Slut! Growing Up Female With a Bad

¶ … Slut! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation" author Leorna Tanenbaum has skillfully tackled the highly controversial subject of labeling. While it appears to be about the negative impact of being called a 'whore' or a 'slut', deep down this essay reflects the sentiments of every victim of labeling. When a person is labeled, he becomes a subject of negative scrutiny, which compels him to either adopt the very behavior that befits the label or start behaving in a completely opposite manner in sheer desperation to get rid of the label. What we don't realize is that the victim goes through immense agony and mental torture as she starts to either conform to the label or oppose it. Both roads are equally dangerous since they reflect a tortured soul that was forced to take a path that he/she would have otherwise avoided. For example a woman who is called a whore may start behaving in a completing un-whore like manner in an attempt to peel off the label that has come to rule her life. In the other extreme case, she may become even more sexually promiscuous in order to conform to the label since she feels she has nothing else to lose now. Both these paths are extreme reactions to the practice of labeling which is very prevalent in American high schools. Author believes that we are still as conservative as we were back in the fifties because of fear of being labeled and looked down upon. "Teens may be having sex, but they also look down on others, especially girls, who are sexually active. Despite the sexual revolution, despite three decades of feminism, despite the Pill and despite legalized abortion, teenage girls today continue to be defined by their sexuality." (Tanenbaum: 20)

What is even more disturbing is to learn that school authorities are completely indifferent to such cases of labeling. Do they even realize what the victims go through? A pertinent question indeed! But the answer sadly appears to be an emphatic No.

According to the research conducted by the author in this connection, there are some similarities in all the cases reported. In each case, the victim was a female. This is a very sad fact that most of the young adults targeted for alleged sexual promiscuity are females. Why do we then show the audacity to blame Muslim countries for their negative reaction to sexual freedom? At least they are sensible enough to have sexual freedom officially restricted. They consider it a sin because it is prohibited by their religion. But they have the courage to pass laws against it and to repress it on an official level. At least there are no double standards existing. It is not like one woman is called a slut for sexual promiscuity and the other one is not. They treat all women with sexually casual behavior the same way. In our country on the other hand, we have such blatant disregard for equality that double standards have almost become a norm. While some women in high schools actually exhibit casual behavior towards sex are not targeted because they are popular or have managed to keep their good girl image intact by being discreet, there are others who are quickly picked on simply because they are not so well-connected and are considered weird by some standards. The victim girl may never have had sexual experience or she may be just as sexually aware as the next girl but once she becomes target of labels, she becomes a laughingstock. She is treated with disrespect, fails to make friends and is generally considered an outcast. However the same never happens to a male. Oddly enough, most men can brag about their sexual experience while women are supposed to be 'good' and chaste. In a study conducted by educators Ward and Taylor, it was found that regardless of race or ethnic background, "boys were generally allowed more freedom and were assumed to be more sexually active than girls." (Tanenbaum: 23)

The other similarity in all the cases was the age of the victims. In most cases females were under 30 years of age, a disturbingly large number of them were high school students. It reveals that extent to which school environment in America is promoting labeling. We have school authorities that are so apathetic to the whole issue that they have only caused the problem to aggravate. Their indifference has turned the school environment favorable to the practice of labeling. High school girls are still in their impressionable years. What school authorities fail to see is the extent to which the negative impact of labeling can cripple their personalities. A girl who is a victim of labeling wants to wear just the same clothes that other girls do, wants to have a boyfriend and simply wants to have a normal life may fail to do all this because she is considered a slut. Her whole high school experience is destroyed by the negativity that starts surrounding her, as she becomes victim of labeling. These girls have to behave differently than they would have otherwise simply because some group chose to target them and labeled them sluts with or without any evidence. Even in the cases where a girl has been more aware of her sexuality than others and at a much younger age, the punishment has usually outdone the sin. There is no end to labeling once it starts. We can never fully assess the impact of labeling because only a victim understands and sees the extent to which it is affecting and controlling their lives and behavior. As the author recalls her own experience,, she writes: "I have learned that once a person is labeled anything, she becomes a caricature rather than a full-fledged human being with both talents and flaws" (Tanenbaum: 43)