User:SarpreetDhillon/Slut-shaming

What is "Slut Shaming"?
Slut shaming is a term that is suppose to define someone who may dress differently, is more sexually active and is mostly targeted towards women and girls. Slut shaming and victim blaming sometimes can correlated with each other. "Slut shaming" is often coined with how a woman or girl may dress and how many sexual partners she has had can also account for why she may be called a "slut". Men sometimes face "slut shaming as well" as they can be called "man-whores" and "man -slut", however, there is a higher percentage of women who face slut shaming. Victim blaming refers to how a woman or girl dresses and acts is the reason she was attacked. Slut shaming is quite similar to victim blaming as it often refers to someone who has been sexually assaulted and is being blamed because she wore provocative clothing.

How does Slut Shaming affect women?
Slut shaming can be seen as a way of bullying, especially in today's world of social media cyberbullying can be a form of slut shaming. This type of bullying can be an issue since anyone can write anything on the internet. This can physically and mentally harm a woman because it leads to her thinking it is her fault. Sometimes it is not even online, it can be something as simple as a dress code. Sometimes, dress codes can also play a part in slut-shaming and even victim blaming. Dress codes are often set by school officials and often target girls and women instead of being equal for both males and females. Slut shaming can affect women psychologically as well as it makes them feel more vulnerable and an example of this is sexual assaults' as a child. many researches show that sometimes bullying victims who are seen as more sexually available are blamed then the next person being bullied.

Studies Conducted
There have been numerous studies that have been conducted within the topic of slut shaming and how it occurs and why do the victims often get blamed. Some studies have found that there is a "victim typology" and a "perpetrator typology". The assailant often is coined as a "nice" person and as someone who would never do this. The victim is often Victim blaming does go hand and with slut shaming because there are certain societal constructs that have been defined. such as dressing a provocative way and acting a certain way when under the influence. This example seems to be the center to studies because it helps expose how individuals apply themselves to slut-shaming.

Activism
In 2011, there was an uproar in Toronto after a police officer named Michael Sanguinetti visited Osgoode Law School at York University for a personal safety speech for women at the university. He stated during his talk with these women that he is about to say something he was warned not to say but feels like he needs to say it. He told these women that maybe if they did not dress a certain way then maybe they would not be victims of assaults. He explicitly said the word "slut" which caused anger within these women and used these comments to create the protest named "Slut-Walk", and this protest has progressed throughout the world.

Slut Shaming Among Gay and Bisexual Men
Just as how women are victimized when judged about what they wear and how sexually available they are so are many in the LGBTQ community are shamed the same way. Just how many women have psychological and emotional effects after they have experienced their shaming, the LGBTQ community does the same. The face judgement from their friends and often do not feel comfortable speaking about their sexual lives.

The judgement they face from their friends in regards to unsafe sex and the comments of being a "slut" for having unprotected sex is what makes them feel that they are being judged. It is similar to what women face because just as they are considered to be promiscuous for bring sexually available so are gay and bisexual men. Due to not having the conversation of sexually transmitted diseases with their sexual partners, HIV is a higher risk and this can cause them to be seen as "dirty" and often female friends of gay and bisexual men would call the "whores" and "sluts" due to the different number of sexual partners.