The word ‘slut’ used to be seen as an insult but Gen Z are reclaiming it
Generation Z are changing the way we talk and now they are reclaiming a four-letter word that used to be an insult.
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The word slut used to be an insult specifically hurled at women and used to shame them but the next generation of women is reclaiming it.
Recently I was at a crowded pub in Sydney’s CBD recently when I saw a gaggle of girls arrive, all dressed to the nines and furiously snapping selfies and laughing at each other’s jokes.
You knew they were Generation Z because their skirts were plaid, their jeans were low-waisted, and their make-up was verging on ugly.
“Let’s go sluts!” one screamed like a war cry.
Suddenly, the gaggle of girls collected their things and headed off to the next venue.
It dawned on me the word wasn’t being used like an insult but rather like a provocative term of endearment.
Reclaiming the word slut is bigger than just what I overheard. It is actually so big it has become a business.
There’s a brand called Sluts Redefined that markets merchandise to young women with words that are traditionally used to insult women emblazoned on their clothes and accessories.
A TikTok featuring the brand’s hot pink trucker hat with the word slut written on it in bold letters employed young women to embrace the word.
“Calling all women … it’s time to reclaim the word Slüt and show those boys they can’t hurt us anymore.”
The response was positive.
“I’m obsessed.” Someone commented.
“Yep, I need this hat,” another said.
“I want one so bad,” someone else wrote.
There’s clearly a market for it because you can purchase everything from a bikini to a crop top with the word slut written on it.
It doesn’t stop at fashion.
There’s also the song by Sabrina Carpenter that seems to have become the soundtrack to the new trend.
Popstar Carpenter found herself embroiled in a celebrity scandal, and her image was dragged through the mud because it is widely believed she was the “blonde girl” that Olivia Rodrigo was singing about in the 2021 smash hit Driver’s License.
“And you’re probably with that blonde girl. Who always made me doubt,” she sang.
Rodrigo had dated her co-star Joshua Bassett and they broke up, then he dated Carpenter.
Carpenter was famously trolled over it and basically dubbed “the other woman”. But, instead of taking the hate lying down, she turned that experience into music where she reclaimed the words she was being called.
“Now I’m a homewrecker, I’m a slut. I got death threats filling’ up semi-trucks. Tell me who I am, guess I don’t have a choice,” she sings in her song All Because I Liked A Boy.
Fans of Carpenter are now posting TikToks of themselves singing and dancing to the misogyny that Carpenter reclaimed.
There’s also been a cultural change.
There are women on social media proudly posting they are in their “slut eras”, there’s creators making TikToks to hype other women up by calling them “hot sluts”, there’s creators joking they are only in their slut era “aesthetically”.
The word has been successfully taken over by women on the internet and they are using it exactly how they want to.
Perhaps the movement can be summed up by one TikTok.
“My friends and I are calling each other sluts but not in a derogatory shaming way but in an empowered girl boss way,” one creator shared.
Psychologist Carly Dober explained she thinks women are reclaiming the word to feel a sense of power.
“Women might be reclaiming this word to take the power from the word and those who would use it disparagingly,” she said.
So it’s a good thing?
“I think this is a positive thing when someone is truly confident in their sexuality and is supported by those around them and in their networks,” Dober said.
Still she does admit she worries that when women are reclaiming the word it might also create a space for people to share “unhelpful attitudes or comments”.
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