How does sexual language function in a society that keeps sexuality a double standard? What does it mean to be a cunt, a slut, a whore, a bitch, or even simply labeled promiscuous – in a society that values women’s bodies but despises their open sexuality? How do girls come to terms with these words, with their own bodies when they approach the patriarchal mirror society sets up? The answer is simple: they don’t know how to. Girls grow up confused about how to approach their own sexuality, and thus, don’t even know how to explain their experiences without an inlaid avid fear and awareness of words. Either you are a prude or you’re promiscuous. You’re either pleasing your boyfriend or your father. There is an image to maintain in society, driven by labels and the power of words, that eventually either labels the girl as good or bad. Frigid or slutty. In our modern day society, we ask a girl to come to terms with her sexuality in a respectful way, all the while lambasting girls with images of other girls scantily clad. Society tells her all the men want her sexuality – revel in your power and embrace it, but remember, no man wants a slut. Be yourself, but cover up. Speak out, but don’t be difficult. Essentially, love yourself… but be aware of the limits. Limit your body, and correspondingly, limit your power, and then finally, limit the positive words that can be ascribed to a female’s sexuality. “Many women allow our lives and sexual expressions to be dictated by the threat of being perceived as ‘Whores.’ Because of thinking like this, our society is brimming with women who have a hard time understanding, for instance, that Whores can be and are sexually assaulted” (Muscio 92). The societal messages become so mixed that the unacceptable becomes acceptable, and language limits the sexual life of females to the extent that they become afraid of the emotional and physical consequences society thrusts upon them. How do you defend a girl who puts herself out there sexually? Is there even a set of positive words for the female’s sex life? What are the limits of language? It seems that all depends on how much you love yourself, how you have lived and logically process the word, what the experiences were that have thrust the word upon you, and furthermore – if you want to break barriers, become difficult, make change, speak out, and embrace yourself above all others.

1. Victoria Eberle 4/9/09
ENGL 417 Final
A Promiscuous Language
Female Empowerment through Whoredom
How does sexual language function in a society that keeps sexuality a double
standard? What does it mean to be a cunt, a slut, a whore, a bitch, or even simply labeled
promiscuous – in a society that values women’s bodies but despises their open sexuality?
How do girls come to terms with these words, with their own bodies when they approach
the patriarchal mirror society sets up? The answer is simple: they don’t know how to.
Girls grow up confused about how to approach their own sexuality, and thus, don’t even
know how to explain their experiences without an inlaid avid fear and awareness of
words. Either you are a prude or you’re promiscuous. You’re either pleasing your
boyfriend or your father. There is an image to maintain in society, driven by labels and
the power of words, that eventually either labels the girl as good or bad. Frigid or slutty.
In our modern day society, we ask a girl to come to terms with her sexuality in a
respectful way, all the while lambasting girls with images of other girls scantily clad.
Society tells her all the men want her sexuality – revel in your power and embrace it, but
remember, no man wants a slut. Be yourself, but cover up. Speak out, but don’t be
difficult. Essentially, love yourself… but be aware of the limits. Limit your body, and
correspondingly, limit your power, and then finally, limit the positive words that can be
ascribed to a female’s sexuality. “Many women allow our lives and sexual expressions to
be dictated by the threat of being perceived as ‘Whores.’ Because of thinking like this,
our society is brimming with women who have a hard time understanding, for instance,
that Whores can be and are sexually assaulted” (Muscio 92). The societal messages

