Slut, And Other Bad Words: What Should Be Reclaimed?

When Rush Limbaugh discussed Georgetown law student, Sandra Fluke, and her testimony to House Democrats supporting mandated insurance coverage for contraception, he chose to label her based on her testimony a “slut” and a “prostitute.” Limbaugh’s word choice infuriated feminists, lawmakers, medical professionals, and women who noted that Fluke’s argument for contraception coverage included non-birth control reasons and that, more importantly, women who do use contraception for such purposes are not inherently sexually promiscuous, irresponsible, or unentitled to their own sexuality.

This reaction to Limbaugh’s controversial word choice also reignited the debate over reclaiming the word “slut” that was most popularized by the 2011 SlutWalk.

The SlutWalk, a response to a Toronto police officer’s offhand comment that “women should avoid dressing like sluts” in order to avoid rape, was a series of rallies worldwide in which “reclaiming, or more accurately, reappropriating the word ‘slut’ is a fundamental cornerstone of the movement.” The SlutWalk created widespread debate among feminists about reclaiming the word “slut” for twentieth century feminism.

The question these debates raise is, what should be reclaimed?

The word “queer” is an example of a largely successful reclamation of a once derogatory word that represented heternormative power structures. Its reclamation in the 1980s resisted the oppressive, homophobic connotations by providing the LGBTQIA community with a much-needed inclusive umbrella term for non-heterosexual and non-gender-binary individuals.

The challenge with reclamation arises when a word has a varied significance across spheres because when one group reclaims it and uses it as an empowering statement, it could potentially reinforce the problematic hegemonies it represents in other groups. For example, “cunt” is still popularly considered a derogatory term for women and social attitudes toward female genitalia, yet some feminists like Eve Ensler of The Vagina Monologues have been trying to reappropriate the word since the 1970s. Forty years later, the word and its power are still undecided upon.

When debating reclamation, advocates need to ask themselves: what about the term or phrase is being reappropriated and why? In the case of “slut,” what does reusing the word do for feminism? Does it have the potential to inspire new understandings of women’s sexuality? Or should there be a new word altogether to signify this attitude? What is there to be achieved in reclaiming instead of discarding any word for a social movement?