SLUT

If you acknowledge that your house could be cleaner, your sheets could be whiter, or that your legs have been left unshaven long enough for them to resemble the Amazon rainforest, you, my friend, are a slut. At least according to the original definition of the word.

Slut-shaming is rife within our society, with the word commonly used within our 21st century vernacular as an insult specifically aimed at women who are sexually promiscuous. This woman, one who unapologetically enjoys sex with numerous partners, is referred to as a slut to derogate from her enjoyment; slut is used to insult and shame her for wanting to be sexually liberated. This hasn’t always been the case, though. The word slut has had varying definitions since its first introduction to the English language in 1386. The original OED definition however, that of ‘a woman of dirty, slovenly, or untidy habits or appearance’, proves that sluts weren’t always promiscuous but were instead liberated, inspiring women who unapologetically lived their lives in the ways that pleased only them.

The original, now completely obsolete, meaning of the term slut initially connects the word to the kitchen maid; she cooks and cleans and scrubs dishes for hours on end, isn’t allowed upstairs due to her appearance consisting mainly of a mask of grease and dirt, and eventually returns home to a dismal chamber devoid of hot water or any personal hygiene products looking like Bridget Jones if, after she lost her head scarf in Daniel’s convertible, she was dragged through a hedge backwards, mauled by some rabid dogs and then pushed into a sewer before being caught in a freak thunder storm.

The kitchen maid was a slut because of her lack of cleanliness; the corner she didn’t manage to sweep is the slut’s corner, the mess in that corner is the slut’s wool, she herself is unkempt and dirty, she is a slut. This association between a dirty woman and a slut, however, remained part of the English language for centuries, meaning that a typical housewife of 18th-20th centuries was seen to be no less awful than that of the 15th century kitchen maid. A woman who didn’t scour her house on a weekly basis, nor hang out as many loads of washing as her neighbours, nor dust and scrub and wipe and sweep and mop her house every day was considered to be a slut, too. Whether she didn’t do these jobs out of pure hatred for them or for preferring to gossip and drink with her friends or play with her children, she was considered to be no better than a kitchen maid, no less slovenly or dirty. A woman who doesn’t abide to society’s expectations of cleanliness, then, is a slut. I can’t help but wonder why a word that has such negative connotations is used to describe a woman who might just prefer to live her life outside, with other people, having fun, rather than at home in marigolds and an apron. Why are women treated this way and, perhaps more importantly, would we treat men like this?

Well, no, we wouldn’t. we encourage men to be dirty and never attribute such negative words to male dominated spaces; changing rooms and university dorms are often festering with varying smells of sweat and uncleanliness and overflowing bins and dirty dishes starting to grow mould. In this instance, for men, showing a want for cleanliness is regarded as a break in your masculinity; a stand off ensues to ensure you aren’t the one to reach for the hoover first and, in refusing to do such a god-forsaken act, you ensure that you do not lose any masculinity points. This is when the women of the dorm are faced with a problem – live in a festering bog or spend a lot of time cleaning everyone else’s mess because the dirt has reached unfathomable levels and you are starting to be concerned for your health. This girl, however, doesn’t really have the option. Whilst her male flatmates are out engaging in any activity other than cleaning the house, having ignored her multiple passive aggressive post-it’s stating that ‘ONLY CLEAN DISHES CAN BE PUT ON THE DRAINING BOARD’, history tells her that a dirty house acts as a reflection of a dirty woman, and she must have more pride in her appearance than to let people know she lives like this. So she cleans and cleans and cleans until the kitchen and the bathrooms are sparkling brighter than the north star, just to repeat this entire process the next time the boys decide to forget about their 15 month old bag of potatoes and ignore the fruit fly bonanza that promptly follows. It’s a vicious cycle in which the woman is forced to exert a lot of effort and waste a lot of time whilst the men who live in the same situation are unaffected by any negative connotations.

No house is ever clean enough, and no woman is ever clean enough, either. Women’s bodies are as, if not more, important than the houses they inhabit when it comes down to being sluttish; whilst the house can never be too clean or too tidy, the female body can never be too hairless or too smooth or too perfect, and the female brain can never be too pure, too devoid of dirty thoughts or desires. It’s as if this notion of ‘dirt equals slut’ perpetrates every aspect of a woman’s life. If your house is dirty, you’re a slut, if your legs are hairy, you’re a slut, if you are vocal about your sexual fantasies and desires, you’re a slut.

If women are to ever be free from societal constraints, if we are ever to be free of this incessant and awful need to be cleaner, tidier, purer, we have to embrace the mess. By doing what we want with our bodies and replacing the Cillit Bang with a glass of wine, we unapologetically declare ourselves to be sluts. We become slightly more careless towards our responsibilities and more caring towards the wants of ourselves and those we hold closest to us. We become the face of the revolution; walking away from a pile of burning marigolds as we head to the pub.

Photo by James Bingham.