2. become so mixed that the unacceptable becomes acceptable, and language limits the
sexual life of females to the extent that they become afraid of the emotional and physical
consequences society thrusts upon them. How do you defend a girl who puts herself out
there sexually? Is there even a set of positive words for the female’s sex life? What are
the limits of language? It seems that all depends on how much you love yourself, how
you have lived and logically process the word, what the experiences were that have thrust
the word upon you, and furthermore – if you want to break barriers, become difficult,
make change, speak out, and embrace yourself above all others.
AS A MATTER OF INTELLIGENCE
“And these days putting out one’s pretty power, one’s pussy power, one’s sexual energy
out there for popular consumption no longer makes you a bimbo – it makes you smart”
(Wurtzel 11).
Logically, words like cunt and slut actually have matriarchal connotations
(Muscio 5). A cunt was an ancient female title of power and respect, a slut or prostitute
was sought for safe haven and cleansing, and whores were holy. As history books now
tellingly reveal, patriarchy took over as a political and social force and began to sexually
oppress women, a natural threat to a patriarchy (Wolf 73). What better way to limit a
woman’s power than to cut off her sexuality? It is interesting to note that all these ancient
terms of respect are sexual and correspondingly, also comment on the female’s power –
implying a strong link between the two. It is clear historically that men began to realize
the power females had through their sexuality, and furthermore, that females were aware
of it. In fact, “In Jesus’ times, Whores were still prophets of sexual power” - and thus,
Mary Magdalene came to be the Holy Mother (Muscio 81). Men, so fervently known for
their sexual desires, it seems, could not bear having this strong sexuality under their

3. control. Frequently, in fact, they claim women’s sexuality as their downfall (i.e. “She
wore a short skirt, she was asking for it”, Helen caused the war, Delilah betrayed
Samson) – implying we turned their sexual desires against them by simply being sexual.
“…professor Helen Benedict points out in her book Virgin or Vamp, ‘when a sex crime
victim is considered attractive, she receives less sympathy” (Wurtzel 114). Furthermore,
implying that our own sexual desires and inclinations are our own enemy. When the word
“slut” pops into your head, a standardized image follow suit – frequently, people will
imagine the slut to be low-class and trashy, a girl who naturally dresses provocatively.
Frequently, people will imagine she lacks intelligence, otherwise why would she be so
actively using her body? Oddly, in fact, there is a large correlation between being sexual
and being intelligent – in both negative and positive ways.
With a government that promotes abstinence as sexual education, most girls
cannot comfortably even locate the precise parts of their own sexuality and reproductive
system (the vagina, the uterus, clitoris, labia, etc.) let alone be relied upon to fully
understand when it is “appropriate” to have sex and the safe methods to do it. Similar to
the way the government approaches sexual education, “Many parents are worried about
initiating a chain of events culminating in their daughter being known as a slut (if they
talk about sex with her, she will in turn go out and have sex, which would lead to her
developing a reputation)” (Tanenbaum 92). As Naomi Wolf summarizes, it was as if the
world was telling her “You can be adults without trying. The only meaning this has is the
meaning you give it” (120). Because their own sexuality is spoken of with such hidden
intent, they are immediately destabilized in how to handle their urges, what is rape versus
what is acceptable, and most importantly, what is going on in their own bodies. So while

4. in classrooms, they are not being spoken to specifically about their sexuality, they are all
the meanwhile given portrayals of women being sexually provocative in the media. In
one hand, don’t do anything with your body – in the other hand, give it all. Girls grow up
learning how to walk the walk and talk the talk, but damned if they know what it all
means. This leads to a whole series of implications on how girls will view and label each
other in regards to sexuality, as a girl who was interviewed by Tanenbaum summarizes:
“But I really think the reason they called me a slut is because I was a woman doing things
that they considered deviant behavior… ‘Slut’ is the name for a woman whose sexuality
can’t be understood’” (112). And, as already established earlier in this paper, girls who
have been pegged with the “slut” or “whore” label from society are much more liable to
have violence thrust upon, and have it be accepted.
“Despite reforms, the instinct to doubt women who say they’ve been raped
prevails. After one woman was raped from behind, Vachss reports, a judge ruled that
because she hadn’t actually seen the rape, she couldn’t really be sure there was
penetration…” (Tanenbaum 126). Thus, most girls won’t even report rape, and the ones
that do frequently meet resistance because of a culture that breeds an image-based
attitude. In an image and artificially-based society, “eight factors tilt a woman towards
the ‘vamp’ identity: If she knows her assailant; if no weapon is used; if she is of the same
race, class, or ethnic group as the assailant; if she is young; if she is considered pretty;
and if she is in any way deviates from the traditional housewife-mother role”
(Tanenbaum 127). If she’s not a good-mannered, unpleasant-looking girl – she is
disbelieved. The fact alone that she “let” a man rape her implies she must be sexual and
“easy” or “stupid” and “low class”, the fact that she is pretty means obviously the man

