Receiving criticism starts at a young age. Whether you’re wearing the “wrong” clothes, aren’t the right weight, or just because, people just love to criticize and stick their opinion everywhere. Especially when it comes to people’s sexuality and how many people they are hooking up with. This phenomenon is called “slut-shaming” and it is uncalled for.
This has always bothered me, but it came to a boiling point last week. On March 8th, the world celebrated International Women’s Day, a day held during Women’s History Month. It is a day for respecting the women in your life, for acknowledging their strength and to just celebrate being a woman. It is meant for all women, despite color, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class or the gender that is on your birth certificate. Just. All. Women.
And there is no right or wrong way to celebrate it. You can treat yourself, hang out with an inspiring woman in your life or chill and repost your fave celebrities’ thoughts on the day. But apparently some thought the right way didn’t involve Kim Kardashian West’s semi-nude selfie.
This picture is all it took to get the trolls out (although it usually doesn’t take much) and the slut-hate rolling.
Piers Morgan offered to buy her clothes. Bette Midler joked that Kim would have to swallow a camera in order for the world to see something of her that they haven’t already. Chloe Grace Moretz criticized her right as a role model for girls. And Pink tweeted a screenshot rant about how women should use their brains, strength and work ethic to feel “something called pride and self respect.”
One of the most liked comments on Twitter mentions something about this day being for women who have actually accomplished something, as if Kim K. didn’t just earn $53 million dollars in 2015 or doesn’t have a fashion, TV and social media empire. Say what you want about the Kardashians, but don’t say they haven’t achieved anything, because we’re all over here, constantly talking about them right?
These people may have been able to tweet and say these things (no one sure as hell stopped them), but they really had no right to.
Many, many girls get slut-shamed on a daily basis, and being a celebrity obviously does not protect you from this horrible policing of our bodies. Unless a girl asks you explicitly what you think of her body or of what she is doing with it, it is none of your business and you should not comment on it. You very well could, and probably will, but know that it really is none of your business.
Plus, why would you? I’ve seen many Facebook posts and twitter rants calling out the horribly immoral “hookup culture” or about a particular type of girl that you would need to take a million showers after touching her (*looks disapprovingly at Kanye*). Instagram and Facebook will take down photos of female nipples due to the fact that society has sexualized women’s bodies in a way that men’s haven’t been.
We should want to change the culture that is holding women back. That may be a bold statement, but I believe this repression of women’s sexuality reduces the confidence she may have if every time she wears a sheer blouse or goes on too many Tinder dates she is called a whore. Someone else’s opinion shouldn’t affect you, but more often than not it will. We are all human and can’t help but feeling ashamed when someone else shames you.
SO WHAT if a girl likes sex or embraces her sexuality? SO WHAT if a woman feels fabulous and beautiful and posts a selfie of herself naked in a mirror, even though she has it censored so that we see no more than what would be showing in a bikini. If a guy and a woman like to hookup with each other but don’t want commitment, as long as it is consensual and healthy, who are you to be mad about it?
We currently live in a society where girls can’t do anything sexual without someone disapproving it. Women have been meant to feel shame for embracing their sexuality, and that is wrong.
So, next time you want to tell a woman that she is a mother and shouldn’t be posing naked or you just want to call a girl a slut because you can, remember the age-old saying: “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” And try and change your attitude toward women’s bodies, because they are all great and should be respected as such.