On Abolishing Sexist Language

There is a double standard in society where the sexual actions of a female are much more harshly criticised than a male. People even openly admit this and defend this. These stands like truisms yet people don't seem to do enough about it.

Think of terms intended to criticise someone's sexual activity in a negative manner. 'Whore', 'slut'. Both of these words are used at males, but we all acknowledge that these words are used the vast majority of the time against women. There is no word in the English language which criticises almost exclusively the sexual activities of males. We even tacitly acknowledge this by altering the word 'whore' into 'man-whore' – if the word whore didn't lay in language ready to be deployed against women, we wouldn't need to add 'man' in front of 'whore' just to criticise the sexual activity of a male.

The words 'whore' and 'slut' are sexist words because they are aimed almost exclusively against women. Not always, but almost exclusively against women. Seeing that these are the words we use to harshly criticise someone's sexual activity, and these are mostly aimed at women, these words continue the myth that women have much more moral responsibility over their sexual activity – that women are more worthy of criticism than men when it comes to their sexual activity.

I've recently been in various discussions with a friend who argues that they're not being sexist when they use these words because of the context they're used in. Admittedly, I've seen them use such words against men more than women. I know they're not sexist despite using sexist terms. However, there's still harm in using these words.

You might not use these words mostly against women, but other people do. Every time these words are used, you are enabling the existence of these words, and the sexism behind them. The way you use these words do not alter how other people use them.

The problem is, however, not the word itself but what lays behind it. We should stop using words like 'slut' and 'whore' not because the words are sexist within themselves, but because of the sexism behind the use of these words, whether or not people realise it.

I propose that we eliminate the words 'slut' and 'whore' from our vocabulary and, every so often when appropriate, challenge people who use such words. You can challenge them on the basis that words like 'slut' and 'whore' are aimed almost exclusively against women, and there is no common word like that against men. They shouldn't use them because it continues the idea that women are more immoral than men when their sexual activity is not agreeable.

The idea that we try to shame women, and not men, over their sexual activity is terrible.

And finally, to end with, the words 'slut' and 'whore' should not exist in our language in the first place as negative terms. We shouldn't particularly care about the consenting sex lives of others.

By 'Ad Hoc'