5. could not resist, if she knew him there might have been an attraction – of course she
wanted it. These are oversimplifications of a very large societal problem that essentially
stems down to the fact that men become scared of a female’s sexuality if it is not
straightforward and cannot be easily categorized by a set of standards and furthermore,
that they don’t know what to do when “no” doesn’t necessarily mean “no”, but when “it
does, often enough, mean: I’m not easy, try a little harder, or: I want to but don’t think
I’m a slut, or: I really do want to, but I’m uncomfortable with the enormity of my sexual
desires, so only if you force me will I be able to ignore my guilt” (Wurtzel 345). And
furthermore this occurs when girls, of course, simultaneously “have no language to
express how they had no idea what they wanted until they got what they didn’t want”
(Wurtzel 119).
In one situation, a mentally retarded girl with an IQ of 54 was cornered and raped
by a group of four guys (and nine other male observers) who placed a series of inanimate
objects up her vagina, clearly without her consent. How could she give consent when she
only “had the IQ of an eight-year-old. She thought that there were five states in the
United States and that the country’s two political parties were called ‘public’ and
‘private’” (Tanenbaum 143). Yet, because society corresponds intellect with societal
class, it becomes implied her retardation is linked with a personal level of “low” class,
and with society’s misconceptions – that “low” class individuals are “easier” sexually
because they don’t have anything else but their bodies to rely on. It is also very important
to distinguish, though, that due to her mental retardation she could not possibly
understand the repercussions of the situation she was placed in. The boys “called her a
flirt, a tease, a slut. They said that she had not been raped, that she had participated in,

6. and even encouraged, an act of consensual sex. It’s true that she never said no. But on the
other hand, was she capable of saying yes?” (Tanenbaum 143). Not only did they take
advantage of her lack of social common sense, but they made her seem overtly
provocative when she lacked the mental capacity to even understand the situation let
alone willingly engage in it. As if this wasn’t enough, the locals chose to support the boys
rather than the girl who had been raped – why would the boys want to have sex with a
girl of such low class and intelligence?
In a twist of irony, the promotion of ambiguous education in girl sexuality leaves
not only girls feeling threatened by their own sexuality, but makes men responsible for
having to translate a girl’s sexually ambiguous actions – as well as it also makes them
ignorant of how to engage themselves with the limits of female sexuality. When society
encourages female sexual ambiguity and doubts rape victims – the male is more inclined
to think that he is allowed to get away with more than he actually is, and with females so
inclined to throw the slut label on another local girl for catty or fearful reasons (girls that
seem to frequently be victims of assault or rape)… it seems there is no defending or
understanding a “slut” except the girl who has been called it herself. In fact, it seems they
all want and need her to be a “slut” since it proves to be the most definitive solution to
such a largely ambiguous and seemingly unsolvable societal education problem.
What do girls fear the most when being called a slut? “It’s amazing but true: Even
today a common way to damage a woman’s credibility is to call her a slut” (Tanenbaum
2). It can make you seem low class, even though you aren’t. It could make you seem of
loose morals, deemed worthy to be less valued. It could imply a whole series of dreadful
things about you that aren’t true. And a lot of the world of whoredom, actually, seems to

