Forwarded to me by Elizabeth Daingerfield Zwicky, this posting on tumblr, with:
She: What’s the boy word for slut?
He: hey still haven’t come up with one yet. But I’m sure they’re working on it.
The issue has often been taken up by feminist critics.
Here’s the problem: English has several terms to refer to a sexually promiscuous woman — of which slut is the primary one — and they are all condemnatory, but terms for sexually promiscuous men (Don Juan, hound dog) are generally either neutral or even celebratory in tone.
Check my posting of 5/29/11 on “sluts”, about the phenomenon of SlutWalks, which are both demonstrations against sexual violence and attempts to reclaim the label slut.
April 3, 2015 at 9:12 am |
I don’t think of “slut” as applying exclusively to women. I have heard it applied to men as often as to women.
April 3, 2015 at 9:26 am |
It’s applied freely to gay men, in my experience, but I haven’t heard it applied to straight men. Maybe my experience is too limited.
April 3, 2015 at 11:48 am |
I have heard it applied to straight guys, but they were straight guys who knew lots of gay guys (fellow chorus members).
I don’t think I’ve been in a “gay” chorus that didn’t have straight members, or a not-gay-identified chorus that didn’t have gay members in addition to me. It’s a special circumstance, no doubt.