- A love letter to Manchester from the Corn Exchange - 10 February, 2021
- ‘If you don’t fight for something, nothing will change,’ says Pride 365 founder on Nicola Adams’ Strictly first - 8 September, 2020
- Rugby uniform gets more swipes right on Tinder - 2 September, 2020
Yep. Talking about Miley again.
So I read this quote: “Cyrus does send a message: that the best way for young women to be noticed is to sexually objectify themselves.” and immediately thought of this quote: “If women were religiously recognised sexually, we wouldn’t have to feel the need to show our ass, it’s to feel free.” Which got me thinking about Taylor Swift for some reason, and then to P!nk.
My head was just spinning with the amount of times women are repeatedly STILL being called sluts, or considered controversial for stuff like this, when the men involved sit relatively ignored, often doing a thousand times worse. All the focus in the VMA backlash focused on Miley, casually sidestepping Robin Thicke’s sexually suspect lyrics.
Nothing is said of the people in her team that come up with the ideas, or the fact that she’s surrounded by older men in her teams that are suggesting, filming and promoting this objectification. Notice also that it’s only men coming to her defence most of the time? They’re encouraging her.
Then we have the other end of the Disney scale with Taylor Swift. She is called a slut for her dating history? Sorry, but it takes two people to date so why are the men repeatedly ignored and Taylor slut shamed? It’s so ridiculous. There are stories gently poking fun or encouraging Swift’s exes (such as Harry Styles) by saying how they’ve rebounded and moved on through many girls, but Taylor’s the one facing backlash, and Harry’s considered a ‘lad’.
This got me onto P!nk’s song ‘Slut Like You’, which I’m personally dying for her to release just to see the comments she’d receive on it. It screams the point that how can a girl be considered a slut without the same label being given to the guys that are sleeping with her? Why aren’t they considered sluts too? Basically it’s saying “If I’m a slut then you are too,” and I’d love to see whose egos or pride get hurt by having that thrown back at them.
It’s easy to rest on our laurels and believe that everyone in society is treated more or less equally in the 21st century. It’s only when you look closer at the underlying sexual and gender assumptions, and unequal slut shaming, that you realise how far we have to go. I’m a slut, like you.
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