7. be based upon a game of lies and power – with the girl deemed a “slut” almost always
seeking to respond, in some way, intellectually – either internally or externally.
In Leora Tanenbaum’s studies, she discovered that many girls were raped and
called sluts thereafter or vice versa. Of these girls, a startling amount simply didn’t do
anything other than look pretty or act odd, and were thus called sluts – because society
didn’t know how else to categorize them and their complexities. Some girls would simply
not go far enough with a guy, and the guy would perpetuate the lie. In short, the word
“‘slut’ is a pervasive insult applied to a broad spectrum of American adolescent girls,
from the girl who brags about her one-night stands to the girl who has never even kissed
a boy to the girl who has been raped” (Tanenbaum xv). Thus, it becomes a battle
thereafter over definition – a battle with the surrounding society and a battle with self.
Because so many other girls are so afraid to be labeled “sluts” themselves, they are just as
eager to place it upon another girl or two in order to get the pressure off themselves. Or,
as Tanenbaum simplifies, “Once you start characterizing some females as ‘good,’ you
inevitably label others as ‘bad’” (234). They need to give the appearance of someone else
being bad so that they can seem docile, knowing that guys don’t do anything serious with
or truly respect girls who are sluts – and thus, society perpetuates a slut-bashing series in
a continual jerk for power. The girls who unfortunately obtained this label were then
forced to face the society that frequently mislabeled and looked down upon them, giving
options tended to boil down to “abstaining from sex, hitting the books, and wearing
loose-fitting clothes… [to] try to molt their ‘slutty’ image”… or speaking out intelligently
about one’s own sexuality and acting out regardless (Tanenbaum 21). Because, in fact, as
a Kinsey researcher noted, there was a direct correlation

8. “between female sexuality and intellectual or creative development.
Kinsey revealed that the most accomplished women – intellectually,
academically, or professionally – had had their first orgasms at an age
earlier than the norm. Former Kinsey Institute researcher William Simon
told Seaman, ‘Most girls are raised to believe that they have a time-bomb
between their legs. They are encouraged to devote much of their creative
energy toward preventing this time-bomb from going off. The women who
manage to escape devoting their energies to repression seem to be the ones
who have the most energy left for mental activities, and who also enjoy
the most active sex lives’” (Tanenbaum 106).
AS SELF LOVE, EMBRACING SEXUALITY, AND OWNERSHIP
“Whoredom is a constant. Perception fluctuates evermore” (Muscio 93).
To deny the derogatory word or to accept the word? Let’s further complicate and
honestly flesh out that question: to deny that word and its corresponding connotation
thrust upon you in a society that will rarely even admit the occurrence of a legitimate
rape, or to accept it and challenge a society that believes a woman’s sexuality to be a
powerfully destructive thing eventually making it self-damaging? Either way you
practically lose. This paper is about the girls who chose the latter option, perhaps finding
a higher form of liberation through it. These are the girls who wish to confront the society
that won’t distinctly talk about their sex organs thoroughly in a sexual education class (or
if they do, will only follow it up “with reminders of ‘consequences’ – emotional,
physical, mental, reproductive, and/or financial,’”) that will hush up their rapes, and
ultimately belittle any troubles they encounter as a female (Muscio 94). Perhaps these are
the girls who want to be highly sexual, because the idea of her sexuality being completely
taken away from her or used against her is appalling. Many girls fear their own sexuality
– not only because they are not taught about it, but because they fear the societal lash
they’ll get from embracing it – the label of promiscuous, being known as “easy.”
Inga mentions embracing your “cunt” because it is your power, because it

