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I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet QUOTES

I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet QUOTES

1 " Although drinking to the point of becoming incapacitated is unwise and risky for anyone, the blame for rape must be put on the rapist who preys on a drunk woman, not a drunk woman who becomes prey. If my car is stolen after I’ve parked it with the door unlocked in a neighborhood known for car theft, a crime has been committed, and I have the right and expectation to report the crime to the police. No one would tell me that the thief is the one who deserves sympathy, and that apprehending him would ruin his life. No one would tell me I’m a terrible person for getting my car stolen, and that I deserve to have my car stolen. They would be right to question my judgment, but not the fact that a crime has been committed. But when it comes to rape, the victim’s pre-rape actions are used to justify the crime. "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

2 " Three out of ten women in the United States have an abortion by the time they are forty-five years old. And women who need abortions get abortions, whether or not the procedure is legal or safe, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Blaming women who need abortions through slut-shaming is not only morally reprehensible, it also is medically irresponsible. "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

3 " Today, girls are pressured to dress and behave in an overtly sexual way, despite the conventional understanding that a “slut” is a woman who does just that. In this milieu, calling oneself a “slut” doesn’t allow you to wrest the term away from those who would use it to judge and control women. Rather, it just confirms negative stereotypes of what it means to be female. You’re merely adding ammunition to the arsenal. "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

4 " Slut-bashing and slut-shaming often are justified on the grounds that they teach girls a lesson: that they should not be sexually active at all, or that they should not be ‘too' sexually active. If girls heeded this lesson, the rationale goes, they would adopt healthy behaviors. Yet we see that slut-bashing and slut-shaming cause the opposite to occur. Girls and women consistently turn to dangerous, damaging, and degrading behaviors. Calling a female a slut is like telling her, 'Do not take care of yourself, because you are worthless.' Tragically, some girls and women believe this to be true. "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

5 " There is no good reason that a girl is shamed for sexting while a boy is not, that a woman’s number must be lower than a man’s, that a survivor of sexual assault has her credibility stolen from her along with her bodily integrity. For women to be truly safe, we must eradicate the use of the term “slut.” Only then will female sexuality become transformed from a site of pitfalls to one of positivity and possibility. "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

6 " The “bad slut” is the girl or woman who exposes the effort behind being hot. "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet

7 " White women who were raped were expected to die as a result of their abuse. Their degradation was expected to be totalizing, making postrape life unimaginable. But black female slaves survived their rapes and continued the work they were forced to do—a circumstance used as evidence that they were not properly feminine.11 According "

― Leora Tanenbaum , I Am Not a Slut: Slut-Shaming in the Age of the Internet