Why ‘Slut' Label Refuses to Die

How sexual stigma impacts both women and men.

December 12, 2012

For women, engaging in casual sex still carries a stigma, and the prospect of being judged dampens their interest in one-night stands.

That’s the key finding of a newly published study that suggests sexual mores remain stubbornly stable. It concludes that, more than a half-century after the introduction of the birth control pill , the sexual double standard is alive and well and still influencing women’s everyday behavior.

The research, published in the Psychology of Women Quarterly, is by three University of Michigan psychologists led by Terri Conley . Last year, she authored a paper that challenged evolutionary psychology’s thesis that women are less interested in casual sex than men. Men have a better chance of passing down their genes to a new generation if they sow their seed widely, according to that widely circulated evolutionary psychology theory , while women’s odds increase if they’re in a stable relationship in which the man helps raise their children. Thus a different set of deep, unconscious impulses lead men to be more promiscuous than women.

In contrast, Conley’s research suggested that, under the right circumstances—that is, when the experience promises to be safe and pleasant—women are just as likely as men to engage in casual sex. Her new paper adds stigma and the prospect of backlash to that equation, and finds they inhibit women’s choices.     READ MORE 

(Please note that today,  "slut" has also become a term of endearment,  meant to signify that "this sex is so good it must be illegal".  Some modern women can be insulted if not called a slut, but only in private,  where it's absence would mean that you did not enjoy the sex.)