9. originally was a word of power, because, furthermore we’ve been instructed in so many
ways to be ashamed of it meanwhile knowing that it is what makes us different from men
and is frequently something that brings them to their metaphorical (and sometimes literal)
knees. Because if you don’t learn to embrace it, you will be taught to fear it more, and
hate it further… and become self-deprecating (Muscio 18). She makes the point that “we
cannot love ourselves if we do not know ourselves”, and furthermore, that so many
woman look towards sex for that affection, rather than seeking the affection in
themselves (64, 97). It also creates an implied question of: if every woman accepted her
“cunt” in all its power and sexuality, would we feel so inclined to label “sluts” stemming
from the fear of another’s perception? Wouldn’t it give us back a powerful language that
was taken from us when they put a powerful importance, and equally powerful
restriction, on our bodies?
In fact, one girl, Rosalina Lopez, found being called a slut an “empowering”
experience. Despite the fact she was gang-raped and then repeatedly abused afterwards
by her peers, being called a “slut” and noted as “sexual,” she remarked that it forced her
to build a level of confidence in herself – otherwise she would not be able to fight back
against these insults (Tannebaum 113). Not only did it force her to gain a level of
confidence and gumption, but it also gave her a level of sexual liberation. Bluntly, she
says “Being called a slut makes you more daring to experiment. It opens up a lot of
doors. There are all these connotations that go along with being a ‘slut’” (Tannebaum
112). Since she was already being labeled a slut, what left did she have to lose? The
common mentality of a lot of girls who are labeled sluts, who were in fact not slutty
before, is “Well, if people are going to think I’m a slut, I may as well act like one”

10. (Tannebaum 233). Because of this sexual experimentation, Rosalina was able to gauge
the pleasures of her body and become externally comfortable with herself and her
sexuality. The effect of being called a slut gave her the combined power of internal
stability and external sexuality. She appreciated this derogatory word because it forced
her to love herself, rather than become an insecure slave to the media constantly in
competition with other girls for that “one guy.”
It can be shown through this example that our society tends to harbor self-hatred
more than self-love when discussing the female body. In a perfectionist society where
individuals are consistently inclined to get plastic surgery, buy miracle pills, and idolize
models – it becomes no wonder that many women feel uncomfortable with their bodies
and sexuality. By already not having a firm base of knowledge of their bodies, by having
conflicting messages about their sexuality thrust at them, and by then adding on a motto
of “you’re not good enough,” of course there are many women who are not going to walk
around claiming themselves proudly as sluts. Something like that, though, would imply a
level of comfort with one’s body, an assurance of one’s lifestyle with sexuality, and an
overall confidence that implies that the woman does not need any form of reassurance.
Pronouncing proudly that you are a slut is not something that comfortably fits into our
society’s mold. Instead, it is much more like something Muscio describes:
“Shame kept a close watch on me and all my girlfriends. It was shameful
to bleed, to be seen bleeding… to speak of bleeding, to look like we were
bleeding, to be excused from P.E. because of the crippling cramps which
sometimes accompany bleeding, to display frailty, vulnerability or mood
swings because we were going to be bleeding soon and to express any
emotion other than contempt…” (18).
Being taught to be initially ashamed of their sexual organ, a rift is created and
perpetuated amongst girls: they must either be comfortable with their sexuality or get

11. shackled to the patriarchy, ashamed of their sex, and afraid of sexual labels. Rather than
girls banding wholesomely together to gain equal footing in the sexual world, we have
females at all different levels for all different sorts of sexual arguments. Why? Because
our society is so ambiguous that we don’t know what to make of it. It allows some rights,
so we’re not completely threatened – but it takes some other rights away, so we can’t
fully be ourselves. In other nations where female rights are more restricted (like Iran), it
can be noted that there is significantly less slut-bashing and internal female argument –
there’s no room for that, because they have so much more at stake (Muscio 124). A
woman interviewed from Arabia proclaims the young women there are aware that men
will not fight for their social change, and furthermore, an African woman adds, “When
you base your whole self-image on a man – on another human being – how can you
expect that person – whether it’s a man or a woman – to respect you? How can you
respect yourself when you do not have love and respect for yourself?” (Muscio 111, 126).
She continues on to mention,
“In America, women pay the money that is theirs and no one else’s to go
to a doctor who cuts them up so they can create or sustain an image men
want. Men are the mirror. Western women cut themselves up voluntarily.
In my country, a child is woken up at three in the morning, held down and
cut with a razor blade. She has no choice. Western women pay to get their
bodies mutilated.” 126
Drawing the connection between these two worlds, it becomes apparent that
perhaps many women do not feel linguistically comfortable with their sexuality because
they are not physically comfortable with their sexuality – frankly, because not all woman
have really had to fight for it. In our society aiming towards perfection, the only fight for
woman exists in the self-inflicted fight towards perfection – which can also bluntly be
seen as self-mutilation. Noting that many girls in Leona’s book are self-proclaimed

