Your UnSlut Project

Submitted by @thetypewritermagic

I was not slut-shamed myself, but I do have some stories to tell that showed me how much rumors can impact a person.

In elementary school, actually, there was this rumor going around about how this one girl was cutting herself. People were saying that she was depressed. Her best friend told me that she cut herself with safety scissors and that she was totally lame. Now, I didn't know how accurate that was. They also said that she had a lot of medical issues. I really didn't know what to say. She was absent a lot of school days. So, on one of the days that she was at school, I went to her.

I said (let's call her Lara), "Lara, are you okay?"

She didn't say anything for a few moments. Then, she said, "No, not really. People are saying all these terrible rumors about me, and I'm thinking of moving."

I asked, "Well, do your parents know about all this?"

"Yes, they do. They said that if I wanted us to move, we could."

I didn't see her the next day or the day after that. In fact, I never saw her again. I wish to this day that I had stood up for her. I wish that I could have helped her. But I didn't. And I really, really wish I did. This helped me to understand that spreading rumors can really hurt a person.

Also, another instance of something like this was with one of my friends, let's call her Michelle. Michelle got dress-coded for wearing tights. The teacher said that she was revealing too much, and that she shouldn't cause other people to be distracted. The whole week, she raved about it. And I felt really bad for her. She wasn't being revealing or anything of the sort. The teacher however, thought she was. Michelle cried about it for a while, and skipped a few days of school.

The girls at my school took this opportunity to spread rumors about her, that she was a slut and was trying so hard to look good. This was not the case at all! She was a figure skater, and she skated in the mornings and wore tights. When she came back, all the girls started pointing at her and laughing. She never forgot that incident.

Being the friend I was, I learned from my experience with Lara and stood up for her. I told the Queen Bee that she was hurting Michelle and that she should stop. Michelle didn't get teased after that. She never wore tights again, and I realized, yet again, that rumors hurt. They're hard to ignore but easy to accept. I just wish all of this could stop. That all girls can be respected for the choices they make.