, rather than teaching men not to rape. Slut shaming and double standards cause victim-blaming to be prevalent in almost every rape case that has been documented, whether it be by police, the judge, or the public. Slut shaming and sexual assault are both similar in that they are directly influenced by double standards and other negate societal influences.
Not only is slut shaming recognized as a form of bullying among adolescents, but it has also made its way onto the main stage of Twitter, arguably today’s most popular social media outlet, through celebrities such as Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian faced major backlash on Twitter after tweeting a (near) nude selfie. Actress Chloë Grace Moretz responded with a tweet of her own saying “I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer.” Kardashian’s tweet also earned responses from P!nk and Ariel Winter. P!nk took the same side as Moretz, tweeting (indirectly directed at Kim Kardashian) a long message giving a shout out to women who rely on their brains as opposed to their bodies. Winter’s tweet came to the defense of Kim Kardashian inquiring as to why there’s backlash when a female tweets a nude or partially nude photo but not when a male (specifically Justin Bieber) does the same.

Now that we recognize slut shaming as a problem relevant in modern society, an important question to ask is “what are the impacts of slut shaming?” This is an important question to answer when it comes to analyzing the issue(s) that so many children, adolescents, young adults, and even middle aged people face. Personal narratives, mainstream media, and research studies all detail the impacts slut shaming have on society: from contributing to the rise of STDs, to causing suicides and encouraging  rape culture. Slut shaming is a problem that is undeniably present all throughout modern day society and the impact it has on the world needs to be addressed.