12. “sluts” and have oddly enough, for the most part, been girls who also been raped, abused,
or verbally and emotionally assaulted – it becomes no wonder these girls feel a bit more
at ease with this label than the normal woman. They’ve been assaulted for their sexuality,
and from that, they had to fight to remain human – and in order to do that, they had to
respect themselves and believe in their bodies… or else their fight would cave right from
the beginning.
AS REBELLION
“Courtney Love is a controversial figure for a vast assortment of reasons that touch on all
aspects of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and still, I think that ultimately the scariest thing
about her is that she wants. She wants and she’s not afraid of her own desire, and that
desire is huge: she wants everything, the most cake and the most of the most” (Wurtzel
213).
Then there is the girl that does not stop fighting – but rather than in the sense of
putting others down, she will focus on excluding society completely and focusing on her
own rights as a woman. This is the slut that acknowledged the patriarchy and challenged
it with her own confidence, seeking to sexually please herself. She is not on a mission
statement to society, although will inevitably frequently be challenged by society because
she dares to break the mold. She is simply a girl who enjoys active sex, and keeps herself
politically ambiguous all the meanwhile. Or perhaps she is a girl who simply is “too
aware of romantic pitfalls and the realities of sex”, or afraid of intimacy, or simply
believes emotions to be too messy (Tanenbaum 106). She is not sorry for who she is,
respects herself, and simply wants the same rights men have. She does not want to be
submissive. This is shocking in a society comprised of teenage girls who so commonly,
without good reason, are inclined to get stuck on regurgitating the phrase: “I’m sorry”
(Muscio 167).
While self-confidence is highly promoted in our society, girls seem to get hit with

13. the double-standard in this regard as well. Girls who act out, speak out, and generally act
with the same aggression as the typical male will frequently be called a bitch. The girl
who take on these same type of activities in the sexual realm becomes a whore. All these
derogatory words are utilized the moment the girl attempts to achieve the same level of
aggression and outgoingness as their male counterparts. Coincidentally, women classified
as “bitches” are frequently women who are also referred to as being “difficult,” similar to
how girls who are slutty are just as “difficult” for society, especially other girls, to
handle. They are labeled because they are different from the stereotype society wants to
perpetuate: a girl in question of her role in an ambiguous world, a girl that is hormonal
and masochistic – insecure and of low self-esteem. Girls that are confident to the point of
aggression are baffling, girls that are confident enough with their bodies to choose as
many sexual partners as they please and still view themselves respectfully are even more
baffling. “The issue’s focus was not on bitches per se, but it is safe to argue that anytime
a woman projects the kind of intense personality that all these women do, she is
somebody’s idea of a bitch” (Wurtzel 10-11). This level of confidence implies power.
Power in a girl in a patriarchy? It becomes no wonder why the words get warped, and
thus, it is also not surprising these girls feel confident enough to refer to themselves using
these words like “slut,” “bitch,” and “whore” without any problem – powerful words for
powerful girls. If they’re going to have a powerful word like that thrown at them, they
might as well twist it back around and use it for their own cause. They certainly have the
confidence for it.
AS SILENCE AND DEFIANCE: REVERSE PSYCHOLOGY
“In our case, there was not shame so much as silence. Just silence: all that energy we
were inclined to devote to mastering the tasks of ‘becoming a woman’ went undirected”

