According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word “Skank” is an informal noun meaning, “a sleazy or unpleasant person,” or a derogatory noun meaning, “a promiscuous woman.” Upon further investigation (breaking down the big words), the word “sleazy” is an adjective meaning, “sordid, corrupt, or immoral.” While it’s easy to be outraged at what this is implying, the dictionary is simply doing its job of recording and reflecting the corrupt and colloquial meanings of words we just shouldn’t use.
I read a tweet the other evening from a guy that I know pretty well, or I like to think so at least, and I’m not going to lie, it really pissed me off. The tweet read, “Don’t be a skank and you wouldn’t have anything to worry about.” Now, I am absolutely one to subtweet. Sometimes people know who I’m talking about, and sometimes they don’t, but the one thing that I have come to doing as I’ve grown older, is to STOP shaming people for the decisions that they make with their own body. This tweet set me off so hard and in large part due to the fact that it reminded me of a tweet that came up on my Timehop from when I was a junior in high school. I wish I could quote it, but I was honestly so embarrassed by it that I scrolled a few years back and deleted it. It was something along the lines of if you want to be respected as a woman, you need to sit down, shut up, and earn it. Both of these tweets are so, so utterly disgusting. These tweets were not only about the person that they or I were talking about, but they, in turn, become about every single woman out there. These tweets perpetuate the age-old belief that women are not allowed to be sexual, women should be quiet, small, and innocent. These tweets hurt more than just the women they were about because they tell every single person that read them that it is not only okay to call women skanks and tell them to sit down and shut up, it encourages it.
Acceptable as a junior in high school, practically still a child, but as a senior in COLLEGE, this is unacceptable. Throwing around insults at women because they hurt you or someone that you know is childish. Using a woman’s sexuality against her for any reason is disgusting. If it were a man, would you call to question how many women he has had sex with when he broke your friend’s heart? If you did, would you blame his promiscuity for the twisted turn of events in his life, or would you use it as an excuse for the way he hurt your friend? This double standard has got. to. stop! Stop shaming women for loving their bodies and loving the way their bodies can feel. Stop calling women antiquated names and either: find a real character flaw or get the hell out. *Mic Drop* REESA OUT.
