- 18/04/2020
- Category: Commentaries
In this digital era, slut-shaming has aggravatingly taken place as a form of cyberbullying, whilst the phenomenon itself is not a new one in the non-digital sphere. Young women, especially, have been long targeted for certain sexual policing, in which promiscuous women and victims of sexual assault are constantly shamed by using the term “slut”. The term itself was reclaimed as a negative connotation to point out their sexual deviancy, which is measured by the way they look and dress, as well as their level of sexual activity.[1] It is reported that those who experience slut-shaming might experience social ostracisation, poor reputation, humiliation, and other negative feelings sooner or later.[2] Slut-shaming itself originated from patriarchal stereotypes that have taken place since a long time ago, in which femininity is regarded as a cause to human destruction, and therefore, the vulnerabilities would put them closer to carrying out sinful acts.[3] This article will argue that the prevalence of social media has driven a more frequent occurrence of the slut-shaming culture, as well as how the common societal norms originating from misogynistic beliefs has normalised the slut-shaming culture to prevail in the first place.
The Prevalence of Social Media: More Slut-Shaming?
Recently, the use of social media has become more prevalent in the modern society; therefore, the practices of the slut-shaming culture have become more common to be found in the online sphere. In this age, identities and deeds are heavily linked on social media, which subsequently makes public shaming becoming more frequent. Social media platforms enable the dissemination of online contents (images, videos, etc), which will eventually allow people to leave harsh or sexually derogating comments more often, especially in platforms that provide an anonymous feature or enable the creation of a “fake identity”. Kim Kardashian, who once shared a half-nude photo of her on her Twitter account, was heavily criticised by other celebrities and other Twitter users for her “deviant” act.[4] Chloe G. Moretz, P!nk, and Ariel Winter responded to her tweet by implying how young women should depend more on their brains rather than their bodies as showing bodies off is considered as “sexually inappropriate” or “shallow”. Additionally, even worse, explicit photos and videos are often shared by some people to humiliate their female peers, which include the cases of revenge porn. In the first place, these actions are possible to be carried out due to the feasibility of disseminating online contents, which makes it therefore difficult to get away from those practices.
The Normalisation of Slut-Shaming
According to a research carried out by Demos, the use of misogynistic terms in UK-based Twitter accounts for offensive purposes has accounted for approximately 12 percent of tweets that contained the word “rape”, and around 20 percent that contained the word “slut” or “whore”, which were ironically written by both men and women.[5] That kind of attitude acts as a dominant online social norm that individuals should comply in order to fit in, in which the use of derogatory language and harassment against women is eventually normalised. Furthermore, appearance and sexual policing of women has become too frequently enforced in social settings (especially in the online sphere), in which the deviance against those norms would normally result in people openly judging them if they do not dress or behave in certain ways acceptable – as what can be seen in the case of Kim Kardashian’s provocative self-portrait.
On the other hand, victims of sexual harassment cases (especially women) are also frequently blamed for the way they look or dress, which is regarded as the sole cause of the sexual offenses carried out toward them. For instance, in 2012, in Steubenville, Ohio, a victim of a sexual assault case (a high-school girl) was blamed for going to a party alone and drinking, and subsequently, some provocative photos of her were posted on Twitter, which made her become constantly slut-shamed as she was deemed as having given consent for the rape to happen.[6] Essentially, the aforementioned cases raise the urgency of anticipating the occurrence of slut-shaming and victim-blaming in the future as the culture has been deeply ingrained within many individuals, especially when they have cultural conversations about women in general, which unquestionably degrade women’s self-worth further.
Author: Felice Valeria
Editor: Amelinda Pandu Kusumaningtyas
Read more article written by Felice Valeria
[1] Gordon, S., 2020. Slut-Shaming: The Scarlett Letter Of The 21St Century. [online] Verywell Family. Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2020].
[2] Sweeney, B., 2017. Slut Shaming. In: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Psychology and Gender. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, Inc., pp.1579-1580.
[3] The State Times. 2018. Slut Shaming In The Digital Age. [online] Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2020].
[4] Bussel, R., 2016. Stop Slut-Shaming Kim Kardashian: It’s A False Sisterhood That Insists Success Has To Come At The Cost Of Our Sexual Freedom. [online] Salon. Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2020].
[5] Rosman, M., 2014. Study: Women Slut-Shame Each Other On Twitter As Much As Men Do. [online] Time. Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2020].
[6] North, A., 2017. 5 Years Ago, A Girl Was Raped In Steubenville. Now Her Rapist’S Father Shot A Judge.. [online] Vox. Available at: [Accessed 1 April 2020].