14. (Wolf, 133).
To bring rebellion to the next extreme, these girls fight back will full intent
against society. They politicize their bodies. They are having sex with a message. They
are taking the word “slut” and throwing it back at you. Why? Because they can, because
society has thrust it at them first. They are fighting the mob mentality they endured when
growing up. If they walk around calling themselves sluts, haven’t they already beaten you
to the punch? Giving themselves these names that society deems so sexually derogatory,
and saying them proudly, frankly seems to leave no other way for society to respond
other than to be silenced or baffled. If society turns around and reaffirms to them vocally
“yes, you are sluts” – well, that’s something these girls have already affirmed positively:
it diffuses the insult and makes it strangely null. These girls take the ambiguity of
sexuality, and make it obvious. They want the patriarchy to pay for their actions, to sit in
the corner and think about what its done. These are the girls struggling for their power
back. If they are so proud of their whoredom, what does that say about the society? What
issues does that force the society to confront?
When so many girls grow up listening to some variant of “stand still, shut up,
look pretty,” these girls aim to turn the tables by yelling loudly when they’re told not,
sexually opening up their bodies when they’re told to cover up, and serving society an
“ugly,” sexual cover girl face when it is so eager to run from its own problems. They’re
trying to make a point, to be realistic. There are no metaphors or elusive texts – instead,
blunt bodies and harsher words. In a society so focused upon having girls run from
themselves and into the arms of men, these girls embody themselves and put themselves
so forward first that they don’t run to society nor a man to assure them. So, linguistically,

15. why would they do anything different?
CONCLUSION
It seems that the essential problem with a women’s sexuality in our current
society is rooted in the fact that she is mainly silenced and left to ambiguous conclusions
as to her own sexuality… meanwhile in this patriarchy, the male’s sexuality is so much
more clean-cut. The girl will struggle to establish her own sexuality through the
confusing signals of the media, educational classes, and the scrutinizing eye of her peers.
She becomes afraid to be larger than life because there is no definition created in our
society that says it is okay to do so – in fact, there is no clear message being sent out at all
as for how a girl should approach her sexuality. So, she says no when she means yes,
calls another girl a slut even though she may be more sexually active, and learns to keep
her body away from the dreaded polar terms of “prude” or “whore.” The girls who
choose to step above this, or aside of it, and claim for themselves terms that have such a
radically negative place in our society frequently do so in an attempt to banish the
silence. Although equally personally ambiguous, these are words that already exist and
perhaps are cherished all the more from these girls for their “difficult” nature, which
adapt nicely to match their “difficult” sexuality. While the exact notion of these words
and their meanings are up for debate, they provide a strong, negative connotation and are
frequently used to silence women from a certain behavioral pattern. “Whether or not a
girl is targeted because of her sexual behavior, the effect is nonetheless to police her
sexuality” (Tannebaum 7). So, when girls take these words and spin them positively, they
seem to attempt to silence a societal behavioral pattern and generally force society to
question their own motives. By loving themselves, by fighting society, by using their

16. intellect, by rebelling and embracing their own sexuality – by attempting to gain their
bodies back and link their powerful sexuality with the power of words, it is no wonder a
patriarchy gets scared and disturbed by this movement. Women are honing in on what
makes them known, and gives them the greatest power, in society – their sexuality, and
they are using it to liberate themselves. They are breaking the silence, they are
challenging linguistics, and thus, they are difficult - they are out of control to everyone
but themselves.

17. Works Cited
Muscio, Inga. Cunt. 2nd. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press, 2002.
Tanenbaum, Leora. Slut! Growing Up Female With a Bad Reputation. 1st. New York,
NY: Seven Stories Press, 1999.
Wolf, Naomi. Promiscuities The Secret Struggle for Womanhood. New York, NY: The
Random House Publishing Group, 1997.
Wurtzel, Elizabeth. Bitch In Praise of Difficult Women. 1st. New York, NY: Random
House, Inc., 1999.