Slutsgate

  Having spent the last few days stuffing myself with Quality Street and turkey sandwiches I thought it might be time to do something productive. However, I’m forsaking my pre-planned post-Christmas rapture about the wonders of festive Baileys and Yuletide TV for a bit of feminist reflection.

                Being an ardent feminist (although strictly not of the bra-burning type) I’ve always had more than a passing interest in the portrayal of women. I hammer on tables at the least mention of my potential sandwich making skills, and more than one of my University essays have descended into an impassioned rant about the objectification of my fellow females.

                This is why I was particularly interested when one of my friends got me researching the latest celebrity Twitter spat. http://www.hollyscoop.com/miley-cyrus/miley-cyrus-responds-taylor-swift-slut-comparisons.html brilliantly responded to on Noisey http://noisey.vice.com/en_uk/blog/heres-why-taylor-swift-will-never-be-called-a-whore

               

On top of the many points debated in the Noisey article, for me this raises an entire social question on the categorisation of women. Of course “Slut” is an entirely outdated, perhaps never fully relevant concept, but it’s still thrown around a lot, and apparently often with little cause.

Both in the limelight from a fairly young age, Swift and Cyrus have both had their maturation from fresh-faced teens to womanhood played out in front of the ever-critical public, making them prime targets to have their sexual antics picked apart with gleeful judgement. But what is it that sets up the unexpected virgin-whore dichotomy here? Is it simply that Miley belts out ‘Have to get my way, yep 24 hours a day ‘cause I’m hot like that’ whilst Taylor opts for the more modest and utterly non-sexualised declarations of teenage-like love, reminiscing about innocent dates with High School guys, and Romeo and Juliet type romance.

Or perhaps it’s their marketing. You only have to look at the album covers of the two stars in order to see that their selling points are clearly meant to be very different.

Whilst Miley flaunts her flesh in an outfit more suited to a dominatrix than a teen pop sensation, Taylor is demure in her virginal-white dress and minimal make up, a kind of little girls princess fantasy clutching a flower and surrounded by butterflies.

However, I’m loath to believe that the public are quite so willing to believe the blatant ploys of the record industry when labelling young women, and would suggest that the real reasons the word “slut” are thrown about go a lot deeper.

The cause, again, lies in the lyrics. However this time, for somewhat darker reasons. An early verse in Cyrus’ ‘Can’t be Tamed’ boasts ‘Every guy, everywhere/ Just gives me mad attention/ Like I’m under inspection/ I always get a ten ‘cause I’m built like that,’ presenting a threatening version of sexuality. Aren’t women supposed to be self-depreciating? Aren’t we meant to bemoan our muffin top? Our flabby thighs and wonky nose? Aren’t we supposed to wave away every compliment with a modest “Oh no not really. I’ve put on loads of weight lately anyway...”

Whilst Miley celebrates herself and her sexuality, Taylor plays it down massively. In her hit ‘You Belong With Me’ she compares herself to the man of her affections girlfriend, saying ‘she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts/She’s cheer captain and I’m on the bleachers’ before asserting that thus ‘you belong with me.’ The song may be an attempt to take another girls boyfriend, but the non-sexualised version of femininity she presents makes her unthreatening, and very much unlike the sexually assertive female some of us just love to hate.

 It’s a sad fact that the main thing that constructs ‘sluttiness’ is the way that a woman’s sexual presentation and behaviour makes other people feel. Whether it’s feeling threatened by another woman’s presence around men or pure and simple jealousy that someone can have so much appreciation of themselves, it’s time that things changed. With so many self-esteem related issues flying around, maybe we should be celebrating women for having a bit of confidence instead of labelling them hussies.

Bring back the sisterhood and let’s be happy for how other women use, and feel about, their bodies. After all, we’ve had a few thousand years of being put down, and if anyone should be bringing women back up, it’s us.