Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @felixistrash

I have a strange "slut" shaming story for you. Let's start off by saying that at the time this happened, I had never even had my first kiss yet. Not that I've had it now.

Where I come from, "slut" is as common as "hello." You're constantly greeted with a "hi whore!" or a "my makeup looks so slutty!" and I never felt comfortable with it. But, for some reason, the word with a nonchalant connotation turned sour for me at around 7th grade.

My friends and I were all sitting at lunch, and I was wearing an off the shoulder shirt. Apparently, you could see part of my bra strap, to which my friend "Kayla" said, "Lily, you're such a slut. Your bra strap is showing."

I was appalled and as soon as I got home, I cried to my mom. She was furious, especially because it was very false. It got worse when people greeted me with "slut" and "whore." My mom went to the principal, who did nothing except give our grade a talk that had this exact quote in it, which I will never forget: "In order to prevent the boys from being distracted, the girls need to cover themselves up."

I was furious. Does the education of the boys matter more than the education of the girls? I ran home, again in tears, and the cycle repeated. Until my friend made the mistake of calling me a "whore" in front of my dad, who is a very muscley guy. He, as politely as he could, asked her to stop doing that and she stopped. It happens periodically, but for the most part it's over.