Kendra

Webster’s dictionary defines slut as “a promiscuous woman.” It defines promiscuous as “not restricted to one sexual partner.” Therefore, a slut is a woman who is not restricted to one sexual partner. It does not clarify whether this means one sexual partner at a time, or one sexual partner in sum over the course of time. However, if the latter interpretation is correct, a lot of women are sluts.

What I don’t understand is why this term is used for 1) attractive women, 2) women who are flirtatious, 3) women who appear to be having fun, 4) women who are proud of their bodies and show them off however they choose, 5) women who are insecure, and thus show off their bodies the way they think other people want them to, 6) women who talk openly about sex, 7) women who appear to enjoy sex, 8) women other women are jealous of, 9) women who prefer certain men over certain other men, thus enraging the rejected men, 10) women who are smart and confident, 11) women who beat other men in contests, 12) women who beat other women in contests, 13) women who wear a lot of makeup, 14) I’m sure there’s more stuff I haven’t thought of. Feel free to fill in your own reason.

But in accordance with the Webster’s definition, none of these reasons for using the term slut seem even remotely correct.

And the reason all of this is coming up is because I just read an article mentioning Kendra Wilkinson, who has now been on TWO SHOWS that I cannot bring myself to watch. Two! And I’ll watch almost anything! Kendra Wilkinson is the lady who was living with Hugh Hefner at one point, but then she married someone else and took her baby to the Superbowl and the baby almost got smooshed! That was sad! Anyway, after the article, the comments (by men and women) all focused on two things: that her boobs were fake and that she was a slut.

I hate taking up for Kendra Wilkinson, when I should really be taking up for starving children and old people who are being robbed, but it just seems unfair to me that this women, who, at the end of the day is simply a wife and mom, is being called a slut just because she was maybe doing it with an old guy for a while, because she got paid for willingly posing naked for a totally legitimate magazine, for being successful, for marrying a rich guy, and for having fun and looking like she’s not even trying very hard at any of it. (And for those of you who are like, “Playboy is a gateway for aberrant sexual behavior,” I agree, but in terms of gateways, Playboy to sexual deviance is like Advil is to painkiller addiction. What do you want to focus on, Advil or Oxycontin?) It just doesn’t seem to me that Kendra qualifies as a slut. Furthermore, it really makes me sad when women get in on the slut-calling act. Men do all kinds of dumb stuff (the vast majority of serial killers, cult leaders, and people named The Situation are men, for example) and you think it’s your job to act all judgy about a woman who’s got a lot of boyfriends? Come on, ladies, where’s that getting you?

If you consider the definition, is it the worst thing in the world to be a slut? When you consider Osama Bin Laden and gigantic atomic tsunamis and children whose parents spend all day on Facebook and squirrels with rabies…is being a slut all that bad? My vote is no. So let’s just stop this slut talk. It’s not very nice, we could better spend our time on other stuff, and in the big scheme of things, sluts aren’t so bad.

Now, on a completely unrelated note: did you know that this blog has been around for a year? Yes. One year of me making up facts, airing my dirty, Oprah-related laundry, and not correcting my own spelling and grammatical mistakes. Some of you have been reading this from the very beginning, and some of you have just come onboard recently, but to everyone, thanks for reading. And - for those of you who have given me a thumbs-up, or posted a comment, or inboxed me, or stopped me in the hall, or followed my blog – special thanks to you for the feedback. I am desperately insecure and your words make up for the love I never got from my mother. Oh, hi, Mom!